Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello remembers his former YankeeNets boss as a hero.
“Without doubt, he was very much misunderstood. I look at him as a special person,” Lamoriello said. “What people don’t know about him is what he did for charity, for the Armed Forces, and not for publicity, but because it was the right thing to do. A lot of people do things for the wrong reasons. He did things for the right reasons.”
Lamoriello and Steinbrenner collaborated when the Devils became part of YankeeNets, the now-split grouping in the late ’90s that sought to maximize television exposure.
“I didn’t know him prior to YankeeNets, but we hit it off,” Lamoriello said. “We had a common denominator, both from a [similar Catholic] backround. In Cleveland, he had Father Taylor, who later went to Providence College, where I was. He knew each of us independently.”
About being told by Steinbrenner to take over the Nets as well as the Devils, Lamoriello was succinct.
“You didn’t say no to him,” he said.
Lamoriello said the famous, volatile side of Steinbrenner did not reach him.
“I never experienced that,” the Devils president, CEO and GM said. “All the experiences we had was when we had success. And even when things didn’t go right, he’d always send a little not of encouragement.”
Lamoriello spoke to him one last time this month.
“I did call him for his 80th birthday July 4, and I really glad I did,” Lamoriello said.. “I’m very fond of him and always was, and I’m still part of the family, still on the [Yankees] board.”