Well There's a Personnel Move I Didn't See Coming

[lethalweapon3]

No more @hawksprguy ?

Shocked to hear the Hawks let longtime PR man Arthur Triche go. One of the most knowledgable, helpful NBA PR guys out there.

No idea what the deal is on management's plans for PR, but Triche was a pretty good guy. (Saints fan, but besides that). He'll have no problem landing on his feet and excelling elsewhere. ~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

https://twitter.com/HawksPRGuy

LOL @ the final change to his Twitter title.

Check me out at @ATWhoDat. Keeping it real over there now.

#Hawks GM Danny Ferry says long-time PR man Arthur Triche has been let go. Now begins search for replacement.

~lw3 Edited August 8, 2012 by lethalweapon3

[lethalweapon3]

Danny Ferry has made a lot of great decisions since becoming #Hawks GM. Firing Arthur Triche is first really bad one.@HawksPRGuy@ATWhoDat

~lw3

[NineOhTheRino]

play better during the playoffs and they will not need a PR guy.Ferry probably looking to hire one of his buddies from Duke or SA

Edited August 8, 2012 by NineOhTheRino

[lethalweapon3]

http://www.peachtree...u-arthur-triche

That was fast! Well done, Jay Walker.

Triche has been the model of professionalism towards myself and Kris, knows the game and other sports like nobody else and treats us all to that knowledge regularly.

I am thankful for his graciousness, his candor and his professional friendship. I wouldn't have been able to do and accomplish the things I have if not for AT. I am irrevocably in his debt.

That why it was such a shock to see the tweets today that informed those of us who had the honor and pleasure of being treated like first class media citizens by AT that he would no longer be in that position with the Hawks.

I don't pretend to understand those parts of the business that relates to the origins of such decisions as this one, but I don't think I am understating things when I say that it's a shame and that there is more than just this insignificant writer that will miss all the things that Arthur provided for us and that things won't be the same without him.

So, in his departure, I wish to say, on behalf of Peachtree Hoops and, on another level, myself, thank you Arthur.

Thank you for letting me in when you had no obligation to do so. Thank you for being a leader in your field and for always having time for our requests.

You will be missed. Thank you, thank you, thank you -- and the best wishes for what comes next.

~lw3 Edited August 8, 2012 by lethalweapon3

[niremetal]

~lw3

Does Danny Ferry control that part of the Hawks? Some GMs don't really have much voice in non-basketball personnel decisions.

[Diesel]

I can't say that I'm surprised. I think when you're trying to develop a new culture, part of it is changing how the team is marketed. I suspect that Ferry had a chance to see what has been done with the moves made so far and being that he was in Cleveland with Lebron and in SA with them.. that he knows that there are better ways of marketing that will have a bigger pay off with free agents.the other thing is that it could be the revenge of Josh Smith who felt like he wasn't given a great push from the Powers that be for allstar last year??

Edited August 8, 2012 by Diesel

[lethalweapon3]

Does Danny Ferry control that part of the Hawks? Some GMs don't really have much voice in non-basketball personnel decisions.

I don't believe Rick Sund necessarily did. But in the effort to make the A$G's major partners look as invisible as possible (see Hawks' release on Dan Roundfield's rememberance -- where's Junior? His dad was GM when they acquired him...), some restructuring of responsibility lines in deference to Ferry wouldn't be surprising. ~lw3 Edited August 8, 2012 by lethalweapon3

[lethalweapon3]

Just speculating for speculating's sake, but if you're prepping to sell your franchise to... say... a certain local NFL owner, does it make a deal materially more difficult to achieve when your PR director is a proud, vocal Saints fan?~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Does Danny Ferry control that part of the Hawks? Some GMs don't really have much voice in non-basketball personnel decisions.

Also I'm forgetting than Ferry is President of Basketball Ops, so this personnel action is coming from the PBO side, not the GM side.

(EDIT: Wrong again, as the GM might be serving dually as the Executive VP, as was the case w/ Sund. PR probably answers to one of the three Senior VPs that answer in turn to the Executive VP).

~lw3

Edited August 8, 2012 by lethalweapon3

[macdaddy]

We know for a fact that Gearon didn't like the way the local press treated the Hawks so looks like AT is taking the fall for that. What's Gearon going to do fire himself? Dreeeeeaam, dream, dream, dream, dream, dreeeeeammm.

