Just WOW! (Levenson will sell Hawks)

[GameTime]

I'm telling ya.  Gearon NEEDS to be gone ASAP.  Businesses come crashing down due to people like Gearon.  He has his own agenda and wants his GM toys back.  What better way than to wait for Ferry to screw up to get the fire started.  He is a childish weasel that needs his ownership stake striped from him.  All of these problems could have been kept in house and the media would have not given the light of day... Gearon knew exactly what he was doing.  I really hope it ends up costing the ass.

 

 

And yet, for as quickly as Gearon fired off an indignant email to Levenson detailing the Deng comments on the call and demanding Ferry's dismissal, Gearon's immediate reaction to Levenson's 2012 email on race and the Hawks’ attendance problems inspired a far more matter-of-fact tone.

 

In an email obtained by Yahoo Sports and dated Aug. 27, 2012, Gearon replied to Levenson's racially charged correspondence this way: "Was tied up … for 2 hours this morning and then had to run to a meeting. Will call soon."

Gearon's response – which came within an hour of the rambling Levenson email that will ultimately cost him ownership of the franchise – offers evidence that Gearon proceeded without the outrage regarding Levenson that existed in his aggressive pursuit of Ferry's removal. Between that August 2012 day and the investigation that re-discovered the Levenson email recently, there's no apparent evidence that Gearon made issue of his displeasure about the Levenson letter within the Hawks or the league office.

 

There are no heroes here, no winners – not even Michael Gearon, with whom the league office is livid. He had been hellbent on bringing down the power structure in Atlanta, including the GM, and yet perhaps history will remember this as the biggest irony of all: Danny Ferry did it to himself.

 

Gearon is a goner as well. His hostile takeover failed and brought the entire empire down.

[HawkItus]

There are no heroes here, no winners – not even Michael Gearon, with whom the league office is livid. He had been hellbent on bringing down the power structure in Atlanta, including the GM, and yet perhaps history will remember this as the biggest irony of all: Danny Ferry did it to himself.

 

[lethalweapon3]

Hey MG Junior, there's still time to join the sit-in!

 

~lw3

[HawkItus]

So I feel better about my initial suspicions.  This whole thing stinks to high heaven.  Silver should nuke the whole group.  No need to fire Danny now, the new owner/owners will handle that.   Disgusting.  Bunch of rich pricks destroying the team.  

[Guest]

Woj for President ...

 

 

In all the twisted wreckage of these Hawks, make no mistake: Gearon is no whistle-blowing hero for racial justice, just as Ferry is no victim for falling into the trap.

 

Looking back, the timing was perfect for Gearon to bring everything crashing down: closing time on a Friday night in June, an impatient GM with little, if any, use for the participants on a conference call and a recorder waiting for Ferry to step into the biggest mistake of his professional life.

Ferry found himself a pawn in a long-simmering ownership battle in Atlanta, and now he's fighting to hold onto his job. The Hawks believed that they could privately discipline Ferry, push out an apology and let him resume his front-office duties. How Ferry goes forward in this climate and how he rebuilds credibility lost around the NBA have become murkier propositions by the day.

For Hawks CEO Steve Koonin, the issue is no longer whether he still believes Ferry's words never rose to the level of termination. Now, it's this: Can Ferry be an effective and credible leader for the organization within the Atlanta community and throughout the NBA's landscape?

Ferry has an infrastructure of well-placed friends and supporters in the NBA, but the facts that many find him to be aloof and his front-office regime is often needlessly difficult to work with have inspired far less empathy outside of his network of influence.

There are no heroes here, no winners – not even Michael Gearon, with whom the league office is livid. He had been hellbent on bringing down the power structure in Atlanta, including the GM, and yet perhaps history will remember this as the biggest irony of all: Danny Ferry did it to himself.

 

I knew the league wasn't happy with that clown!

 

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

Not sure if this has been shared yet, but it's a 2-page letter from Gearon to Levenson about the Ferry slip up:

 

 

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

The following is the two-page letter written by Hawks’ co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. to majority owner Bruce Levenson in June requesting that GM Danny Ferry be asked to resign or fired for cause for racial slurs made during a conference call:

 

To: Bruce Levenson

From: SSG Group, LLC

Date: June 12, 2014

 

Re: Danny Ferry

 

As you know, last Friday there was a conference call attended by numerous persons including Hawks management and ownership. We believe that you and Ed Peskowitz were on the call, but we are not sure whether you were listening the whole time. During the call, which was recorded so that notes could be made for our partners unable to participate live, our GM Danny Ferry discussed player personnel issues at some length. With respect to one potential free agent, a highly-regarded African-American player and humanitarian, Ferry talked about the player’s good points, and then went on to describe his negatives, stating that “he has a little African in him. Not in a bad way, but he’s like a guy who would have a nice store out front but sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back.” Ferry completed the racial slur by describing the player (and impliedly, all persons of African descent) as a two-faced liar and cheat.

 

We are 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. Our franchise has had a long history of racial diversity and inclusion that reflect the makeup of our great city. Ferry’s comments were so far out of bounds that we are concerned that he has put the entire franchise in jeopardy.

