Larry Ellison said at an Oracle public event in 2010, the year he was outbid for both... Read More
For Larry Ellison, who stepped down as chief executive officer of software giant Oracle Corp. (ORCL) last week, it could be a chance to resume his quest to buy a National Basketball Association club.
Ellison, 70, has failed in bids to buy the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans Hornets (now the Pelicans) and the Memphis Grizzlies. That leaves 26 more NBA teams for him to covet, and the Atlanta Hawks just happen to be up for sale after owner Bruce Levenson wrote what he called an “offensive” e-mail involving racial stereotypes.
“Unfortunately, you can’t have a
hostile takeover of a basketball team,” Ellison quipped at an Oracle public event in 2010, the year he was outbid for both the Warriors and the Hornets. Ellison didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment for this column.
Ellison is worth $42.4 billion and ranks eighth on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index -- making him more than twice as rich as new Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, the former Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) CEO who ranks 34th at $21.1 billion. Ballmer paid an NBA-record $2 billion in May for the Clips, topping an offer from a bidding group that included Ellison, talk-show host Oprah Winfrey and music executive David Geffen.
Ellison lost out to venture capitalist Joe Lacob and entertainment executive Peter Guber in the Warriors bidding. He failed in efforts to buy the Hornets, and then the Grizzlies, with the intention of moving them to San Jose, California.
But Ellison still has plenty of sports activities to keep him busy. His Oracle Team USA rallied from an 8-1 deficit to successfully defend its title in the America’s Cup regatta last year, and will face more challengers in 2017. Plus, he owns the annual Indian Wells tennis tournament for men and women that is one notch below a Grand Slam event.
And Ellison bought 98 percent of Lanai, Hawaii’s sixth-largest island, in 2012 -- so he can always start his own basketball league on the 141-square-mile island if he wants.
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While much of the attention leading up to the Ryder Cup has been focused on Europeans occupying three of the top five spots in the Official World Golf Ranking -- and on American Rickie Fowler’s new haircut -- the defending champions may have a secret weapon in their oldest player, Thomas Bjorn of Denmark.
The Europeans, seeking their third straight victory against the U.S. in the biennial team competition, are led by world No. 1 Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, No. 3 Sergio Garcia of Spain and No. 5 Henrik Stenson of Sweden. The only American in the top five is No. 4 Jim Furyk. (Australia’s Adam Scott is No. 2.)
Much of the buzz leading up to today’s opening matches at Scotland’s Gleneagles resort has been about Fowler’s buzz cut. He shocked some British writers by stepping off the plane in Edinburgh with the letters “USA” shaved into his crewcut just above his right ear.
Oliver Brown of The Telegraph called it “an exhibition of thuggish jingoism that on any normal day would give grounds for many a club secretary to throw him off the premises in a heartbeat.”
The 43-year-old Bjorn, who is ranked 30th in the world, is making his first playing appearance at the Ryder Cup in 12 years. He was a vice captain three times during that playing absence.
Europe has never lost a Ryder Cup in which Bjorn has participated. He played on winning teams in 1997 and 2002, and the Europeans also won in 2004, 2010 and 2012 when he was a vice captain. The only two competitions he has missed in the past 17 years -- in 1999 and 2008 -- were won by the Americans.
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Derek Jeter is a worthy recipient of the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award recognizing the talent and class he has displayed in 20 Major League Baseball seasons.
But let’s hope the New York Yankees shortstop has better luck than some of the previous 14 recipients at getting into the Hall of Fame.
The first two winners of the special award, in 1998, were Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Barry Bonds won in 2002 and Roger Clemens was honored in 2004.
All four have been shut out of the Cooperstown shrine because of performance-enhancing drug issues. Jeter has never been connected to drug use, and is considered a lock for election to the Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible in 2020.
“To me he is the 1st unanimous Hall of Famer,” Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon said in a Twitter message.
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A note to all the 8-year-old linebackers out there who read Sports Line -- we’re about to help you decide which college to attend in a decade or so.
The Michigan Wolverines and Texas Longhorns announced last week that they will play a two-game football series -- at Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2024, and in Austin, Texas, in 2027.
OK, so that means the third graders of today will be college freshmen when the first of those games is played. And with a pair of contests like those to look forward to, how could they not choose Michigan or Texas?
“A matchup of this magnitude doesn’t come along all that often, and when it does, it’s special for both programs and the great fans that support each institution,” said Michigan coach Brady Hoke.
Of course, what are the odds that Hoke will be on the sideline for those games? In fact, with his Wolverines at 2-2 heading into tomorrow’s home game against the University of Minnesota, will he even be around when those third graders turn 9?
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How could Sports Line go a week without mentioning former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice and how the National Football League botched his domestic-violence suspension?
Well, the Ravens offered fans the chance to exchange a Rice jersey for the uniform top of any other player, and more than 7,100 took them up on the offer.
Meanwhile, Hersh’s Pizza and Drinks in Baltimore offered a free pizza in exchange for a Rice jersey.
Given the way things are going in the NFL, instead of getting another player’s jersey we’ll go with a large pepperoni.
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- Fans in London won’t exactly be treated to two of the better NFL teams this weekend when the winless Oakland Raiders, who have a league-low 37 points this season, face the Miami Dolphins (1-2) at Wembley Stadium. But it could be a close contest -- four of the previous eight regular-season NFL games in London have been decided by a touchdown or less.
- With the Yankees trailing the Baltimore Orioles by 13 games with three games left this season, the New Yorkers will finish with a double-digit deficit in the American League East division for the second straight season. They finished 12 games behind the Boston Red Sox last year. That’s the first time since the early 1990s the Yankees have had two straight seasons trailing the division leader by 10 games or more. In 1991, the fourth-place Yankees (71-91) trailed the Toronto Blue Jays by 20 games. And they were 20 games behind the Blue Jays again in 1992, when New York went 76-86.
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