By Alan Snel
LVSportsBiz.com
He drank a beer. And between sips, he gave some lip to the refs after he didn’t like a call against the Las Vegas Aces during the Aces’ big win over the Seattle Storm at Mandalay Bay Events Center Tuesday night.
Then, after the Aces pulled away for their 79-62 victory over the Storm and reached a 13-6 mark, this intense 57-year-old Aces fan congratulated the team’s six-foot, eight-inch center Liz Cambage.
And the Australian player, playing in her first season in Las Vegas for the Aces, beamed back at Jim Murren, the CEO of MGM Resorts International, the Las Vegas-based hotel-casino and entertainment company that also owns the Aces after buying the former San Antonio franchise in 2017.
“I’m by far the biggest fan and I’m humbled by the excellence and the passion of these women,” Murren told LVSportsBiz.com after the game. “We won the game when I was able to bring the team here.”
If Murren is emotionally invested in the Aces’ performance on the court, it’s because he played a central role in MGM Resorts acquiring the former San Antonio Stars team in 2017
Murren is both MGM Resorts’ top executive and a legitimate Aces superfan, explaining to LVSportsBiz.com the WNBA team has “multiple meanings to MGM. We’re helping make Las Vegas a sports capital. And the team is inspiring women’s empowerment.”
As a women’s professional hoops team, the Aces are an ideal fit for MGM Resorts International, Murren said, because Las Vegas’ biggest employer has a majority of women and minority workers.
The MGM Resorts CEO, looking relaxed in jeans and a black collared short-sleeved Aces shirt Tuesday night, said he wants to help the Aces players elevate their individual brands while also bolstering the collective brand of the WNBA team.
“I don’t begrudge any male professional basketball player for getting what he can, but I want to make the W (WNBA) more valuable than what it is,” Murren said. One of the Aces players, star forward A’ja Wilson, has been a public voice for WNBA players earning more money from their 34-game WNBA regular season. In many cases, WNBA players make more money playing basketball overseas than they do in the WNBA.
“I’m immensely proud to have women’s basketball in Las Vegas. They bring so much passion and it’s only going to get better. The Aces are rock stars,” Murren said. “We are leading the charge to make Las Vegas the sports capital of the country.”
It was clear Murren was into Tuesday night’s game. He barked at the refs when he didn’t like their calls. One of Murren’s pals sitting next to him joked, “He thinks he’s Mark Cuban.”
Murren diplomatically said after the game — with a smile — that he was only giving the refs some constructive criticism.
Murren sees the Aces players as extensions of the MGM Resorts family. After the game, Aces coach Bill Laimbeer’s daughter came by to say hi to Murren.
“We’re a family here. Here’s Bill Laimbeer’s daughter. There’s (Aces player) A’ja Wilson’s father there,” Murren said, pointing to seats about five rows away.
About a half-hour later, LVSportsBiz.com spoke with Wilson’s father, Roscoe Wilson, who said Murren is one of the most genuine people he has met.
Murren is also stoked for Mandalay Bay Events Center — an MGM Resorts property — to host the WNBA All-Star Game Saturday. “Nobody can host an entertainment event like MGM,” Murren said. “We have showed we can dial up the entertainment.”
After the game, Murren also couldn’t get enough of another “family member” — Rushia Brown, the Aces’ player programs and franchise development manager who is a former WNBA players who advises Aces players on post-playing career development issues.
“Every player wants to come here and play here,” Brown told Murren face-to-face after the game. “All the girls are asking, ‘Rushia, how can I get here?’ ”
Aces games have become must-see basketball games for NBA players, too. The crowd of 5,193 noticed former NBA All-Star Tracy McGrady and NBA player DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins sitting courtside during the Aces-Storm game tonight.
Across the way, there was Murren, along with MGM Resorts International President Bill Hornbuckle and Raiders owner Mark Davis three seats from Hornbuckle.
LVSportsBiz.com also chatted with Hornbuckle after the game. “We’re building this up. It’s what Vegas is all about.”
Murren, Hornbuckle and Davis were among the raucous crowd that watched an impressive halftime show — the kind of entertainment that Murren was referring to. Blue Man Group was in “The House,” as the Aces call the venue, and the dudes in blue literally rolled out a colorful show to their familiar percussion beat.
Here’s our LVSportsBiz.com post-game wrap-up with Cassandra Cousineau
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