Stan Kasten Q&A

[beenthere]

ATLANTA -- Stan Kasten, winner of two Executive of the Year Awards as general manager of the Atlanta Hawks, thought his niche in sports would be in the NBA, but Ted Turner asked him to also serve as president of the Braves in baseball and, later, the Thrashers in the NHL.

Under Kasten, the Braves became a powerhouse in the National League, winning 12 division titles, five pennants and one World Series title. Kasten also was instrumental in building Turner Field for the Braves and Philips Arena for the Hawks and Thrashers.

MLB.com caught up with Kasten, now the president of the Nationals, recently to talk about his distinguished career in Atlanta.

MLB.com: You were the president of three sports franchises in Atlanta. How did you manage to do it?

Stan Kasten: The same way it works with one team. You need a great staff, starting with heads of business operations and general managers. That's where the work gets done. I would provide some direction and support and fill in where needed. In each case, it takes many, many people.

MLB.com: What was the greatest difficulty you faced running three teams?

Kasten: When you are running one team, there is a natural cycle of the year. There's a time when you are selling season tickets, there's a time when you are signing players, there's a time when you go to training camp, there's a time when you make trades. When you are running more than one team, it's every time of the year, every day. That can build up and wear you down.

MLB.com: What were your biggest accomplishments in Atlanta?

Kasten: The teams that I was involved with went to the playoffs a combined 30 times. And considering that all the teams were in last place when I joined them, that's something I think all of us that were involved should be proud of.

We were also involved in both venues, Turner Field and Philips Arena. There are great places for fans to experience the games.

MLB.com: How difficult was it to get both places built?

Kasten: I often tell people that I've never had anything more difficult to do than help build an arena, because there is public money involved [and] a lot of public scrutiny. Not just fan scrutiny, but scrutiny from politicians. But it's difficult in every city. Atlanta was no exception, and D.C. is no exception.

MLB.com: When you step into Turner Field, what comes to mind?

Kasten: I love this park, certainly. But I have to tell you, I'm so focused on the Washington Nationals that I don't have a huge amount of extra thinking that goes on in this park. We are on the road; I'm focused on my team. We need to win today, and we need to start building so we can win tomorrow. That's really all I think about. I really don't think about the cities I'm visiting, even in Atlanta.

MLB.com: What were your biggest disappointments in Atlanta?

Kasten: With the Braves, we didn't have a lot of disappointments. Obviously, we would have liked to win more world championships, but we are awfully proud of what we accomplished and what they continue to accomplish. They have had injuries this year. It's still a superb organization that you know will be back and contending next year.

MLB.com: During your time in Atlanta, you handled contracts, and one that received a lot of criticism was the one you gave Hawks center Jon Koncak. Why did you sign him to a six-year, $13 million deal in the late 1980s?

Kasten: Let's go back to the circumstances. He had a sensational playoff series and he was about to emerge as a great young center, and you don't let those go. He signed a free-agent offer sheet for $2.5 million [per year]. We were able to get him on a multi-year deal for $2.2. It's not so much that the contract was a mistake. Jon had a difficult time bearing up under all the scrutiny that it brought him. If he had maintained the track that he was on, it would have worked out OK, but the focus of all the media and all the players was on the contract. That was difficult for him to handle.

MLB.com: You built the Hawks into playoff contenders in the 1980s. One year, you signed Reggie Theus and Moses Malone, but that didn't work out. Why?

Kasten: It's hard to say. The year [1988-89] we had Reggie and Moses, we beat Milwaukee six consecutive times during the regular season. Yet they beat us in a five-game series in the first round [of the playoffs]. I felt if we got through them, we might have won it all that year. We may have been the best team and the deepest team. That second unit could beat most NBA starting teams. That second unit had Koncak as the center, Antoine Carr and Cliff Levingston as its forwards, and Spud Webb and John Battle as the guards. Something happened in that first round. Del Harris, who was the coach of Milwaukee, did a superb job, and we just got beat.

MLB.com: How did your involvement with hockey come about?

Kasten: I wasn't a big hockey fan before I took over the team. I never planned to run a hockey team, even though the NHL commissioner [Gary Bettman] is one of my close friends. I finished building the arena, and the person who was going to run the hockey team left at the start of the first season. There was no one left to do it. I spent an awful lot of time getting close to the whole culture of hockey. I really love it nowadays, especially live.

MLB.com: What was your best contract signing in Atlanta?

Kasten: Because I ran three teams for that many years, I signed or oversaw more professional contracts [than just about anybody] in the history of sports. There are just too many to go through. Most of our contracts were reasonable and responsible. Not all of them worked out because, if you are in this business, that's going to happen. Being able to get Dominique Wilkins at a young age and keep him for as long as we did, that was good. We were able to keep Doc Rivers at a young age. [it was great] being able to keep the [Tom] Glavines, [John] Smoltzes, [Greg] Madduxes, the Joneses -- Chipper and Andruw. Each one of those contracts has a story.

MLB.com: What was your biggest mistake?

Kasten: Trading [Hawks guard] Steve Smith, even though he was starting to show his age, [to Portland] for J.R. Rider and Jim Jackson. J.R. just completely self-destructed and brought the whole team down with him. I wasn't the GM, but I was the team president at the time.

Bill Ladson is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

[pimp]

Quote:

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MLB.com: What was your biggest mistake?

Kasten: Trading [Hawks guard] Steve Smith, even though he was starting to show his age, [to Portland] for J.R. Rider and Jim Jackson. J.R. just completely self-destructed and brought the whole team down with him. I wasn't the GM, but I was the team president at the time.

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Sadly, it's been about 7 years and we still haven't recovered from that trade.

[Sothron]

Nope, I am still bitter than Smitty was traded away for that POS garbage in Rider. I know Petey only wanted to do it to get out from under Smitty's contract and it was unlikely that we would resign Rider but still...that whole season started the ditch we have found ourselves in for almost a decade.