Just WOW! (Levenson will sell Hawks)

[Bahamut]

"While you all wait, would you like to look through our season ticket packages?"

~lw3

Reminds me of when they sent Harry the Hawk down to the Thrashers fan rally (really a tailgate, which was pointless and damn near invisible in the Gulch, instead of Centennial Olympic Park, but noooo...) when we found out the team was moving.

"Sorry we're selling your hockey team, but, chin up, you can still waste your money on middle-of-the-pack bball."

[Bahamut]

Heard last night that a prospective buyer was in town to "buy the Hawks." Didn't say which resto he was at when he said this.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Bahamut

[Guest]

Heard last night that a prospective buyer was in town to "buy the Hawks." Didn't say which resto he was at when he said this.

Varsity burger? Living in Cali, I've always wanted a varsity burger...how are they? They look hella bomb. I wanna crush like 5 of them lol..like Harold n Kumar with White Castle lol

[curtmcgirt]

The Varsity is rental food. You don't own it for long.

[Guest]

The Varsity is rental food. You don't own it for long.

I guess our equivalent in west coast is in n out

[Guest]

The Varsity is rental food. You don't own it for long.

This. @Spud2Nique, you don't crush 5-6 Varsity burgers, 5-6 Varsity burgers crush you. Your insides specifically.

[Randy]

its funny, one the rare occasion when Mrs. Randy and my daughters all go to a game, they always want to stop at the Varsity afterwards.  I usually don't get anything.

[Guest]

its funny, one the rare occasion when Mrs. Randy and my daughters all go to a game, they always want to stop at the Varsity afterwards. I usually don't get anything.

Dang that takes discipline not to get anything. Wow.

[Randy]

Not really if you ate too much before or during the game. LOL

Edited September 21, 2014 by Randy

[LamarHampton]

Dang that takes discipline not to get anything. Wow.

Sort of but not exactly. It's Pavlovian. You get painful squirts or a hardcore grease hangover from a place enough times, you consider the lesson learned. The rest of his family must still be learning. I lived in the Olympic Dorms/GSU dorms/now GT dorms and ate there enough to learn that it's just not worth it. Getting sick just thinking about it. Gotta run...

[curtmcgirt]

That lemon custard ice cream tho....

[Bahamut]

Varsity burger? Living in Cali, I've always wanted a varsity burger...how are they? They look hella bomb. I wanna crush like 5 of them lol..like Harold n Kumar with White Castle lol

 

They taste absolutely terrible.  Stick with In & Out.

[WakaFlocka]

They taste absolutely terrible.  Stick with In & Out.

 

In N Out has to be the most overrated fast food in the world.

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

 

Mike Budenholzer recently talked about his new responsibilities within the front office of the Atlanta Hawks with NBA.com's Steve Aschburner.

Mike Budenholzer saw his role with the Atlanta Hawks expand over the summer when he was given full control over the team's basketball operations after embattled GM Danny Ferry was granted an indefinite leave of absence. Its still rare in the league to see a coach in that role but its becoming more and more commonplace. NBA.com's Steve Aschburner recently talked with Budenholzer about the added workload of pulling double duty.

"There are extra things you have to do to prepare for camp and the season," Budenholzer acknowledged. "But we've got a great group. So there's more work but I think we can manage it. The team, for the most part, is in place. That's the most important thing."

There isn't a lot of construction left for the Hawks roster as they prepare to start training camp. Atlanta will have 15 players under contract once the deals with Elton Brand and Kent Bazemore are formally announced. A minor tweak somewhere along the line is possible but nothing major is expected to happen before the start of the season.

Budenholzer told Aschburner that his experience working for Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford with the San Antonio Spurs helped him to prepare for his new role.

"It's something where I spent 19 years in that kind of a set-up," he said. "To whatever degree I can be comfortable, I wouldn't feel that now if I hadn't spent all those years around that in San Antonio with Pop and R.C."

At this point its not clear what Ferry's situation will be with the team long term. CEO Steve Koonin has defended Ferry, who was disciplined internally by the team, but has to this point left the door open for his return. In likelihood, Ferry's fate may rest with new ownership once a buyer is found.

In the meantime its Budenholzer's ship to guide and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. His name that has been untouched by the turmoil that has surrounded the franchise this summer. He is a more than capable leader and comes with the experience of working with one of the league's best franchises.

 

Exit Question: If Danny Ferry ultimately doesn't return, would you be comfortable with Mike Budenholzer in the dual role as head coach and head of basketball operations?

 

http://www.peachtreehoops.com/2014/9/19/6544233/mike-budenholzer-atlanta-hawks-danny-ferry

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

 

CHICAGO – Long characterized as a “copycat” league for trends ranging from basketball strategies to hiring practices, the NBA has a new move that everybody’s getting in on: Coaches doing double-duty as general managers, presidents of basketball operations or other titles vested with personnel control.

 

The latest to take all that on is Atlanta’s Mike Budenholzer, who had decision-making responsibility dropped in his lap last week in the fallout from the Hawks’ front-office mess. GM Danny Ferry, beleaguered after making racially charged comments about free agent Luol Deng, took an indefinite leave of absence, and Hawks CEO Steve Koonin appointed Budenholzer to be the team’s head of basketball operations for now.

 

His circumstances are unusual, but Budenholzer joins the likes of the Los Angeles Clippers’ Doc Rivers, Minnesota’s Flip Saunders, Detroit’s Stan Van Gundy and of course San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich in holding added clout beyond their work on the court.

