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Mets owner Fred Wilpon and Dodgers great Sandy Koufax aren't the only sports figures who got ripped off by despicable schemer Bernie Madoff.Darren Rovell of CNBC reports that a family made filthy rich by the NBA also suffered losses at the hands of Madoff's Ponzi scheme.
But the NBA won't exactly feel bad about it, considering the method in which said set of brothers -- Dan and Ozzie Silna -- made their money.
Rovell tells the story well: as the ABA faced merger or death for seemingly the final time in '76, the Silnas -- who owned the Spirits of St. Louis -- held out for an (in retrospect) unbelievable deal. The NBA refused to take all the extant ABA teams, and the two teams left to die were the Kentucky Colonels and Spirits. Obviously, the NBA had to buy off the two disappearing franchises for their stake in the ABA. The Colonels took $3 million, according to Rovell.
The Silnas held out, and almost killed the merger (which would have almost assuredly killed the Spurs, Pacers, Nets and Nuggets). Eventually, the Silnas got a concession they wanted: 14% of the television revenues for the four merging teams ... forever. The other ABA owners assented. Rovell calculated by 2016 the Silnas will have made $320 million on the deal, with no financial or operation costs of their own. If the merger fell through, the ABA would likely have folded and the Silnas wouldn't have a dime (maybe negative dimes, considering the long-term pay-out contracts the ABA was famous for). Instead, $320 million over 40 years for doing nothing but going away.
Colonels owner John Y. Brown told Rovell that the Silnas' ploy was "about the biggest hold-up" he'd ever seen in business. I recall Brown and others being quoted to that effect in Terry Pluto's Loose Balls, as well. The owners of the four ABA teams that survived did alright in the end ... but you imagine a small-market franchise like the Spurs wished they weren't giving up a chunk of T.V. revenue every year because of what is being described as a stick-up.
So, the Silnas apparently got caught up in Madoff's scheme and have likely lost a healthy amount of cash. But few around the NBA will likely be crying for them, given the circumstances.
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