Here is, without fear of argument, a pure, unadulterated definition of insanity:
On Saturday, the National Hockey League asked Phonix bankruptcy judge Redfield T. Baum to throw out a bid to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes by RIM CEO and multi-billionaire Jim Balsillie because the league says he’s “untrustworthy” and doesn’t have the “integrity” to be an owner.
The motion was accompanied by declarations from Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs and Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold, which says the owners have all rejected Balsillie and that he “would be untrustworthy” and that the court has no right to overturn their July 29 vote. The owners say their opinion is based on Balsillie’s behaviour in earlier attempts to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators.
Let us forget, shall we, that the NHL thought he was just fine when he approached the league about buying into the failing (at the time) Penguins and the failing (still) Predators. Let us forget, shall wee, that the NHL is a club for people who refuse to tell the truth, even when they’ve been caught in lies.
But it’s impossible to think for one minute that when the league says Balsillie is “untrustworthy” or doesn’t have the requisite “integrity” to be an owner, the league has fallen into group delusion. Or, at best, forgets the mere existence of these notorious NHL owners:
1) When he took over as commissioner, one of commissioner Gary Bettman’s closest friends and supporters inside the league was Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall. McNall went to jail for fraud.
2) After Steven Gluckstern nearly went broke owning the New York Islanders, Bettman brought in Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar. Kumar is now serving a 12-year sentence for fraud.
3) Bettman also needed help after Buffalo Sabres owner Seymour Knox died in 1996, so he found cable TV magnate John Rigas. In 2002, while he was the Sabres owner, Rigas was convicted of, you guessed it, fraud. He’s still in prison.
4) On Jan. 28, 2000, former New York Islanders owner John Spano, who took over an NHL team with very little money, simply because the NHL forgot to do a background check, was sentenced to 71 months in federal prison for a bank and wire fraud conviction.
5) Later this month, former Anaheim Ducks owner Henry Samueli will be sentenced by a California court for lying to federal investigators for his role in Broadcom’s $2.2 billion stock options award scandal. He could get five years.
6) Then there was “Bootsie.” With the Nashville Predators in bankruptcy protection, Bettman refused to sell the team to Balsillie because Balsillie wanted to move it to Canada. So Bettman went out and found a wealthy venture capitalist named William (Bootsie) Del Biaggio III. It seemed like a good idea at the time, I guess, but it wasn’t long before Bootsie was facing fraud charges brought on by everybody from the SEC to Luc Robitaille to Joe Montana. Bootsie hasn’t gone to jail yet, but there are a lot of people who would like to see him in the crow bar hotel.
Gary Bettman does not want Jim Balsillie to own a team, but he’s happy having felons own teams.
Therefore, simply to suggest that Balsillie isn’t trustworthy is to demonstrate a level of delusional insanity that is usually reserved for people who see the baby Jesus in their morning coffee.