ViperXX79

I feel like I almost can't take anymore as a fan.

 

First as a Dolphins fan I've got to go through the whole mess where our owner tried to hire Harbaugh, even though we already had a coach under contract. Then the Incognito - Martin crap. That on top of the Joe Johnson saga and now this as a Hawks fan. I almost can't take it anymore. 

The bandwagon fans might have the right idea.  You too can have you "favorite" team win a title every year.

Any chance that Magic could come be that guy??  I can't remember what his situation is and whether or not he got ownership of one of the LA franchises or not. 

 

I always thought he spelled it "Ervin".  I've learned something today.

  "Ultimately, I’m thankful to be with an organization that appreciates me for who I am and has gone out of its way to make me feel welcome."

 

That one stings the most from the Deng comments.

This comment is now the biggest hurdle the Hawks have to overcome.  It's like a dagger.

You're right it's a rational discussion... perhaps I'm still a little burned out here, but didn't mean to imply though that it was something heated or whatever. Just meant I don't feel like continuing to go back and forth on the same points. 

I understand.  I like the back and forth.  Gives me something to do.

The finger is pointed at Ferry when he talks about being evaluated as a free agent by using this language.  Regardless of whether a scout wrote the report, Ferry considered it when evaluating his candidacy as a free agent with the owners.  That is what Deng finds so disappointing and disturbing.  

And that's what fans should find so disappointing and disturbing.  Ferry felt the need to call Deng and apologize so he knew he did something wrong.  Is that enough to overcome the perception he now has?

The last sentence of Deng's statement is why we need to clean house.  We're going to have an even worse stigma on this franchise and players are going to avoid us like the plague because of it.

 

Yeah that quote made no sense after hearing his 92.9 interview.

Deng being classy.

I'm past the point of wanting to argue about this anymore so we'll just have to agree to disagree here. I'll wait until all of the facts come out before deciding either way. 

I thought it was more of a rational discussion than arguing...

Koonin: "Players can't trust management because management has betrayed them"

 

2:30

 

http://v103.cbslocal.com/2014/09/09/video-atlanta-hawks-ceo-to-the-rcms-weve-got-to-earn-peoples-trust-back-and-thats-a-step-at-a-t/

But management is being retained so something has to give?

How do we know? I can't answer your question on this as none of us have all the facts. 

And I understand but that's why it looks really really bad.  Ferry had a chance to correct the record today and all he did was confirm he read it because it was part of a scouting report.  It makes him look like a moron.

And yet he read it anyway. So then he's either:

 

A) A blatant and unashamed racist

B) A moron who doesn't pre-read things that he's going to read aloud with his ownership group.

C) Had a reason beyond 'A' for reading them. 

 

Everything we know about Ferry points towards 'C' being the likeliest of these possible reasons and yet there are those here who chose to ignore his history and rush to drive the nails into him. 

But he didn't offer a C.  His comments today point towards B.

I don't know why he would feel the need to read it. Again that's why we need the full context of this and exactly what was said before and after. I'm not going to condemn Ferry right now for something that Gearon said as I don't find him to be trustworthy at all. Yet there are people coming out of the woodwork to defend Ferry saying this is very out of character for him. I tend to put my trust in guys who've known him for 30 years vs this snake in the grass who's trying to make a power play for the team ownership.

Ferry has owned up to reading it but he didn't offer any context to why he said it other than it being in a scouting report.  So in this day and age if someone calls you a racist you have to fight it because of the stigma it brings.  Ferry says that's not who he is and that's fine.  But then it speaks to incompetence.  For some reason he felt the need to casually read this.  So he either pulled a Ron Burgundy or he thought it was relevant.  Either way I just don't see how the fan base could be comfortable with Ferry anymore.

I just said that for all we know he could have said that this was a scouting report, and I'll add it could have been from another team as has been rumored. Unless you're just looking for something to be angry about, I have no problem with him reading something like that, assuming there's a point to it. Again, context is everything here and right now we don't know all the facts. 

So what's the point of reading a racist comment in a scouting report?  Was that important information to him?  Maybe if he just wanted to point out the absurdity of it but his comments today make it just sound like he was casually reading from a scouting report.  So that sounds incredibly incompetent to me.

I don't think you can arrive at that conclusion either, without all the facts. All you can say at this point is that he made a mistake. It seems difficult to believe that he just read from the page without pre-reading or putting any thought into the words he was speaking, but my guess is that maybe he was intentionally reading them having already or about to give context to them. 

I just don't know how anyone would think that it was worth mentioning.  If a scout gave me a report that sounds pretty racist why would I feel the need to read it aloud.  It's Ferry job to gather the relevant intel but he's got to sift through that crap UNLESS he thought it was relevant.

How do you know whether or not he had or was about to give context to what he was reading? I don't trust Gearon for a second and for all we know Ferry could have easily prefaced what he was reading by saying this was from a scouting report or whatever. 

Why would anyone read something like that?  Are you telling me that our GM proof read this and thought it was worth mentioning or are you telling me that Ferry didn't proof read it and just read it?  Either way it's incompetent.

Ray Rice's wife is defending her husband.  Doesn't mean he didn't do something incredibly stupid.

Read Whitlock NOW.....I can't believe I'm agreeing with him. He's spot on. 

 

 

 

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11493472/jason-whitlock-bruce-levenson-atlanta-hawks

I couldn't care less about Levenson at this point.  Our GM is the one that's causing the bigger mess at this point.

There will still be questions about whether or not he's reading from the page or using his own language. I honestly have a VERY hard time believing that a man who's spent his entire life in an industry dominated by black people would ever say something as odd and confusing as he did and have it be his own thoughts. 

 

On top of that it was in reference to a player whom it's widely known Ferry tried to trade for at the trade deadline and a guy who he's got to have ties to from Duke. I just find it very difficult to condemn Ferry here without a lot more evidence. 

So Ferry's not racist he's just incompetent.  Much better?

So it's official, our GM is indeed either comfortable enough to read this report aloud and incompetent enough to read it aloud.  That's who is running our team ladies and gentlemen.  We're clearly in good hands.

No NBA players in their right mind will play for Ferry after this.Heck, our players might even boycott depending on how the media handles this. 

I still can't get over the thought of if we actually signed Deng.  I'm sure he's not happy about this now but to have to actually play for this guy?  I couldn't imagine...

He had all day to save face and explain his comments but he refused.... now it is coming back to bite him. This now the story of the night and tons of ESPN pundits are talking about it on twitter now.

And Ferry is going to have a stigma on him now.  How's he supposed to lure FA's with this now?  Not that he was successful at it anyway but this will make it worse.

It is literally the #1 topic on Twitter right now.

 

I never knew Danny Ferry would be come this  "famous" or shall I say infamous.

 

Not sure how Ferry can survive this hailstorm.

Maybe he can talk about the system and cap flexibility?  You know things that mean nothing but seem to distract from how poor of a job is being done.

I never said he didn't do anything wrong.

 

I'm saying I don't believe everything in the "smoking gun" to be the gospel 100% truth.

If someone accused me of this I wouldn't give a "no comment".  It's pretty much the worst thing you can be accused of nowadays and Ferry is just letting it happen.  The optics are bad for him and the franchise so it's not something a team should have to deal with.