Ewing's Contract Status

[TC]

DFW posted something really interesting a few days ago - a collection of links with contracts of major D1 coaches :

hoyatalk2.proboards.com/post/969297

I read through it and a few things struck me :

- if Georgetown did extend Ewing, they likely owe a giant sum and they may be more willing to let the basketball program suffer and die then pay it out
- other coaches have very small base salaries (Davis, Hurley) that are packed with incentives.
- if the contract reported here : hilltophoops.substack.com/p/patrick-ewing-georgetown-contract-details?s=r is correct, we're paying Ewing over $3 million per year in base salary with some really tiny incentives - whereas every other school pays somewhere around a $400K base with incentives for athletic success and academic success and for engaging the fans and media
- other coaches have really communications-heavy clauses for doing appearances to promote the team and university - none are mentioned in Hilltop Hoops' link

I guess my questions are : who negotiated this for Georgetown - did anyone? If the public reporting is true (https://hilltophoops.substack.com/p/patrick-ewing-georgetown-contract-details?s=r) - we're paying a coach who can't win a league game an insane amount of base salary that no other major program would guarantee for such a performance, and are likely stuck with him because the administration signed an extension they are unwilling to pay off.

[Buckets]

Mar 4, 2022 8:15:25 GMT -5 TC said:

DFW posted this something really interesting a few days ago - a collection of links with contracts of major D1 coaches :

hoyatalk2.proboards.com/post/969297

I read through it and a few things struck me :

- if Georgetown did extend Ewing, they likely owe a giant sum and they may be more willing to let the basketball program suffer and die then pay it out
- other coaches have very small base salaries (Davis, Hurley) that are packed with incentives.
- if the contract reported here : hilltophoops.substack.com/p/patrick-ewing-georgetown-contract-details?s=r is correct, we're paying Ewing over $3 million per year in base salary with some really tiny incentives - whereas every other school pays somewhere around a $400K base with incentives for athletic success and academic success and for engaging the fans and media
- other coaches have really communications-heavy clauses for doing appearances to promote the team and university - none are mentioned in Hilltop Hoops' link

I guess my questions are : who negotiated this for Georgetown - did anyone? If the public reporting is true (https://hilltophoops.substack.com/p/patrick-ewing-georgetown-contract-details?s=r) - we're paying a coach who can't win a league game an insane amount of base salary that no other major program would guarantee for such a performance, and are likely stuck with him because the administration signed an extension they are unwilling to pay off.

Great stuff. Seems like probably more research than anyone at GU did. Contract seems wildly out of line with industry. Awesome!

If this is all true, wonder if we can get a suit against Korn Ferry to defray some of that buyout.

[sweetness]

Great point! Also might help explain why the coaches don't seem as perturbed - on the sideline, in press conferences - as one might expect given the circumstances.

I mean if you were absolutely desperate to win as a coach, wouldn't you experiment with anything at this poiint - e.g. mix up defenses, etc. We see little evidence of any of this, and it's one of the many things that is hard to understand.

[TC]

Mar 4, 2022 8:47:49 GMT -5 Buckets said:

If this is all true, wonder if we can get a suit against Korn Ferry to defray some of that buyout.

I think Korn Ferry deserves a bonus. I think they were hired to provide political cover for hiring Patrick Ewing and a search that was just for show --- and they did that!

[TC]

I don't think I've ever heard anyone make a comparison of Georgetown Basketball to Britney Spears and Amanda Bynes, and yet I can't argue with it.

[CTHoya08]

What if I were to tell you that Georgetown basketball has a conservator, and his name is Ronny Thompson?

[alleninxis]

The University is an ATM for the ‘trusted few’. Simple as that. Once upon a time the roles were reversed but we are well past the point of being even.

[iowa80]

This is the product of not conducting a legitimate job search wherein the “price” of the Coach would at least be one of the factors in the decision. When there is a single target as dictated by an insider, and reportedly a somewhat reluctant one at that, the negotiating power is all in that target’s hands.

[hoyainla]

If the details reported were right Ewing makes 3.4 this year and 3.6 next. If an extension was signed it’s hard to imagine it would’ve been for less than 3.6 per and likely kept the 200k year increase. The yearly part of the extension is pretty meaningless. It’s the buyout that matters. I have no faith that the administration were smart enough to negotiate a small buyout. They had all the leverage and probably forgot that one small detail.

