By Jeff Schultz
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 05/07/08

In the four years since taking ownership of the Hawks and Thrashers, the Atlanta Spirit too often has stumbled into implausible scenarios, like executive slapstick, only to work hard at convincing everybody that its days as a punch line were ending.

Unfortunately, as these owners have found, it's difficult to make a convincing argument after you introduce yourself to the public as "an all-star team of owners," but then you can't stop suing each other.

But there is good news.

Or bad news.

Well, either way, significant news.

If ever an offseason was going to define an ownership group, this is it. Hunker down, Spirit boys, because this is when you either step up and convey some sense of stability within your franchises, or once again pull a Curly and confuse the blast powder with the pancake mix. (Boom.)

The Atlanta Spirit employs two general managers, Billy Knight and Don Waddell, with cracked resumes.

It employs one basketball coach, Mike Woodson, whose regular seasons have been fairly decisive but whose recent postseason has left everybody confused (three huge upsets at home; four revolting losses on the road by 101 points).

The Spirit fired its hockey coach, Bob Hartley, six games into the NHL season, a swift and decisive, even if short-sighted, move that really accomplished nothing, unless you count forcing Waddell to form lines with his own mistakes.

OK, Spirit boys, are you tired of getting beaten up? What's next?

It has been stated before, but it's worth repeating. Sports franchises can be successful in a number of ways. Great players can overcome average coaching. Great coaches can succeed with average players. General managers can build winners by accruing solid, even if unspectacular, players. Or they can pick up just enough All-Stars to compensate for the duds.

Trades can make up for bad drafts, and vice versa.

But there is one thing a sports franchise can't overcome: bad ownership.

Fans don't need their team to win every season. They just need to know that owners are trying to do things correctly, smartly. They need to know that they care. They don't want to hear excuses. They don't want to sense arrogance from the basketball GM or witness infantile outbursts by the hockey owner.

Fans want accountability.

You want to fix things, guys? Fix it now.

Waddell presumably has convinced owners he has things under control and that this season was an aberration (not to be confused with the other years of aberrations). I say "presumably" because only Bruce Levenson has publicly expressed confidence in Waddell. Michael Gearon, the other most active, non-ex-communicated owner in the group, has stayed in the background on hockey matters.

Waddell's latest bit of amusing scrambling came in Craig Custance's examination of the dysfunctional relationship between the Thrashers and their affiliate, the AHL's Chicago Wolves. At one point, Waddell suggested the Thrashers were in an advantageous position over the Detroit Red Wings because Atlanta's prospects were in the AHL playoffs and the Wings' prospects weren't. The problem: The Thrashers' prospects are in the playoffs every year and it doesn't seem to make a difference in the Thrashers' season. The Red Wings? They win Stanley Cups.

Waddell has yet to hire a coach. The bigger concern is that owners have yet to state their plan for the franchise. They have yet to hire an outside hockey adviser, as had been suggested. The Thrashers played their last game a month ago. If owners were waiting for the basketball season to end before deliberating on hockey matters, doesn't that make you feel a little uncomfortable?

The Hawks also have significant issues. They actually have time on the player decisions. But Gearon's comments Monday about wanting to "take a step back for several days" are unsettling. The Knight and Woodson issues have been on the table all season. Good owners always have a Plan B. If there were thoughts of firing Knight, there must have been thoughts about qualified replacements.

If the owners decide to fire Knight but keep Woodson, what would that say about Knight's replacement, who wouldn't be allowed to hire his own coach? What GM would take this job under those circumstances, and would you trust his ability to grab what the Hawks accomplished in the last playoffs and take it the next level?
The easy answer is to fire everybody. But the bigger issue is whether these owners can reach clear and logical decisions that put two franchises on solid ground. We're still waiting.