Tom Penn | |
---|---|
Born | |
Education | Spalding Academy ("Peoria Notre Dame") |
Occupation(s) | Television personality, sports executive, lawyer, analyst |
Tom Penn is an American sports executive. [1] [2] [3]
Penn is also an NBA TV analyst, former NBA executive and co-founder of the Sports Leadership Institute.
The Los Angeles Football Club is a Major League Soccer (MLS) team based in downtown Los Angeles. Along with Penn, owners include Henry Nguyen, Peter Guber, Magic Johnson, Nomar Garciaparra, Mia Hamm, Tony Robbins, and Will Ferrell. The team was announced in October 2014 and planned to play its first game in 2018.[ needs update ]
As an NBA analyst, Penn is regularly featured as a basketball operations expert on advanced analytics, salary cap issues, the NBA draft, player trades and collective bargaining issues. [4]
Penn started working with ESPN during the 2010 NBA Draft, [2] and during the free agency period of 2010, he operated ESPN's cap machine on SportsCenter, where he manipulated a touchscreen to show potential destinations for LeBron James and other marquee free agents. [5] Penn has also been on ESPN using the ESPN Trade Machine to break down NBA trades. He left ESPN in 2018 to join Turner Sports.
In 2012, Penn was widely reported as being close to accepting a position as general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers. [6] He instead re-signed with ESPN. From 2007 to 2010, he spent four seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers as vice president of Basketball Operations and assistant general manager. Penn is an expert on the NBA salary cap and collective bargaining agreement. [7] Penn worked with general manager Kevin Pritchard as they restored the Blazers from the "Jail Blazers" era. The Blazers won 54 games in 2008–09 and again reached 50 wins in 2009–10 in spite of injuries to key players. During the summer of 2009, Penn was offered the general manager job with the Minnesota Timberwolves, but he turned it down, deciding to stay with the Blazers after a promotion to vice president of Basketball Operations. [8] Ten months later, Penn was fired after in what one writer called a "drive by" shooting. [9] On June 24, 2010, the day of the NBA Draft, Kevin Pritchard was also fired by the Blazers. [10]
Penn worked with the Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies as assistant general manager and legal counsel from 2000 to 2007. For five of those seasons in Memphis, he worked closely with Jerry West and Chuck Daly. [11] The Grizzlies made the playoffs three straight seasons but never advanced passed the first round. In 1999, Penn worked as part of prospective NBA owner Michael Heisley's NBA acquisition team. Penn worked with Dick Versace and Heisley's team to help guide Heisley through the NBA acquisition process until Heisley ultimately purchased the Vancouver Grizzlies in May 2000. [12] After one season in Vancouver, Heisley moved the team to Memphis.
The Sports Leadership Institute is a company that organizes private leadership summits for global sports owners, pro sports executives, major college Ads[ clarification needed ], and professional athletes. Penn founded the company in 2011, and they organize the Global Sports Summit in Aspen, Global Sports Management Summit in Chicago and Collegiate Sports Summit in Santa Monica.
Penn was a lawyer and a player agent. He worked mostly as a criminal defense attorney and acted in 20-plus cases including murder, armed robbery and other serious felony cases. He also was a basketball player agent and organized tours of Europe with free agent players. Upper Deck Company—the trading card company—was his sponsor for the tours and the team was called the "Upper Deck All-Stars". Fox Sports Chicago filmed a documentary movie about one of the tours called Over There. [13]
Penn has been a member of the Board of Governors of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital since 2002. He helped found for St. Jude—an NBA Cares program that raises awareness and funds to fight childhood cancer. [14] For the 2010-11 NBA Season, Hoops for St. Jude features the endorsement of NBA stars Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol, Kevin Love, Rudy Gay, David Lee, Steve Blake, and coach George Karl. [15] Penn serves on the board of directors of the Children's Cancer Association, a Portland-based charity that provides services and programs to children and families who are traumatized by cancer and other diseases. [16]
The Memphis Grizzlies are an American professional basketball team based in Memphis, Tennessee. The Grizzlies compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The Grizzlies play their home games at FedExForum. The Grizzlies are currently the only team in the major professional North American sports leagues based in the city of Memphis, and the only professional basketball team in the state of Tennessee.
The Portland Trail Blazers are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team played its home games in the Memorial Coliseum before moving to the Moda Center in 1995. The franchise entered the league as an expansion team in 1970, and has enjoyed a strong following: from 1977 through 1995, the team sold out 814 consecutive home games, the longest such streak in American major professional sports at the time, and which has only since been surpassed by the Boston Red Sox. The Trail Blazers are the only NBA team based in the Pacific Northwest, after the Vancouver Grizzlies relocated to Memphis and became the Memphis Grizzlies in 2001 and the Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City and became the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008.
