This ownership crap needs to be settled

[tmac13]

Enough is enough. The Hawks have been out of the playoffs 8 straight years and for the 3rd offseason in a row we are being hampered in trying to improve by this damn ownership feud..We cannot be look at players that might help us or make any coaching or management changes because of this situation.. There is no way BK or Woody would have survived this offseason in any other situation..Now we are even doing the unheard of in not letting the assistant coaches leave for other jobs..

While is really like this young team I still don't believe they are playoff caliber considering the youth and lack of veteran leadership in the face of other eastern conference teams making major upgrades like Boston and Charlotte.

David Stern needs to step in to get this matter resolved.

[sturt]

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Enough is enough.... David Stern needs to step in to get this matter resolved.

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Agreed.

Now the hard part...

But the creative part...

How does a fan base unite together to cause enough noise such that The Tyrant cannot ignore us, and takes some action?

Ideas?

Potentially, this could be the most useful, productive thread ever started and explored on Hawksquawk... or, it could go by the wayside as "just another" meaningless diatribe of fan moaning.

Love to see what people can come up with, though.

[DJ_Money]

I'll leave a bag of flaming crap on Stern's doorstep, ring the doorbell, and run away.

Is that a good start?

[tmac13]

Maybe an email barage to The Tyrant by all Hawksquawkers could be a start? How many of us are there now?

[skankin_richard]

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I'll leave a bag of flaming crap on Stern's doorstep, ring the doorbell, and run away.

Is that a good start?

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It can't hurt...

I like the email idea, too...

I think we should find a way to get lil' jon, usher, and ludacris to buy the team... they're all big fans, and they've got the money...

failing that, we should all come together and buy the team.... how much would that cost?

[sturt]

First thought: Could we have the first-ever franchise fans' vote on an elected representative?

Not sure it would be taken seriously enough to merit The Tyrant's attention, though.

Second thought: From time to time our congressional friends like to pony up to sports fans and act all mad and crumudginly toward sports league officials--things like the MLB steroid situation, the MLB anti-trust exemption, and the BCS conglomerate monopoly come to mind...

Could we get a Georgia politician to stand up for his (her?) constituents and address a letter to his majesty Mr. Stern that indicates displeasure that he's been silent?

Not sure it would come to anything... even if it got sent, and even if it got a little play in the press, Stern is smart enough to know that there'd be practically no teeth to it.

Third thought: Could we enlist the help of someone on a public media stage, such as ex-Hawk Kenny Smith, or Hawks fan Charles Barkley, or... I dunno... someone like that who regularly has a bully pulpit... who could go public that "I've been asked by a large base of Hawk fans to call for the Commissioner's attention to this issue"... or something along those lines?

Hmmmmmmm... just trying to add to the brainstorm.... someone wanna build on that?

[Seano]

I don't think Stern could do anything even if he wanted to, as the way I understood it is that's it now moved well-beyond Stern's hands and into the hands of the courts. Stern may be all-powerful within the confines if the league, but he's got no jurisdiction over the US court system.

[KB21]

Stern does have jurisdiction over his league though, and his league has an anti-trust exemption that basically means what he says goes. This is becoming a situation where it is in the best interest of the league that David Stern step in and force the issue. Owning a team is a private business, but to own a team, you still have to be approved by the other owners in the league.

While David Stern may not be able to overturn the court's decision and tell Steve Belkin that he has to sell, he can look at the situation and hand and force both sides of the thing to sell.

[sturt]

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I don't think Stern could do anything even if he wanted to, as the way I understood it is that's it now moved well-beyond Stern's hands and into the hands of the courts. Stern may be all-powerful within the confines if the league, but he's got no jurisdiction over the US court system.

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He has no jurisdiction over the courts, certainly.

But the courts are altogether anxious for things like this to be settled outside of their confines if at all possible.

At the very least, Stern could threaten to take one side or the other, indicate that the NBA will file a friend-of-the-court document to add weight to that side's argument, and thus cause some interest in getting something done now and outside of the courts instead of later within the courts... which, of course, will predictably just drag on to the next level for another indeterminate length of time.

That would seem to be the very least.

At the other end of the spectrum, I would think Stern could call the two parties to the table and broker a deal that gets the franchise out of the muckandmire of this dispute.

Am I wrong?

[AtlantaCham]

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I don't think Stern could do anything even if he wanted to, as the way I understood it is that's it now moved well-beyond Stern's hands and into the hands of the courts. Stern may be all-powerful within the confines if the league, but he's got no jurisdiction over the US court system.

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What Stern can and should do is act as an arbitrator between the two parties. The court system battle could go on forever. Surely there is some pressure Stern could exert to get the parties to agree on a compromise. If they settle "out of court", then there is no need for a ruling (which will be appealed no matter whom it favors).

I like the idea of someone new buying out all parties.

[Seano]

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At the other end of the spectrum, I would think Stern could call the two parties to the table and broker a deal that gets the franchise out of the muckandmire of this dispute.

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I might be completely wrong, but I think it's possible he could make an effort to mediate- again, that would be assuming he wanted to do so. But you have to look at not just us but the overall picture, and the fact is that he's done absolutely nothing to try and find a remedy for the Seattle situation. He's been completely hands-off, and seems content to see it just play out and let the chips fall where they may....which makes me honestly wonder whether he'd do anything more than that for us.

[sturt]

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which makes me honestly wonder whether he'd do anything more than that for us.

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Okay... glass half-full, I come back to the original question--assume for the moment he WOULD do something... (we have NOTHING to lose to think that way for a moment, do we???)...

What can you imagine might be that lever that we as fans could unite and affect that could serve to prompt that "something?"