 

Until Rivers beefed up his role last year when he moved from Boston to L.A., Popovich was more of an exception. Most teams in recent years preferred to separate the powers, believing that a coach focuses on tonight (win the game) while a front-office exec thinks about tomorrow, next season and several years after that.

 

So is this the start of a new trend? A pendulum swing?

 

“I don’t know, those pendulums seem like they’re always swinging,” Budenholzer said Thursday in Chicago, in town for the annual NBA coaches meetings. “There are a couple of people who have done that, and obviously Pop’s been doing that for a long time, with R.C. [buford, Spurs GM to Popovich's president title] doing a ton. Those two together have been just an amazing combination. So I don’t know.”

 

Flip Saunders (David Sherman/NBAE)

 

The long-established view that the jobs should be kept separate has led to some coaches, hungry for more input on their teams’ architecture, finding themselves on the sidewalk. The most recent example: Jason Kidd, whose power play in Brooklyn wound up with Kidd coaching in Milwaukee and coach Lionel Hollins slipping in beneath GM Billy King in the Nets’ flowchart.

 

“A lot of people question it,” Saunders said. “Agents especially — they don’t necessarily like someone having that much control over their clients. Because as a coach, you can basically dictate how much you’re going to pay a guy.” By growing or limiting a player’s role, that is.

 

Saunders added duties in the opposite direction from Budenholzer and Rivers — he was the Timberwolves’ basketball boss when he appointed himself as head coach for 2014-15, taking over for the retired Rick Adelman. But Saunders made his NBA bones on the sideline, coaching Minnesota, Detroit and Washington for 15-plus seasons.

 

“I believe, if you look at many of the successful football teams, they were built that way,” Saunders said Thursday. “Look at [Bill] Parcells. [bill] Belichick, he’s got total control. Then in our sport, look at the success that Nellie [Don Nelson] had — he pretty much ran the whole thing [in Milwaukee, Dallas and Golden State]. Then Pat Riley‘s situation, when he pretty much ran a lot of those things.”

 

Just as Popovich has “nurtured” Buford to work in concert on personnel matter, Saunders, Rivers and Van Gundy also have titular GMs or other execs to tackle salary caps, administer scouting and handle other chores that would pull them away from player development and game preparation.

“The best thing about it is,” Saunders said, “I believe in most organizations when you have a falling out, the tendency is there’s a relationship that is lost between the coach and the owner. Because maybe they don’t all have the same agenda from management to the coaching staff. Well, when somebody is your coach and your president or GM, he’s going to talk to the owner. So there’s never going to be a disconnect on what the message is.”

 

Rick Carlisle, Dallas Mavericks coach and president of the National Basketball Coaches Association, said the added power and work aren’t for everyone.

 

“In my case, I’m not looking to do that. I love my owner [Mark Cuban] and I love my GM [Donnie Nelson] — my GM and I go back 30 years as friends,” Carlisle said. “I want to concentrate on my craft. But I applaud these other guys for taking on the other responsibility.

 

“If you get a great coach like Gregg Popovich or Doc Rivers or Stan Van Gundy and you have the opportunity to meld those two positions into one guy who is high-quality in so many areas, if you’re an owner, you should go for that. More than anything, it’s pointing to the vortex of the connection between the coach and GM. The fact that some owners are looking at this and saying, ‘These two jobs should be one and the same’ highlights the importance of coaching.”

 

No one, however, is saying it’s easy. The consensus is that a GM has less-grueling days and better job security than his head coach. Saunders adapted comfortably to that last season, his first in the role with Minnesota, though coaching competitiveness still coursed through his veins.

 

In Budenholzer’s case, it comes just one year into his head coaching tenure with the Hawks, with the true impact of the front-office mess (analyzed well here by our Sekou Smith) still to be felt. The longtime Spurs assistant has a lot coming at him, on the brink of training camp.

 

“There are extra things you have to do to prepare for camp and the season,” Budenholzer acknowledged. “But we’ve got a great group. So there’s more work but I think we can manage it. The team, for the most part, is in place. That’s the most important thing.”

 

Growing up in the NBA in the Spurs organization — Ferry logged valuable time there, too, under Popovich and Buford — helped prepare Budenholzer for this beefed-up role. “It’s something where I spent 19 years in that kind of a set-up,” he said. “To whatever degree I can be comfortable, I wouldn’t feel that now if I hadn’t spent all those years around that in San Antonio with Pop and R.C.”

 

Asked where he would turn with questions, he said: “Oh, Pop and R.C. have always been open to me. I’ve obviously learned a ton from them and I’ll continue to.”

 

And if rivalries of the NBA prevent his Spurs pals from helping too much?

 

“I’m sure if I cross the line unintentionally,” Budenholzer said, “they’d say, ‘You’re a big boy, you’re going to have to figure certain things out for yourself.’ “

 

http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2014/09/19/budenholzer-deals-with-double-duty/

[DrReality]

Only time will tell how he does with both roles. My concern is whether they give him the authority to make the decisions needed or if they want to go back to the role with Sund.  Sooner or later Pop will hang it up and I'm sure that Bud will want to go back to the Spurs if they don't give him what he wants.  Hell he will likely want to do that anyway. 

[bird_dirt]

I hope they gave him a substantial bump in pay for basically doing two jobs now.

[LamarHampton]

I hope they gave him a substantial bump in pay for basically doing two jobs now.

Seems like he'd get a bump. Wonder if he's just getting the money that Ferry was fined internally?

[Guest]

Seems like he'd get a bump. Wonder if he's just getting the money that Ferry was fined internally?

Fines are usually donated to charity.

[macdaddy]

Fines are usually donated to charity.

 

The Hawks are a charity case now.