Success Quote by Tom Hicks

That blunt “period” is the tell: Hicks isn’t selling a plan so much as closing an argument. The sentence is built like a boardroom memo disguised as a sports promise, with “best position” doing the heavy lifting. It’s managerial language that avoids naming the messy parts fans actually care about - roster mistakes, chemistry, patience, luck. “Position” implies controllable inputs, not guaranteed outcomes. It’s accountability carefully laundered into process.

The timeline clause - “if not this year, next year” - is a classic ownership two-step: urgency with a built-in escape hatch. It throws a bone to the present tense (“this year”) while pre-authorizing disappointment by framing it as part of a longer optimization cycle (“next year”). The effect is to convert the emotional chaos of winning and losing into a rolling investment horizon. That’s not accidental; it’s how businessmen talk when they want stakeholders to stay calm while costs are cut, assets are moved, or a rebuild is quietly underway.

In context, this kind of statement typically surfaces when scrutiny is peaking: after a disappointing season, a controversial personnel move, or a fan base demanding a concrete direction. Hicks’s intent is to project competence and inevitability - we’re doing the rational thing, we’re not panicking, trust the model. The subtext: you may not like the timeline, but you’re being asked to buy patience as if it were a strategy, not a concession.