[Sothron]

This was a bad decision. I've met Triche several times and I can safely say at this point he's one of the people (thanks to Jason Walker) that I met at Hawks games in person that I cultivated a relationship with that led to me getting some rather juicy at times insider information. I would never reveal AT as one of those people while he was a Hawk employee but sadly he is one no longer.As Jason said in his article Triche is a truly nice guy and is one of the most approachable Hawks guys you can find to talk with. I hope he quickly finds work again in the NBA. I don't know what problem Ferry had with him but from my point of view Triche was one of the few great assets in the Hawks organization (Wally Blase being one of the others).

[hazer]

Just speculating for speculating's sake, but if you're prepping to sell your franchise to... say... a certain local NFL owner, does it make a deal materially more difficult to achieve when your PR director is a proud, vocal Saints fan? ~lw3

I see what you did there. And I LIKE it!

[HawksBalla]

So much for the "Highlight Factory" moniker?

[bird_dirt]

I can't say that I'm surprised. I think when you're trying to develop a new culture, part of it is changing how the team is marketed. I suspect that Ferry had a chance to see what has been done with the moves made so far and being that he was in Cleveland with Lebron and in SA with them.. that he knows that there are better ways of marketing that will have a bigger pay off with free agents. the other thing is that it could be the revenge of Josh Smith who felt like he wasn't given a great push from the Powers that be for allstar last year??

i think diesel is probably pretty dead on. my wife does pr work and the average life span of that job with an organization is about 5 years. most of the time when a new director is hired to breathe new life into an organization, the pr department is let go so a new voice and vision can be employed. it's a fairly standard business practice. though i wouldn't expect it would have a direct link to josh himself, i do think that the team not doing anything to promote him for the all star team (particularly when it seemed so logical to anyone nation wide who paid enough attention to josh) would be a prime example of the AT or his pr team not doing their job well enough. that could've been something ferry noticed himself.

This was a bad decision. I've met Triche several times and I can safely say at this point he's one of the people (thanks to Jason Walker) that I met at Hawks games in person that I cultivated a relationship with that led to me getting some rather juicy at times insider information. I would never reveal AT as one of those people while he was a Hawk employee but sadly he is one no longer. As Jason said in his article Triche is a truly nice guy and is one of the most approachable Hawks guys you can find to talk with. I hope he quickly finds work again in the NBA. I don't know what problem Ferry had with him but from my point of view Triche was one of the few great assets in the Hawks organization (Wally Blase being one of the others).

i wouldn't doubt that he may be one of the nicest people working in the nba, but even nice guys gotta go when a new direction is in order. everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. his strength seemed to be developing relationships with press contacts, but their pr dept obviously had its weaknesses too. it was discussed in another thread (changing our culture thread i believe) how the hawks have promoted other teams stars and haven't done enough to promote their own players. ...and who knows, given what you just said about him passing along insider info to you, then it could also be possible that he did that just a little too much and got caught. purely speculating of course, but depending on information that gets leaked, it could be a cause for termination. never do anything on company phones or computers you aren't ok with them seeing!

[Dakin]

So much for the "Highlight Factory" moniker?

Judging from some comments, some people maybe don't know the difference between PR and marketing.

[Swatguy]

A.T. is top shelf. Often he is the smartest cat in that FULL room. And smart enough to not let everybody know. No doubt Ferry has a crony lined up for the position. Arthur got skills and know how, he is in good shape. I imagine ASG had a non-compete in his contract and AT gets a huge check to walk with.

[lethalweapon3]

Judging from some comments, some people maybe don't know the difference between PR and marketing.

LOL I know I get it mixed up at times too, but yes, these are separate stovepipes in the Hawks org. And on that note, while Triche likely did not have a direct hand in the marketing outreach of Smoove's All-Star bid, he probably was at the helm for community-outreach decisions that led to Smoove finishing second in the NBA for the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award this year. ~lw3

[HawkItus]

I liked AT, but whose to say the new guy won't be just as good or better. That is the problem with Hawks we've always stated. We have been satisfied with good and never taking the challenge to be great. AT seems to have an A+ rep, but the team PR wise does not have one. Maybe a new voice can fix that. Change is good.

[DrReality]

JWalker wrote a nice piece on him at P'tree hoopsp