As far as Georgetown hoops is concerned does anyone get the feeling that it operates more like the Trump super PAC than a college basketball program? Much like the goal of Trump is to fleece his supporters to pay for his extravagant lifestyle, Hoyas basketball is meant to take from supporters to support the 80’s heroes and descendants. Neither really care about their supporters. One at least acts like they do.

[prhoya]

Mar 4, 2022 9:25:23 GMT -5 larrylegend33 said:

JT3 earned around $8M in dead money from Georgetown from June 2017 to June 2019 when he was no longer the coach. His deals weren't incentive-laden. And even though that contract ended very poorly, at least I understood why it was negotiated years ago to reward JT3 as one of the top coaches in college basketball -- because, for a period, he was one! Lots of other schools would have paid him similarly. 

NOBODY would have paid Patrick Ewing anything approaching the level of what Georgetown has. The Ewing contract is simply administrative incompetence from DeGioia. To pay Ewing, before he had ever coached a game, as one of the top coaches in college basketball and commit to him long-term financially was incredibly reckless. Ewing's contract and pay are completely detached from whatever was and is his market value.

Patrick Ewing was an NBA assistant earning 6-figures in 2017. No other major college program with resources would have hired him as the head coach. Georgetown, against its better judgment, handed him a job he was ill-equipped for AND paid him handsomely for the privilege on a 6-year deal. Because Georgetown does things that no other high major basketball program would do. Do any of us doubt that if Georgetown offered Ewing an incentive-laden deal for 4 or even 5 years at a much more modest base salary per year that he would have jumped at it? It was an opportunity he never would have received anywhere else and much more money than he was earning as an NBA assistant. And Georgetown could wait-and-see if it worked out. 

We don't have to rely on conjecture, though. Go look at Juwon Howard's contracts. He's probably the best comparison to Ewing. Look at Howard's initial contract (5 years / UP TO $11.2M) and then the extension (5 year /$17M plus incentives). He received that extension AFTER Michigan won the Big 10 in year 2, was a 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, and pulled in multiple top 10 recruiting classes. He'll earn less this year in base comp under his new contract ($3.25M) than Patrick Ewing earned two years ago ($3.37M) under his initial one. It defies explanation. Tom Izzo makes $3.9M. Tom Izzo of 8 Final Fours and a national title. 

Georgetown's basketball program should be put into a conservatorship. What else do you do with something that very obviously can't look after itself?

Well said. I would like to compare Pat’s reported contract to JT3’s fat, Gucci contract (the last one). IIRC, DFW had it somewhere around HT. I bet both have similar terms and were negotiated by the same people since Pat, JT2 and JT3 shared the same agent and Jack DeGioia was around for both.

[hoyasaxa2003]

I agree with much of what is being said about the contracts. To me, the most galling point is that Ewing got an extension when it was entirely unnecessary. Sure, he won the BET, but he had 2 years remaining, and Georgetown did finish 8th that year (and had little success in the preceding years).

This would be like a professional sports team giving an athlete a brand new contract even though they had an awful year just because he hit a game winning home run. It makes no sense.

[hoyaatheart55]

Mar 4, 2022 14:23:30 GMT -5 hoyasaxa2003 said:

I agree with much of what is being said about the contracts. To me, the most galling point is that Ewing got an extension when it was entirely unnecessary. Sure, he won the BET, but he had 2 years remaining, and Georgetown did finish 8th that year (and had little success in the preceding years).

This would be like a professional sports team giving an athlete a brand new contract even though they had an awful year just because he hit a game winning home run. It makes no sense.

Bill Mazeroski made the hall of fame for hitting a game winning home run

[Elvado]

Mar 4, 2022 23:52:08 GMT -5 hoyaatheart55 said:

Mar 4, 2022 14:23:30 GMT -5 hoyasaxa2003 said:

I agree with much of what is being said about the contracts. To me, the most galling point is that Ewing got an extension when it was entirely unnecessary. Sure, he won the BET, but he had 2 years remaining, and Georgetown did finish 8th that year (and had little success in the preceding years).

This would be like a professional sports team giving an athlete a brand new contract even though they had an awful year just because he hit a game winning home run. It makes no sense.

Bill Mazeroski made the hall of fame for hitting a game winning home run

I get your point but Mazeroski was a 10 time All Star and 8 time Gold Glove winner with over 2,000 hits.

