My lashing out at Pete Babcock

[Guest]

I appreciate your serious concern about the state of our team to date. I apologize for our poor play to date and I do accept FULL responsibility for where we are currently and for the past 12 years. We started in 1990 with a team that failed to make the playoffs, and rebuilt it in three years to a team that finished with the best record in the East...which started a run of 6 years with 50+ wins per year and four years of finishing in the final eight in the NBA...which we agree, was not good enough, but a little better than mediocre (8 out of 29 is OK, but not great). After the lockout season, in which we finished only 2 games off the best record in the East, we tore the team apart to start over....and I made the worst deal ever in trading Steve Smith for Rider and Jackson...it set us back further than we thought it would (just to get cap room) and I would never tell anyone that I would do that deal again if the circumstances were the same again...it was a mistake, period.

We have, over the 12 years, brought in a few players, who have been halfway decent (some actually all-stars)...Augmon, Blaylock, Smith, Long, Ehlo, Lang, Laettner, Mutombo, Corbin, Terry, Abdur-Rahim, Robinson, Ratliff among others. I have made my share of mistakes along the way also in Rumeal Robinson, Doug Edwards and Ed Gray...and would not try to defend those decisions at all. To address your points: we traded Wilkins because his agent demanded a trade if we were not going to do a long term contract...which at that stage of Nique's career, we could not justify...we offerd one year at a time just like Jordan and Abdul Jabbar did with their respective teams...and we won more games after the trade than before...just a fact, not opinion. It was one of the most difficult trades we have ever made due to our feelings for Nique...but a tough business decision pushed only by his agent at the time. Rider was a terrible mistake as I already said. Norman was acquired for the rights to Roy Hinson, who was permanently disabled...so low risk gamble, but not a great move. Henderson has been a solid conributor for us for a number of years, although the last two years were tough due to his health status....he is actually probably playing the most steady ball for us so far this season. You are right that trading picks for Shareef and Glenn has yet to pay dividends...my thinking Reef was to acquire a relatively young talent (24 yrs old at the time) was the purpose of drafting anyway, and with Glenn, I felt he addressed a need we had with a good mid-range game and he was under 30....Ratliff and Kukoc for Mutombo was simply the best deal out there for Dikembe at his age....and we have not benefited yet...you are right. Yes, it was my decision to hire Lon Kruger instead of I. Thomas, but your timing is off on Rivers...he was already coaching in Orlando and not available at that time.

I do not plan on ever giving up and/or resigning on my own accord....but we if do not dramatically improve, you will probably get your wish of a new GM anyway. Thank you for following the team and I hope we can quickly turns things back around as we do care about the competitiveness of our team and our fan base. Our play has been awful so far this year for the most part.

Pete Babcock

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Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2002 9:58 PM

To: askthehawksgm@turner.com

Subject: This team is aweful

Pete do what little Hawk fans they are(thanks

to you)a favor and please step down.There is

no amount of talking that will fix things for

this franchise.The team has been mediocre since

the early 90's never reaching anything other

than the 2nd round at best.Now this is the

least respectable franchise in all of basket

ball.

Even teams like Cleveland and Chicago have good

future while the Hawk players are overpaid and

have a high payroll when they aren't winning.You

have built a team with alot of flaws.There are

tons of mistakes you have made as the GM:

1)Trading Dominique Wilkins in the Hawks best

season.

2)Trading for JR Rider

3)Trading for overpaid Ken Norman

4)Overpaying Alan Henderson

5)Giving up good draft picks for guys like Shareef

and Big Dog who have yet to help this franchise

win.You traded for injury prone Theo Ratliff who

has yet to make a real impact on the team.

6)You hired Lon Kruger over Isiah Thomas/Doc Rivers

and other coaches with more experience.This is the

biggest mistake you have made.I've never seen a

more disorganized team ever.This is one of the

poorest coached teams to ever step on the floor.

You and Stan Kasten have never gave Atlanta a

chance to cheer for the team because this team

never fights for anything.The Atlanta crowd is

usally a quiet bunch, but even they were booing

at the Hawks effort tonight.Problem is these

efforts happen about 5 out of every 6 games.

Thrashers/Braves/Falcons all have a decent

fanbase.Too bad guys like you and Stan Kasten

will never give this franchise a chance to

have support.

Please step down so the franchise can have some

hope.

[cyman3]

1)Im not sure but u were way too harsh on Babcock. U told him straight up "step down as our GM!" some harsh stuff there... in fact i kinda feel sorry for BABCOCK. as a PERSON, i feel sorry for him and i really DO LIKE HIM and enjoy the fact that he gives an opportunity for us to talk to him. But as a GM, hes only mediocre at best!

2)I owe u an APOLOGY! remember when u started bashing out on the hawks and nobody listened to u... i mistaken ur love for the hawks... if u wasnt a hawks fan, u wouldnt care how bad the hawks play.

knowing the fact that you're mad and pist that the hawks are losing PROVES that ur a hawks fan. my fault for not seeing that in the beginning...

3)suggestion/reminder: all of us get down because the hawks lose, but lets not get caught up with it too much. It seems like u lose sleep since the hawks lose...

if u go to 790 AM while the hawks play, u prob slowly fall asleep (happened to me today vs wizards and the other day vs the SUNS... i dont have cable, so its my way of listening up on the hawks) like i do....

[Diesel]

Babcock traded Nique because of money!!

I thought so.

[Blunt91]

The parts of Babcock's email that I find interesting is him saying that over the past 12years we have brought in HALFWAY DECENT PLAYERS some being allstars then he gives the list of players. The second one being that he said if we don't show a dramatic improvement you will probably get your wish. He admitted that the trades for Robinson and SHareef have not payed off yet but I consider the Shareef trade as a pretty good one.There weren't any great players in the draft anyway. Gasol made some noise last year, but you haven't heard much from him so far this year. If we had of went on and picked Tony Parker with the 27th pick we would have had an excellent draft. As far as Glenn "Big turnover" Robinson it doesn't seem like that was a good move. The main reason Babcock got Robinson was because he thought this would increase our chances of making the playoffs but so far it hasn't payed off.

[Guest]

I don't feel sorry about it...[censored] him.He has [censored]

this franchise over for the last 12 years and they will

be screwed over for the next 3 years tell Hendu and

Shareefs/Big Dog's contracts are up so we can get rid

of them.

They start to win a few games when they are out of

the playoff race and they will win meaningless games

like they did the second half of last year.

[Diesel]

We have a better mixture of talent than most teams playing right now. How many teams would wish for a good defensive C. How many people would wish for a SF who can give you 20/8. How many would wish for a Pf capable of 20/10. How many would wish for a PG who can give you 14/8apg/~2spg? How many would wish for the depth we have on the bench??? The problem here is not the players. We have enough talent to dominate. The problem is that these players aren't being used correctly. Haven't been trained. Is as far from winning as can be and it's because of the coach.

[Nurlman]

I still think you're wrong, but this sux. Let's get a new coach in here and find out.