WASHINGTON - There's precious little time in the NBA these days to stop and reflect, and so it is for Ernie Grunfeld, the Washington Wizards' new president of basketball operations.
Grunfeld just officially got the job yesterday, but with the league's free-agency period starting today, the 48-year-old former New York Knicks and Milwaukee Bucks general manager must literally hit the ground running to fill the Wizards' roster.
Of course, there are a few things in a person's life that are more important than even his job, and so it is for Grunfeld, who marked his 24th wedding anniversary with his wife. Nancy Grunfeld made her husband promise that they would find a good restaurant in Washington to celebrate their landmark, and it's a promise that he'll have to keep immediately.
"Hey, I gotta keep her happy," Grunfeld cracked. "I know what my priorities are."
After dinner, Grunfeld's immediate priority is turning around the sad-sack culture of the Wizards, whose public persona has taken a bit of a beating in recent weeks.
Grunfeld must transform a franchise that unceremoniously declined to rename Michael Jordan in May as its head of basketball operations and has gone 21 years without winning a playoff series.
In the past four seasons with Milwaukee and the previous eight in New York in a player-personnel capacity, Grunfeld has overseen teams that had advanced to the playoffs 11 times. Twice during his tenure, the Knicks reached the NBA Finals (1994, '99), and most recently, the Bucks played in the Eastern Conference finals in 2001.
"In any winning organization, the first thing you need is to create a positive environment," Grunfeld said. "That's what we want to do. We want to create a professional, hard-working environment, where players will work hard and be respected. In turn, they will be accountable for what they do. You have to have that."
The Wizards reportedly asked former Philadelphia coach Larry Brown and former New York coach Jeff Van Gundy to each consider coming to Washington to coach and head up player personnel.
Both men rebuffed them, but that didn't stop Washington owner Abe Pollin from claiming victory yesterday. Pollin maintained that with the hiring of Grunfeld, the recent naming of Eddie Jordan as coach to replace Doug Collins, and the Wizards' two draft choices, swingman Jarvis Hayes and former Maryland guard Steve Blake, he had all the pieces in the puzzle he wanted.