Ewing is Bucky Dent by comparison

[johnnysnowplow]

Mar 4, 2022 14:23:30 GMT -5 hoyasaxa2003 said:

I agree with much of what is being said about the contracts. To me, the most galling point is that Ewing got an extension when it was entirely unnecessary. Sure, he won the BET, but he had 2 years remaining, and Georgetown did finish 8th that year (and had little success in the preceding years).

This would be like a professional sports team giving an athlete a brand new contract even though they had an awful year just because he hit a game winning home run. It makes no sense.

Plus where was Ewing going? He wasn’t a flight risk. It’s not like he was gonna parlay that tourney win into a job elsewhere. It was one of the stupidest decisions this administration has made which is saying a lot.

[Elvado]

If Ewing wants to stay he should have to immediately renegotiate his contract to a base of $1.5MM with a 250K bonus for top 4 finish, 500K for top 2 up to 1MM for conference championship. BET worth another 500K.

Add in some NCAA money and he can make 3.6 but would have to actually earn it.

Let’s see him put his money where his mouth is.

Otherwise, it’s been fun; thanks for the memories.

[CTHoya08]

Mar 4, 2022 23:52:08 GMT -5 hoyaatheart55 said:

Mar 4, 2022 14:23:30 GMT -5 hoyasaxa2003 said:

I agree with much of what is being said about the contracts. To me, the most galling point is that Ewing got an extension when it was entirely unnecessary. Sure, he won the BET, but he had 2 years remaining, and Georgetown did finish 8th that year (and had little success in the preceding years).

This would be like a professional sports team giving an athlete a brand new contract even though they had an awful year just because he hit a game winning home run. It makes no sense.

Bill Mazeroski made the hall of fame for hitting a game winning home run

Wasn’t it a World Series winning home run? If (coach) Ewing got us a title, sure.

[hoyajmw]

Mar 5, 2022 6:24:08 GMT -5 Elvado said:

Mar 4, 2022 23:52:08 GMT -5 hoyaatheart55 said:

Bill Mazeroski made the hall of fame for hitting a game winning home run

I get your point but Mazeroski was a 10 time All Star and 8 time Gold Glove winner with over 2,000 hits.

Ewing is Bucky Dent by comparison

Spot on as it is, that analogy could get you banned by Boston-based Mods! But I certainly am hoping to not reach the point (though I’m closing in on it) where I’m forced to mutter “Pat f——-g Ewing.”

[prhoya]

Mar 5, 2022 7:31:27 GMT -5 Elvado said:

If Ewing wants to stay he should have to immediately renegotiate his contract to a base of $1.5MM with a 250K bonus for top 4 finish, 500K for top 2 up to 1MM for conference championship. BET worth another 500K.

Add in some NCAA money and he can make 3.6 but would have to actually earn it.

Let’s see him put his money where his mouth is.

Otherwise, it’s been fun; thanks for the memories.

Amen!

[TC]

Mar 4, 2022 14:23:30 GMT -5 hoyasaxa2003 said:

I agree with much of what is being said about the contracts. To me, the most galling point is that Ewing got an extension when it was entirely unnecessary. Sure, he won the BET, but he had 2 years remaining, and Georgetown did finish 8th that year (and had little success in the preceding years).

This is where I land too - the BE championship should have been - "hey, that's great, you didn't win the regular season championship, but we'll pay out your $100,000 incentive and congratulations!", not "sure, we'll dig ourselves into a massive financial hole, here's 6 more years!"

[cosmopolitanhoya]

Mar 5, 2022 9:47:27 GMT -5 TC said:

Mar 4, 2022 14:23:30 GMT -5 hoyasaxa2003 said:

I agree with much of what is being said about the contracts. To me, the most galling point is that Ewing got an extension when it was entirely unnecessary. Sure, he won the BET, but he had 2 years remaining, and Georgetown did finish 8th that year (and had little success in the preceding years).

This is where I land too - the BE championship should have been - "hey, that's great, you didn't win the regular season championship, but we'll pay out your $100,000 incentive and congratulations!", not "sure, we'll dig ourselves into a massive financial hole, here's 6 more years!"

Got a feeling that Ronnie and Falk used Pop’s death in that year onto the BET championship to emotionally corner and force the leadership to grant the extension - but whoever was pushed by Ronnie and Falk to grant the extension, whether thats Reed or JD, should be held accountable for this mess.