Just WOW! (Levenson will sell Hawks)

[bird_dirt]

Now how bad do I look for having been a Belkin sympathizer?

You're right. A shit sandwich is so much better than a douche bag.

[AHF]

Belkin was a part of the problem trying a hostile takeover and suing the team. That original ASG group deserves each other.

[Vol4ever]

All rich white guys look alike.

I can say it because I am white.

I disagree with this statement^^^^^^^

[macdaddy]

Man this has been the suckiest suck suck douche bag of a year for me as an Atlanta sports fan.   First the Braves pull their shenanigans and make a decision that can't be undone and now the Hawks are sinking in the quick sand when they only had their nose out to begin with.   I think I'm about done with sports

[NineOhTheRino]

This team is a real life Tyler Perry movie.  Now all we need is a pretty light skin dude to save us.

[Vol4ever]

I agree 100% with Kareem. This is not racist it's business. As a 32 year old affluent African American IT proffesional, I want to tell you these types of conversations go on in every well run business. I've even been on panels at my fortune 500 company about how to better penetrate certain demographics.

Most companies develop persona names for the different demographics. For instance you may call the demo he's desiring "Disposable Income Dan" and the group he has "Budget Conscious Brandon". These persona names would have a full descriptions that outline each demo's ethnic split(if relevant for product), budgetary ranges, and desires.

Any discussion about marketing to these demographics would use the persona names instead of over simplified words like black and white. Everyone in the company would have a shared understanding of what the Disposable Income Dan demo looks like, and no-one gets butt hurt.

The irony is I'm African American and fit in his desired demographic. Which is why you don't split your demo lines on race. It is however smart to understand the ethnic mix in each demo in case it's a marketing differentiator.

The more and more I live the more the world is becoming like the book "1984". The thought police are everywhere and the government and the media are telling me everything I should think and be offended by. Scary time ladies and gentleman, scary times.

Gearon Jr finally got his revenge; I hope he's happy, for he may end up destroying one of the things he loves most.

Go Hawks!

Great post!

[Afro]

Has Ferry produced this "scouting report"?

Edited September 9, 2014 by Afro

[Vol4ever]

I would think Ferry is done as a GM anywhere.

[DatWerkk]

I would think Ferry is done as a GM anywhere.

 

I'm sure Boston wouldn't mind him as an assistant or something. ;)

[Afro]

Remember when I said players may not want to come here because Ferry is an asshole? And people chastised me haha.

That may be becoming more true by the minute

[Bonkers]

I'm sure Boston wouldn't mind him as an assistant or something.

LMAOOO Great post 

[Vol4ever]

I think Diesel is one that talked about the arrogance of Ferry too along with Afro and others........

Edited September 9, 2014 by Vol4ever

[HawkItus]

Everybody bringing up Bud...remember he has his own demons.  Whatever happened with that case?  Anyway point being, we could have dropped him after that arrest.  I'm sure he feels a little indebted to Ferry in particular.  

[Guest]

Everybody bringing up Bud...remember he has his own demons.  Whatever happened with that case?  Anyway point being, we could have dropped him after that arrest.  I'm sure he feels a little indebted to Ferry in particular.  

 

For me, he's the one thing out of this whole mess that I hope stays.  I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on the DUI as long as it wasn't a repeat offense and as long as it's not repeated.  Take the punishment and move forward.

 

I kinda hope he sees this as his chance to assume a greater role in personnel decisions (once Ferry's gone I mean).

[macdaddy]

Just re-read the whole Gearon letter and actually I have to say i agree with him.   I don't like the guy but he was right.   I was suspicious that he had ulterior motives but now i'm not sure.   I think he was appalled and scared of the consequences of such poor judgement.  There is a recording of the call.  They should release that.  

Edited September 9, 2014 by macdaddy

[Afro]

For me, he's the one thing out of this whole mess that I hope stays. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on the DUI as long as it wasn't a repeat offense and as long as it's not repeated. Take the punishment and move forward.

I kinda hope he sees this as his chance to assume a greater role in personnel decisions (once Ferry's gone I mean).

Making bud our GM might be the only option we have lol. Im not sure anyone is going to want to touch this franchise for a few years

[lethalweapon3]

Where Kareem trips up is he leaves the word JUST out of his heading. It's not JUST racist, it's business.

 

Racism can, and does, permeate virtually every milieu, from public policy to academia to business to sports. It gets so entrenched that our senses become numb to it until someone else brings it into stark relief. Part of last month's media-driven brouhaha came because people in a small town in middle America decided "It's not racist, it's law enforcement!" was no longer a tolerable explanation for the bullet-riddled body laying in the middle of their street: "It's not JUST racist, it's our law enforcement." Deal With It, Because That's Just the Way It Is has a shelf-life.

 

Thankfully, nobody's life is at stake over on Marietta Street. Yet the direction, profitability, and long-lasting perception of one of the NBA's longest-lasting franchises is up for grabs, once again. This time, it's because "It's not racist, it's scouting!" and "It's not racist, it's business!" are no longer tolerable.

 

Discussions of whether Bruce Levenson, or Danny Ferry, is or isn't a card-carrying racist miss the point. Thanks to the permeation of racism in all matters of life, people that are not racist at heart can have cheeky discussions about Those People Over There and not even smell themselves, sometimes in casual settings like bars, sometimes in formal settings like board rooms.

 

In business, and in pro sports, you can either recognize the climate in which you function and adjust accordingly, or you can leave yourself exposed for failure as the climate changes and leaves your set-shot mindset in the dustbin. Could the Dodgers continue much longer as the Dodgers with Al Campanis making moves? Could the Reds still function in today's climate with Marge Schott roaming the diamond? "Look at That Little Monkey Run!" might have become a T-shirt worthy catchphrase in the 1960s, but by the 1980s it was the death-knell for a broadcasting legend. All of those individuals established themselves as respectable members of society, but they failed to adapt, and left themselves exposed when they started risking whatever revenues were flowing in their enterprises' way.

