Reply To: Articles

[hockeygod]

Weisbrod’s Florida return conjures up memories:
Flames assistant GM, once at the helm of the Orlando Magic, left the NBA because he liked hockey much more than basketball.

Scott Cruickshank, Calgary Herald December 17, 2011

His managerial experience, even by that point, was substantial.

But suddenly, the man, known as a brash mover and a bold shaker, had been at a loss. Stumped.

Hate mail was arriving by the sack, death threats were being painted on his home. Living under surveillance, living under aliases, while the FBI investigated.

“All the dramatic things,” is how John Weisbrod describes the events of June 2004 in Orlando.

But that wasn’t what shook him.

There had been one thing that he couldn’t easily cowboy through — having to tell his young son that people wanted to harm Daddy.

“It was difficult . . . explaining why we’re not going to the house but going to a hotel instead,” says Weisbrod. “So it was harrowing times from that standpoint. It might have been a moment when I wondered what the heck I was doing there.”

Weisbrod doesn’t spend a lot of time reflecting on this chapter of his life. Or any chapter.

Even though his current employers, the Calgary Flames, happen to be on a swing through Florida, the itinerary had not included a tiptoe down Memory Lane. But he does understand interest in his unlikely story — how a hockey nut, with an English degree from Harvard, ends up running a basketball club.

So, because a reporter is curious, the 43-year-old agrees to rehash.

“I think about this stuff when you bring it up,” says Weisbrod, assistant general manager of the Flames, “but all those days are ancient history. Now it’s on to new things.”

Which is the type of attitude that originally led him to Orlando.

After bagging an American Hockey League title in Albany, Weisbrod wanted to build his own team. And the International Hockey League, full of unaffiliated clubs, provided that opportunity.

His Solar Bears captured the 2001 Turner Cup.

By that time, Weisbrod — as president of the RDV Sports Inc. (“They came and blew in my ear that they would like me to take over the whole thing”) — was already overseeing Orlando’s National Basketball Association and WNBA clubs, a sports complex, a small airline. He was not even 30.

Soon enough, he repaid that faith.

Because the Magic was in need of a general manager.

“Really strange,” recalls Weisbrod. “I didn’t have any interest in basketball and, to be honest, I still don’t. I never would have gone to take a job with the Milwaukee Bucks . . . but I really cared deeply for the owner, Rich DeVos. When he came to me and said, ‘Boy, the Magic is our bread and butter. We’d like you to step over and help with this,’ I did it largely because of my loyalty to him.”

Weisbrod understood that his role was to provide unflinching managerial muscle.

No sweat.

“They had to blow it up and they knew I had a strong enough personality to be a bulldozer,” Weisbrod says. “I’m not a real political guy, I’m not a media guy. I’ve always been willing to think for myself. I have never needed my opinion to be popular. I can’t honestly say that I worried about my ability to get the job done.”

In that regard, Weisbrod had been in the minority.

“There was a lot of outrage, like, ‘Who the heck is this guy? And what’s he doing running our basketball team?’ I remember being on radio talk shows and having fans call me and say, ‘What if somebody hired Jerry West to run the New York Rangers? Should we be happy about that?’ I understood that.

“With my hockey teams, I’ve always been, for lack of a better term, arrogant about knowing what I wanted. But when I got into the basketball world, I tried to be reasonable enough to realize that I’m a six-foot-two white guy, who can’t dribble with his left hand. I made sure I had the right people around me.”

Meaning assistant general managers Dave Twardzik and Otis Smith, currently general manager of the Magic.

But when word leaked out that Weisbrod was planning to draft high-schooler Dwight Howard, instead of Emeka Okafor, with the first overall pick, that he was planning to trade star Tracy McGrady, the fans were in an uproar.

Some took it a step too far.

“I had some scary things written on my front door,” says Weisbrod. “But it was a brief period. I ended up being in a hotel for a couple weeks. Everything settled back down once the trades were made.”

After 14 months, though, he left Orlando.

It wasn’t the death threats.

It was the sport itself. He was never a basketball guy, even though many of his moves did pan out.

“The Magic deserved better than a GM who’d rather be playing hockey,” says Weisbrod. “The biggest day of my week was the day The Hockey News came to my office — that’s not the way it should be when you’re running an NBA team. The whole year and a half was an emotional roller-coaster. I fundamentally didn’t love the game. I remember saying at my press conference . . . that I had to leave was because I would trade three NBA championships for one Stanley Cup ring.”

Which, soon enough, he got with the Boston Bruins. The championship jewelry is stowed away in his safe, and Weisbrod has moved onto the next task — blowing some life into the Flames. But even he can’t disregard those compelling eight years in Orlando.

“It was wonderful,” says Weisbrod. “I look back on it all with great fondness. All the Solar Bear years, winning the championship. Even the basketball, it was a tremendous learning experience. It was heady stuff. I started being depicted as one of these Harvard guys that had some master plan to take over the world. I don’t care about those things. I don’t have any master plan.

“I’ve always aspired to be, when I get out of the shower in the morning, fired up about where I’m going and what I’m doing.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."