Just WOW! (Levenson will sell Hawks)

[lerspec]

Y'all pretty much covered the radio calls from Koonin (I wish I turned to V-103 for the calls he got during Ryan Cameron's show, he could barely talk about those.)

 

Koonin is stuck in that situation that happens far too often, the guy who gets brought in late to the game and left to clean up the toxic mess somebody else created, the guy who has to get everything Back to Abnormal. He's the person you trot out there when the Love Canal issues begin bubbling to the surface.

 

He has huge cachet among Atlanta's power players (Emory, the Aquarium, the Metro Chamber, the ASO, Coke, Grady High, Turner) but little rep in Atlanta communities directly aggrieved by what's unfolding. He's out there catching the slings and arrows because the guys with the biggest accounts knows he's among the ones who are held least accountable by Atlanta-area citizens.

 

Lauded as being among "The Smartest People in Television," Koonin's appeal comes from taking staid, tone-deaf media outlets and giving consumers a reason to watch, in turn allowing commercial sponsors to better justify their investments. The job of drawing the eyeballs of people with spending cash became arguably even more arduous when he joined the Atlanta Hawks. Now the newest equity partner gets to serve as his fellow owners' shield while he's tasked with rectifying the problem.

 

What's odd (as if there's just one thing) for me is that Koonin keeps insisting he just got here, that he was brought into this situation only after the internal freakout started and the investigation was well underway. He was brought here in April, not June or July. If he indeed was left out of the loop, why?

 

Citizens and fans are left to trust a person who somehow was left out of the loop to now judge, with literal independence, whether the investigative lawyers' recommended punishment for Ferry was too light, to act on the findings of an investigation he didn't enact. As difficult as this would be for Nique, I'd take his word more sincerely than I would Koonin's.

 

I'd be asking Koonin, how did we go from (paraphrasing) "Ferry will be punished privately" to "Ferry has been punished enough, take my word for it" in the space of two days? And we're expected to take you at your word, why?

 

~lw3

 

LW3,

 

Did you hear the comments from Tyler Perry? They were incredibly supportive of Steve and shared a bit of their past history together.

 

Is Perry not part of the Atlanta community that's being directly affected by this?

 

Koonin has a tough tough job ahead.

 

PS. He was announced in April but didn't start officially until the summer. That could explain some of this?

[Randy]

Koonin may be an innocent bystander, but I recall reading he was going to be the "new Face of the Hawks."  He knew the job was dangerous when he took it.

 

I hope Silver tells Gearon he and the rest of the crew are a big part of the problem and they all need to go along with Ferry.  The NBA should be tired of this kind of nonsense coming every few years from this franchise.  If these fools think about it even for a few minutes, this is probably a very good time to sell.  Who's to say how long it will be before another economic meltdown happens?  When it does, NBA frachises will be hard to move.

 

Finally, I want to see the investirgators report. You don't read 20,000 documents and do 19 interviews without writing a report. 

[MaceCase]

Oh boy, the body in the grave isn't even cold yet but I'm sure he's going to accept his governors crown so that he can fly back and have the other owners kiss his ring.

[Guest]

Oh boy, the body in the grave isn't even cold yet but I'm sure he's going to accept his governors crown so that he can fly back and have the other owners kiss his ring.

[MrMeltdown]

Franchise is a joke. Ferry should not be GM as of now simply because his judgement has been proven to be extremely poor.

[lethalweapon3]

LW3,

 

Did you hear the comments from Tyler Perry? They were incredibly supportive of Steve and shared a bit of their past history together.

 

Is Perry not part of the Atlanta community that's being directly affected by this?

 

Koonin has a tough tough job ahead.

 

PS. He was announced in April but didn't start officially until the summer. That could explain some of this?

 

 

I sure have, and Black America Web was right on time with their interview. His new show on OWN could double as a the way Hawks fans everywhere are feeling: If Loving You Is Wrong.

 

“He’ll get it straight. He’s a good guy and he’s on our side, so y’all go head on to the Hawks games. I might want a part of that,” Perry says. “Just a small part -y’all give me one or two of the cheerleaders and I’m good.”

