Expanding Horizons: Building From Scratch

Some advice for the Miami Heat, who finished 15-67 in their first season: Don’t panic. Stay the course. Have faith in your people.

This from men of experience, like Tom Fears, the original head coach of the New Orleans Saints, and Lou Gorman, the first general manager of the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Mariners.

As New York Islanders general manager Bill Torrey explained, all expansion teams start at the same point: “no pencils, no desks, no players, nothing.” But why did the Islanders evolve into playoff contenders within a few years, while the Mariners, who began in 1977, still struggle for respectability?

The problem can begin at the top. Fears, fired after compiling a record of 13-34-2 over 3 1/2 seasons, bitterly recalled his relationship with team owner John Mecom Jr.

“Well, he wasn’t very receptive to anything,” Fears said. “He wouldn’t listen to any of my suggestions, he would just talk to his cronies and none of them knew football. He was dipping in the wrong basket.

“We went to San Diego once and he rented homes and had boats and because he was enamored with the players, he would invite them out after curfew. He was working against the program.”

No such horror stories could be heard from Torrey. The Islanders finished 12-60-6 in their first year, 1972-73, but reached the playoffs two years later and eventually won four straight Stanley Cups.

“Unfortunately,” Torrey noted, “when you start an expansion team, your fellow competitors are not going to give you anything but broken down players or players who’ve got a problem somewhere along the line or they wouldn’t have given up on them in the first place.”

So Torrey patiently built the Islanders with draft picks like Bryan Trottier, Clark Gillies and Mike Bossy.

“We knew what we were attempting to do, that it was going to be a long pull, but for those of us who were in the hockey end of it, we had a good idea of what the drafts in the future were going to be like. They were loaded, stacked with talent.”

Norm Sonju, the Dallas Mavericks’ general manager, also has put a contender together. Dallas joined the NBA in 1980, winning just 15 games and losing 67, but finished 43-39 three years later and made the playoffs.

“We chose to build with young players if at all possible,” Sonju explained. “Whenever there was a choice between an untried youngster and a veteran who may have a problem, we went with the youngster.

“Whether we won 10, 15 or 20 games that first year, we didn’t think it mattered. It’s better to bite the bullet and win a few less games than you’re supposed to win than to have all those veteran players retire.”

Gorman has been on both sides. The Royals, who started in 1969, compiled a respectable 69-93 record their first year, avoiding the disastrous beginnings of most expansion teams. By 1976, Kansas City was good enough to win the American League West.

“I think it’s because we got good people, put them in the right jobs, and kept some continuity,” Gorman said. “We developed a good farm system and made some brilliant trades.”

But when Gorman took on the general manager position with the Mariners, something went wrong. Seattle has never finished with a winning record and is still going through the process of “rebuilding.” What happened?

“Because of the change in ownership, changes in management philosophy, the constant change of people,” Gorman explained. “It’s going through different farm directors, scouting directors, all with their own philosophy.”