As a minority partner with no effective say in decision-making, we were somewhat at a loss what to do next. So we consulted this week with two attorneys, one a very well-known and highly respected African-American former judge in Atlanta, and the other a highly regarded employment discrimination lawyer. They confirmed our fears and then some. The former judge put it pretty succinctly, saying that any African-American who heard the comments would interpret them as meaning “all blacks are two-faced liars and cheats.” The employment attorney opined that we as a team face significant exposure, possibly in the courts, but certainly in the court of public opinion, and, as we all know, within the league. She described the possible fallout as “devastating.” We agree.

 

Bruce, we are all too familiar with the current environment in the NBA and in the country generally from the fallout of Donald Sterling’s offensive comments. You have been on national television condemning Sterling and preaching zero tolerance of racial prejudice. We believe these comments by Ferry were far worse than Sterling’s because they were not from a private personal conversation – they were in a business environment on a business matter in front of a dozen or more people. If Ferry would make such a slur in a semi-public forum, we can only imagine what he has said in smaller groups or to individuals. We also note that the racial diversity of our management team has changed for the worse since Ferry took over. The media (and any savvy lawyer) would have a field day with that fact.

 

If Ferry’s comments are ever made public, and it’s a safe bet to say they will someday, it could be fatal to the franchise. All of our partners have worked and spent a lot of money not just to make the Hawks winners, but to make our city and region proud of the organization. As lifelong Atlantans with a public track record of diversity and inclusion, we are especially fearful of the unfair consequences when we eventually get thrown under the bus with Ferry.

 

We are calling on you, as majority owner and NBA Governor, to take swift and severe action against Ferry. Our advisors tell us there is no other choice but to ask for Ferry’s resignation, and if he refuses, to terminate him for cause under his employment agreement.

 

J. Michael Gearon, Jr.

[NiqueDaLegend]

At least they know Gearon is a piece of poop with his own agenda. This makes me feel good that we will just get a whole new ownership with nothing ASG related. My only concern is Bud and Koonin really, I know whoever comes in to be new owner will probably terminate Ferry

[NekiEcko]

I dont know what to think right now with this Woj-Cutter.  I think that Silver needs to go NCAA Death Penatly style on ASG (Every one of them).

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

Come on Adam, being the Hawks Silver lining!  Force Gearon out of Atlanta!

[Deeman]

This has been said a million times but they all need to GTFO. I don't know if I want to support this team if Gearon is still apart of it.

[AHF]

This is a great article by Woj.  He nails the key points:

 

• Ferry and Levenson screwed up.
• Gearon was more interested in a power play than anything else.
• The NBA is embarrassed and furious at this and at Gearon for taking it public.

Please let this result in the final housecleaning of the ASG.

 

[Guest]

My understanding is that Adam Silver is in Spain. team USA is playing tomorrow on 9/11.

He will be back after - come on back with a big broom and sweep out the ENTIRE ASG.

[NekiEcko]

This is a great article by Woj.  He nails the key points:

 

• Ferry and Levenson screwed up.
• Gearon was more interested in a power play than anything else.
• The NBA is embarrassed and furious at this and at Gearon for taking it public.

Please let this result in the final housecleaning of the ASG.

 

So that is the reason why Gearon was summoned to New York.

 

This is getting uglier and uglier every day.  Adam Silver, just step in and clear this mess up.

[OldTimeHawk]

I agree - what a pos !

[Guest]

Seems like Gearon cut off his nose to spite his face, then his face blew up.

Please let this be the end of the ASG.

Edited September 10, 2014 by JayBirdHawk

[Guest]

If Gearon remains, fans NEED to boycott every single home game. Somehow I don't think that'll be a problem, most nights we are almost half way there...smh

I'm sorry I mean ummmm...

Late arriving crowd....:-|

[hawkdude55]

My understanding is that Adam Silver is in Spain. team USA is playing tomorrow on 9/11.

He will be back after - come on back with a big broom and sweep out the ENTIRE ASG.

After this, they're all toast except for Koonin. This article honestly disgusts me that Gearon would put the franchise in jeopardy like that. Koonin wasn't a part of ASG and just technically started at the start of this league year. He is Silver's boy...he built NBA on TNT and Inside the NBA, and also managed the Coke/NBA relationship. Silver has had high praise for him and there is no way he can hold him accountable for any of this. I hope Bruce sells, they ban Gearon for life, and have the new owner partner with Koonin to keep building on the franchise plans that Koonin had already started down the path of

[Jody23]

If this is true, then imo it's WAY more disgusting than the mistake Ferry made.

[ViperXX79]

So I'm catching up on the Wojo article.  Do I understand correctly that Ferry was reading from the report but he was also interjecting his own racial comments as well?

[lethalweapon3]

The Clownership has managed to either embarrass or draw the ire of:

 

* Low-to-middle-income black Hawks fans

* Southern white Hawks fans, of any income

* All the other fans, and would-be fans, that somehow managed to get ignored

* The reigning NBA Sportsman of the Year

* The world's second largest continent

* Downtown business leadership

* Civil rights grandstanders

* People who can't stand civil rights grandstanders

* The Media

* People who can't stand The Media

* The staff

* The players

 

Anybody left? I think it's safe to just go on and close the Upper Bowl at this point, and move whoever's left downstairs.

 

~lw3