 

 

Tyler has invested a lot of time and energy into providing entertainment beneficial to the Atlanta community over the decades, at times nearly to his own financial peril. He has the local history and rooted connections through community groups and small businesses such that, if and when HE screws up, or one of his own enterprises screws up, he can personally work at the local consumer level to make things right. Tyler has the trust built up among his consumers that he'll earn the benefit of the doubt to fix things.

 

Unfortunately for Koonin, who has accomplished a LOT in this town, too, at executive levels, he is not Tyler Perry. And unless I'm woefully mistaken, Perry has not been a major investor in Hawks stuff unless it was to promote his own productions, via guys like Koonin when he was over at Turner (I've still got his Meet the Browns playoff tee from years ago laying around somewhere). Perry will be useful to Koonin if and when he's needed, and glad to help him personally. But Koonin is smart enough to know that hiding behind Madea's skirt would only get him so far with consumers in the skeptical Atlanta market.

 

Everyone knows Perry is supportive of Koonin, but only supportive of the Hawks and the rest of their brass if it's quid pro quo. "I might want a part of that," Perry added during the interview, perhaps in an attempt to keep Perry fans, if not most Hawks fans, trusting of whatever Koonin does. If things get much more toxic around Koonin and the Hawks, though, Perry can easily declare, I Can Do Bad All By Myself and stay clear of him.

 

I agree that Koonin's job is tough here, and it's sad that it's almost by his colleague's design to be tough. I was under the understanding that the Pac-Man II logo rollout was his doing back in April/May. That may have been the type of benign busywork the other partners put him to, while they dealt with less attractive company issues behind his back.

 

~lw3

[Guest]

Anyone a little nervous that Gearon getting called to meet with Silver is for him to be reprimanded for releasing the letter he wrote thereby furthering the ownership strife?  I'm just trying to think of why he has to go up there.  Any thoughts?

 

ETA: Also, I have decided that from now on I will refer to them as our clownership group.

Edited September 9, 2014 by kg01

[Wretch]

Forgive me if I'm a little slow on this. lol  I got two hours of sleep Sunday night and there is all sorts of things going on in my world right now to include this Ferry saga.  But something just dawned upon me after reading Gearon's letter...  Danny Ferry is lying.

 

I believe those are his comments or if there was a "scouting report" he felt the comments were justified/accurate and worth repeating.

 

"Ferry completed the racial slur by describing the player as a two-faced liar and a cheat.  We were appalled that anyone would make such a racist slur under any circumstance, much less the GM of an NBA franchise on a major conference call.  One of us can be heard on the tape reacting with astonishment."

http://ftpcontent3.worldnow.com/waga/documents/Gearon%20Letter.pdf

 

 

They thought he MADE the comment.  He's saying he read it off of the scouting report to cover his ass because nobody can prove otherwise.  It was a conference call.  Why would he make such a comment?  

 

Because there is obviously a comfortable dialogue going back and forth with these guys - a pretty safe assumption which no Ferry apologist wants to chime in on.  

 

Whether or not you think he made the comments, there is no valid reason for Bruce to disclose so many racially charged thoughts to his GM.  None whatsoever except that Bruce felt comfortable having the discussion with Ferry.  Given that other owners were CC'd on this Email, you can extend that same conclusion to them as well.  They're all having this conversation and Ferry felt safe with his comments.  The facts just don't line up any other way.  Don't tell me this dude read that comment and didn't think about it.  It's like the lie your kid or your girlfriend tells you that just doesn't add up.  Something doesn't add up and it doesn't make sense. 

 

If I print an Email with a racist joke about someone and report it to my boss, that's one thing.  But if I am expected to report on a coworker's productivity, and I print an Email with a racist joke about him, and I read it to my boss...dude that's the same as repeating a racist joke you heard.

 

Ferry isn't an idiot.  Don't even try to sell me that.  He didn't know who all was on the call that's why he said it!  If it was a report, then he read it beforehand and CHOSE to repeat what was written.  He chose that information to deliver to his bosses.  The best case scenario for you apologists out there is that he chose to repeat the wording because he felt they aptly described Deng's character.

 

Regardless, the general public doesn't know whether or not Ferry read a report, wrote a report, or was just running his mouth. Some NBA players I'm sure are attributing the words to Ferry - count on that.  If Ferry goes to court these guys, either a) they're not going to want to be involved with the racist stigma we have or b) they will believe that Ferry is a racist and turn us down.

