RIP Matt Dobek

knew matt for almost 25 years..funeral and reception this weekend..attendees included isiah,laimbeer,dumars,edwards,long,cureton,vinnie,mahorn,kelser and jack mccloskey to name a few...no current players there or mrs.davidson. nba scribes who flew in included p vescey, j.mccallum,mike monroe and sefko.. raftery was there too. nba represented by brian mcintyre and some staffers.. was fired for allegedly breaching confidentiality agreement..he was never told exactly how and why..no severance..was with organization for almost 30 years. chuck daly was a father figure to him..dobek was kind and generous...can't see for sure whether the firing caused his suicide, because usually there are deeper issues than one incident..but it did put him over the top....RIP

 

I doubt it caused his suicide, but it could have been a final push.

 

My guess is the full truth will never really come out, and I'm also not so sure it's really any of our business, but I suspect if and when it ever did, neither the Davidson or Illitch empires would come out looking very good.

 

Depending on which of the speculation/conjecture theories you listen to, the Davidson organization whacked Dobek because they thought he was feeding information to the Ilitch organization (presumably through Wilson, although that begs the question, 'what could Dobek tell Wilson that he didn't already know'), and in addition to cashiering Dobek without warning and without severance, effectively blackballed him from getting any significant job in sports media (certainly anything NBA-connected) or even PR in the area.

The corollary would be that if Dobek was indeed feeding the Ilitch empire anything of any value, they had a responsibility to give him at least some kind of junior-flunky position, not let him just fall down the mineshaft. Of course they couldn't give him an organization job right away, but there are ways they could have tiptoed around that. They could talk to some people who could talk to some people, etc etc.

There are already lawsuits flying over the whole deal and how much, if any, of this is true I don't know, but it does pass the basic smell test. I don't know anybody really in tight with either organization these days, but a lot of people on the fringes think something like this might be the explanation. Again, I suppose in the end we may never know.

 

Somewhat off-topic, but was Matt related to Bob Dobek? Bob played hockey for the Detroit Jr. Wings, was on the '76 U.S. Olympic team and played several seasons in the WHA. I think he manages golf courses in the San Diego area now.

I remember watching Bob playing with Mark Howe at the Olympia in 1971-72.

 

What would Illitch need with Dobek when he already had Wilson? Did Wilson come over to Olympia Entertainment from the Pistons before Dobek was fired. It had to be around the same time, right?

 

Wilson joined Olympia Holdings in late February. Dobek was fired in mid-May.

 

Rosenberg columnizes...

http://www.freep.com/article/20100830/COL22/8300373/1355/SPORTS/Dobek-is-a-tragedy-amid-darkness-of-depression

 

So does Frank Beckmann ...

http://detnews.com/article/20100827/OPINION03/8270340/Kindness--not-job-defined-lost-friend