Pau Gasol Sáez is a Spanish former professional basketball player. He was a six-time NBA All-Star and a four-time All-NBA team selection, twice on the second team and twice on the third team. Gasol won two NBA championships, both with the Los Angeles Lakers back-to-back in 2009 and 2010. He was the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2002 with the Memphis Grizzlies, being the first non-American player to have won that award. He is regarded as one of the greatest power forwards of all time and is also considered as one of the greatest European players of all time. He is the older brother of former NBA player Marc Gasol.
The Vancouver Grizzlies were a Canadian professional basketball team based in Vancouver. They were part of the Midwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team was established in 1995, along with the Toronto Raptors, as part of the NBA's expansion into Canada. Following the 2000–01 season, the team relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, United States and was renamed the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies played their home games at General Motors Place for all of their six seasons in Vancouver.
Zachary McKenley Randolph is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Z-Bo", the 2-time NBA All-Star played college basketball for the Michigan State Spartans before being drafted in the 2001 NBA draft by the Portland Trail Blazers. He played for five teams over the course of his professional career, making the All-NBA Third Team in 2011 with the Memphis Grizzlies. He also played with the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers and Sacramento Kings before retiring in December 2019. Randolph later came out of retirement in 2020 to join the Big3.
Kevin Lee Pritchard is an American basketball executive, and a former player and coach, who is currently the president of basketball operations for the Indiana Pacers. Pritchard played 4 seasons in the NBA as a player, and was also the general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers, and the Indiana Pacers.
Travis Marquez “Bonesaw” Outlaw is an American former professional basketball player.
Rudy Carlton Gay is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The 6'8" forward played college basketball for the University of Connecticut before being drafted eighth overall in the 2006 NBA draft by the Houston Rockets; he was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies days later.
Lionel Eugene Hollins is an American professional basketball coach and former player who most recently served as an assistant coach for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A point guard, Hollins played for the Portland Trail Blazers, winning an NBA championship in 1977 and named an NBA All-Star in 1978. The Trail Blazers retired his No. 14.
Kevin Paul Calabro is an American sportscaster based in Seattle, Washington. The longtime voice of the former Seattle SuperSonics NBA franchise, Calabro has primarily called NBA basketball but has also announced collegiate football and basketball as well as MLS soccer. From 2016 to 2020, he served as the television play-by-play voice for the Portland Trail Blazers. He rejoined the Portland Trail Blazers as the Play-By-Play Voice for the 2021-22 season after stepping down in 2020 to be with his family in order to avoid exposure to COVID-19. As of the 2015–16 season, Calabro is the lead play-by-play announcer for NBA on ESPN Radio, including NBA Finals games in 2007, 2014 and 2016 alongside personalities such as Jack Ramsay and Hubie Brown. Calabro has done ESPN radio play-by-play for the NBA Conference Finals for a decade in addition to being a regular contributor to TNT's NBA broadcasts. Calabro worked college basketball and football games for the Pac-12 Network and postseason college basketball for Westwood One Sports, including NCAA tournament action.
The Portland Trail Blazers are a professional basketball team in the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association. The Trail Blazers are currently celebrating their 50th NBA season. The franchise owner is Jody Allen, who assumed ownership upon the death of her brother Microsoft co-founder and Vulcan Inc. chairman Paul Allen, in 2018.
Chris Wallace is an American professional basketball executive and scout who is the director of scouting for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Tyreke Jamir Evans is an American professional basketball player for Broncos de Caracas of the Superliga Profesional de Baloncesto (SPB). After playing college basketball for the Memphis Tigers, he was selected with the fourth overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings. Evans went on to win the 2010 NBA Rookie of the Year Award. He was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans in 2013 before being traded back to the Kings in 2017. After successive stints with the Memphis Grizzlies and Indiana Pacers, Evans, who would have become a free agent at the end of the 2019 season, was dismissed and disqualified from the NBA in May for violating the terms of the league's anti-drug program, but was reinstated in February 2022.
The 2009–10 Portland Trail Blazers season was the 40th season of the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA). In the playoffs, the Trail Blazers lost to the Phoenix Suns in six games in the First Round.
Richard Cho is an American basketball executive who currently serves as the Vice President of Basketball Strategy of the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association. Prior to the Grizzlies, Cho was the general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers and the Charlotte Hornets, and the assistant general manager of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Cho was the first Asian American general manager in NBA history.
The Vancouver Grizzlies relocation to Memphis was a successful effort by the ownership group of the Vancouver Grizzlies to move the team from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to Memphis, Tennessee, United States. The team began play as the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2001–02 season. It was the first of three National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise moves between 2001 and 2008, and the third of four major league teams to relocate from Canada to the United States between 1995 and 2005.
Christian James McCollum is an American professional basketball player for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA). During his third year in the league in 2015–16, he was named the NBA Most Improved Player.
The Memphis Grizzlies are a professional basketball team based in Memphis, Tennessee.
Cameron Elijah Reddish is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils. He was selected 10th overall by the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the 2019 NBA draft.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)