 

He has to go and that's why Gearon is on his way to NY.

[lethalweapon3]

FWIW,

 

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Maybe Silver will Skype or something.

 

~lw3

[Vol4ever]

Gearon Jr is trying to take over.  

[MaceCase]

Anyone a little nervous that Gearon getting called to meet with Silver is for him to be reprimanded for releasing the letter he wrote thereby furthering the ownership strife? I'm just trying to think of why he has to go up there. Any thoughts?

ETA: Also, I have decided that from now on I will refer to them as our clownership group.

He could yell at him but Gearon will fold his arms and recline in his leather seat and say "yea, but what you gonna do about it? In fact, I hear there's a new opening for an Atlanta representative on the board of governors hehehe".

[lethalweapon3]

One more pile-on I've got with Ferry's Folly.

 

Ferry does have a player personnel and scouting staff at his disposal, right? Whose responsibility was it to skim through all this so-called "intel" (that nobody paid for) to create profiles about prospective Hawks players that would be presentable at an executive business meeting?

 

In this specific case of Luol Deng, was Ferry leaning on his underlings to cobble the varied commentary together, or was it Ferry himself, alone? Who knew this "Secret Scout" guy was a go-to-person for personal advice about a player? Who had their fingers on the CTRL+C, CTRL+V, and CTRL+P buttons?

 

I'm asking not to pass the buck but to make sure the other staff members involved (if any) share the proportionate burden of punitive action. To this point, all we've been told is this was A Danny Ferry Joint to the exclusion of everyone else there who gets a paycheck. An assertion which, by itself, seems terribly curious.

 

~lw3

[Afro]

Lw3. Thats my question as well.

Either it's an outside scout, who they could name and end this.

Or an inside scout, who shouldn't be protected if he's making these comments.

Or its Ferry and he made up the "outside source" to cover his ass.

Keeping it some secret is crap.

[nathan2331]

Does anybody know what Ferry was trying to call Deng? Was accusing him of being a cheater or what because I didn't understand the point that was being made.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk

[Wretch]

Does anybody know what Ferry was trying to call Deng? Was accusing him of being a cheater or what because I didn't understand the point that was being made.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk

 

I took it that he was drawing a correlation between third world merchants and dishonesty and it's a very bad slur.  He's making a racial/national generalization by implying that ALL Africans, and thus all African Americans, and all third world merchants, are inclined to dishonesty and this is what a potential suitor gets with Deng's services.  

 

As in, he's quiet and appears to work hard on the surface (the nice third world shop you walk into), but once you really get to know him - you'll see a lack of effort or other relevant character flaw to sports (as in, you'll not get the nice piece of jewelry like what you saw in the display case).

 

On a related note, and to illustrate...

This happened to me while I was in Egypt doing temporary duty - I bought a necklace for my wife from a jewelry shop.  They had some really unique stuff on display.  It picked out an 18k cartouche with a nice stone in it, what I was delivered a week later was a cheap metal necklace with plastic backing.

[NekiEcko]

I had a chance to gather my thoughts about this situation and I want make sure that when I speak my thoughts about this, I want to be clear and concise about it.

 

For the ASG, it been high time for them to clear out and bring in a good owner that is willing to bring a product that the fans and city can be proud of.  In our little corner of the world, we got a lot of things that keeps us busy from College Football to Baseball and soon Soccer.  Right now, the Hawks is down of the totem and it could be higher.  I blame the ownership worrying about bottom line not trying to bring a championship here.  Even other teams that is lottery bound does not worry about how much they spend or receive from the NBA because they want a product that their fans can be proud of (one of the biggest reasons why Kings or Bucks is not the Sonics right now).  Atlanta has the potential has well but you can see that they did not even care about that one bit.  This team needs an Arthur Blank or Peter Holt that cares about winning and also to reconnect with the fans that spend massive amounts of money each year on them.  Right now, Hawks does not need to leave but they need a true leader that will guide them into the future.