 

MG Junior may indeed have ulterior motives for expressing how appalled he was by Ferry's Folly. If so, Levenson and Ferry would be foolish not to have recognized MG's motives well in advance of 2014, Levenson especially. Yet here Levenson is, choosing to engage Ferry, The New Guy, in conversations of black-and-white, when white-collar-and-blue-collar would have sufficed for business operations. He left himself exposed for MG Junior and anybody else in town needing a reason to engage in a hatchet job for their own self-promotion.

 

Levenson poisoned the well with crass generalizations of supposedly "Southern," supposedly suburban white ticket buyers, as if none of them have to work hard for their money, and hard-spending black ticket buyers who can tell when they're being labeled as late-arriving welfare queens. Levenson set about setting these particular groups against each other (paraphase: "they think you guys are scary and broke... I think you other guys a bunch of bigots but I really need your money"), nevermind the persons from other races that could, and do, make great customers. Post-Sterling, "2014 Levenson" will take his quarter-billion profit, scream "my bad!" and gallop off into the sunset, leaving the Citizens Too Busy To Hate to wrestle over his accusations. But before "2014 Levenson" poisoned the shallow revenue well, "2012 Levenson" poisoned his general manager: It's not racist, it's how we do business! Somehow, what is now "inflammatory nonsense" in 2014 was "just business" in 2012.

 

Danny Ferry is the son of a man who came of age when basketball, sports, and society was still segregated, yet joined the NBA and played right alongside Si Green and the championship-contending St. Louis Hawks. In a town with its own shifting demographic calculus less than a decade after the Civil Right Act, Danny's dad Bob would go on to become a respected 18-year executive for the Washington Bullets during the NBA's rise to prominence as Black stars, and stars from other continents, expanded their contributions, earning Bob one NBA title and the Executive of the Year award twice.

 

Benefiting from such exposure, learning from great minds of people from multiple races and backgrounds, Danny himself would grow to become a collegiate hoops star... and an NBA punchline. He knows all too well the unfair racial connotations attached to Duke players and their supporters during its school's sudden rise to prominence. He knows the racial connotations attached to NBA players who seemed to maintain prominent roles on middling teams despite bringing precious little to the table in terms of pro-level skillset. He knows the racial connotations behind the critiques that came when he, unlike many others, was allowed to build on his bloodline to parlay an underwhelming playing career into a front-office position. He knows the racial insinuations behind critiques that arrived when he was unable to satisfy the greatest player of our current generation in order to keep him in said player's home metropolis.

 

In sum, Danny Ferry knows better. He knows enough, has seen enough, has learned enough, and gets paid enough, to know when something doesn't smell right. He knows how to consult his corporate ethics guidelines when someone above him does or says something ethically questionable. He knows enough to know who to seek out for advice, how to take what other people say that he values and put it in his voice. He failed, at least twice, to act upon what he knows, perhaps because he thought that what was being said was the nature of "scouting," the nature of "business." Hey, it's worked so well over the past 50 years for our Atlanta Hawks, right?

 

Now, while it remains to be seen, all this flexibility he built, the cornerstone of his existence and reputation as a Hawks executive, seems to be laid to waste. Fans are feeling p*ssed on and are expected to blame one another, while players are being told not to sideeye as the Hawks bargain with them. Ferry is standing there with a pot of annual salary cap space, and Levenson with rows of tickets, asking aloud, "Who Will Buy?"

 

It's Not Racism, It's Just Our Business? No. It's Not Just Racism, It's Your Business. And until that changes, you'll be out of touch and your revenue base will be out of patience.

 

~lw3

Edited September 9, 2014 by lethalweapon3

[High5]

Yes because another first round exit bought us a ton of respect.  Just look at all the free agents that were knocking down our doors to be apart of Ferry's great plan.  

 

We can't get any worse.  Maybe we'll get someone that can sign an actual good talent.  Or maybe we can find someone that is capable of drafting and not wasting 1st rounders.  Ferry sure has built a heck of a legacy in Atlanta.  Maybe we can just get of the ten years treadmill and start a proper rebuild.  So many potential silver linings to another disastrous go at GM for Mr. Ferry.  CAP FLEXIBILITY FOREVER, right?

 

Maybe we get a GM to actually lay some grass down so we can at least see what it looks like...

 

Ferry frees us from terrible contracts with universally praised trades, signs an All Star to a great deal, and hires the most promising new coach in the league, but then fails to get the team to the 2nd round with his best player injured. Clearly he is worthless as a GM. Two years, with or without Horford, was more than enough time to get the Hawks to the Promised Land. If only he drafted Dieng or Plumlee! Maybe even Hardaway Jr. would have gotten us over the hump. Yeeeeeeeeah. 

 

I don't know why I still bother attempting rational discussion about Ferry, especially in a thread where he may have actually REALLY messed up. 

 

[Guest]

Per Koonin - Ferry remains as GM. After the investigation by the Law firm (after the Gearon letter) they recommended punishment. Koonin didn't say what the recommended punishment was only that he exceeded the recommended punishment.

[Guest]

Per Koonin - Ferry remains as GM. After the investigation by the Law firm (after the Gearon letter) they recommended punishment. Koonin didn't say what the recommended punishment was only that he exceeded the recommended punishment.

 

I suppose they fined him?  Not sure in what manner a GM can be punished that wouldn't negatively impact the franchise more.  If they can't see that keeping him would be worse than Sterling staying I'm not sure what to think.

 

@High5 I'm glad you waived the white towel, btw.