Ernie Grunfeld was hated by Wizards fans for making poor salary decisions. But to players, especially star players, he was a very accommodating President of Basketball Operations — to a fault.
On Monday, Candace Buckner of The Washington Post wrote a detailed column on the Wizards’ team culture during the Grunfeld Era from 2003-19. Over those 16 years, he was viewed as a players-first front office executive. But he was also viewed as a pushover because star players often were able to break rules and get away with them. Multiple former players indicated these types of things happened regularly like former center Brendan Haywood.