 

For Danny Ferry, I am kinda of torn about if he should even be the GM for this team.  There are a lot of good arguments on both sides of the house and he is widely respected people in the NBA.  As people, we always say the wrong thing about different people of race, sex, or nationality in one way or another.  I am guilty as charge on that one.  I believe that as long we know that it is wrong and we are sorry for action than it does not cause a problem.  But for Danny situation it is a lot different.  He is like a salesman that is trying to sell the team about playing there for other players that is curious about it.  He is the spokesperson and the front man of the team.  Players and Agents are going to remember everything that he does, where he came from and other information.  When you have comments like that coming from him, then most agents will do double take and be wondering if he just smiling in their faces while talking trash behind your back.  That goes double for those who are on the team now, they will be second guessing about him as well. 

 

Like how Mark Cuban, it is “slippery slope”, this situation is one of them and frankly I want him to stay and make this team better but people will forgive but not forget, one bit.  It is kinda of funny that none of the players yet vouched for Mr. Ferry now (that might change) to stay unless they are under a Gag order.  At the end of day, I believe that Danny Ferry will be gone as Hawks GM, because as long he is going to be there, all of the players and agents will remember this incident and it is going to make it hard to attract and keep talent here in Atlanta.  I respect him for coming out and feeling bad about this but this should never happen in the first place.

[Wretch]

One more pile-on I've got with Ferry's Folly.

 

Ferry does have a player personnel and scouting staff at his disposal, right? Whose responsibility was it to skim through all this so-called "intel" (that nobody paid for) to create profiles about prospective Hawks players that would be presentable at an executive business meeting?

 

In this specific case of Luol Deng, was Ferry leaning on his underlings to cobble the varied commentary together, or was it Ferry himself, alone? Who knew this "Secret Scout" guy was a go-to-person for personal advice about a player? Who had their fingers on the CTRL+C, CTRL+V, and CTRL+P buttons?

 

I'm asking not to pass the buck but to make sure the other staff members involved (if any) share the proportionate burden of punitive action. To this point, all we've been told is this was A Danny Ferry Joint to the exclusion of everyone else there who gets a paycheck. An assertion which, by itself, seems terribly curious.

 

~lw3

 

See...the more we try to come up with the "why" other than Ferry made the comment or Ferry specifically chose to read the comment...the more complicated and confusing it gets.  It doesn't add up because it's not the a realistic explanation.

 

If he compiled the report from what other scouts said, why did he pick that particular wording?  If he didn't compile the report, why hasn't anyone else been implicated here?  All good questions...but only because Ferry is denying any wrongdoing.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

The fact that this arrogant buffoon won't resign let's me know he thinks he's fooled us all.

He fooled SOME of you.

Not me. I never trusted the dude from day 1. He's always came across as a Jay Bills-like.. "I'm the smartest person in the room" type personna.

[Guest]

See...the more we try to come up with the "why" other than Ferry made the comment or Ferry specifically chose to read the comment...the more complicated and confusing it gets.  It doesn't add up because it's not the a realistic explanation.

 

If he compiled the report from what other scouts said, why did he pick that particular wording?  If he didn't compile the report, why hasn't anyone else been implicated here?  All good questions...but only because Ferry is denying any wrongdoing.

 

As always, the cover-up is worse than the crime.  Had he just come out and explained himself it's possible folks could just move on from it.  

 

What if he just meant that Deng appears healthy but will end up having a nagging injury he won't tell you about?  What if he meant you'll ask for something from his game (defense, rebounding) but he gives you something else or more than you expected (scoring and leadership)?  It's possible there are decent explanations.

 

Hiding in the ivory tower just feeds the flames.  If it was something positive there'd be no issue with coming forward and speaking.

 

If this was some scout or other third-party, it's time for them to absorb the brunt of this, no?  Why wouldn't they want to get in front of this and explain themselves ... assuming they exist?

 

And agree, @TheNorthCydeRises, he never fooled me either.

[AHF]

Does it matter if there is an underlying scouting report? Ferry adopted it when he read it out loud and didn't qualify it or distance himself. There is no get out of jail card here if a third party's report is produced.

I am in a similar position to NekiEcho on Ferry. This shouldn't destroy his career but probably destroys his ability to be the face of the franchise because it is so high profile.

There are a lot of people who have domestic violence in their background but Ray Rice is in a different category because it is so high profile. This situation feels like it is heading that way.