Unprecedented Owner Conflict

[AHF]

Stepping back from the racially charged discussion for a second (just leaving it for another thread), I am just shaking my head over what an abomination the ASG has been in terms of their ability to productively cooperate. There have been hundreds of owners in major US sports over the last century. Family owners, corporations, partnerships, and even league management. There have been grossly incompetent owners during that time.

But there has never been a group as dysfunctional as the ASG.

Back with Belkin, you had a minority owner who didn't try to buy out his partners but instead tried a hostile takeover after he was outvoted on a trade he didn't like. That resulted in years of litigation and the only spending restrictions on any franchise in the history of US sports. (If you recall, the court issued an order prohibiting the team from spending any money for a whole then modified it to set a lower cap on spending than was on any other team in the league). This resulted in years of uncertainty and the Hawks became an embarrassment nationally for their dysfunction.

Now you have a minority owner who, instead of working with his partners to come to a consensus to address an issue with Ferry behind closed doors, ends up retaining an outside judge, an outside employment litigator and the launching an investigation to deal with an issue that he says in writing could be a catastrophic embarrassment for the team. He then makes no effort to do any type of damage control as this spills out to the press and once again results in humiliation for the team and it's fan base. I cannot imagine handling an issue like this at my company without being very sensitive to the catastrophic fallout that would likely result from this airing publicly but that seems to be the case here.

How did we get so lucky as to get an ownership group that would end up dragging us through the mud repeatedly in new and novel ways because they could not get together and work through things behind closed doors like adults? If Ferry had either been let go or retained with training and a final warning that he signs where he agrees that any similar conduct will result in his termination for cause (thus forfeiting his severance package/future guaranteed money) then you don't end up publicly dragging your franchise through the mud. This is how most organizations handle things but not the Hawks. Lucky us.

Edited September 10, 2014 by AHF

[Sothron]

As I said in another thread....we are cursed. You also forgot to mention, AHF, those same owners telling Thrasher fans the team was never going to be sold...and then they sold it.

[AHF]

As I said in another thread....we are cursed. You also forgot to mention, AHF, those same owners telling Thrasher fans the team was never going to be sold...and then they sold it.

I am on board with that being a betrayal of the fans but that actually seems like an instance where they worked in unison.

[Dejay]

For one of the few times here, I have no words for this. No words...

[mrhonline]

Hammer meet nail.

Surely Silver steps in, right?

[NekiEcko]

I think Silver will step in and get rid of the mess that they are doing right now.

[macdaddy]

Gearon seems like a total screw up to me.  I know Ferry and Levenson have screwed up but I'm guessing the whole ownership group regrets being in business with Gearon.   Between these guys selling the Thrashers, totally mismanaging the Hawks, and the Liberty Media selling out the city of Atlanta, we have fullfilled our destiny of being the most miserable sports city in the country.   Blank is looking better than ever.

[macdaddy]

Gearon seems like a total screw up to me.  I know Ferry and Levenson have screwed up but I'm guessing the whole ownership group regrets being in business with Gearon.   Between these guys selling the Thrashers, totally mismanaging the Hawks, and the Liberty Media selling out the city of Atlanta, we have fullfilled our destiny of being the most miserable sports city in the country.   Blank is looking better than ever.

 

Well after reading the Gearon letter and the facts more closely I have to say he actually did the right thing here.   He immediately took action and notified his boss of the issue and potential disaster.

 

For some reason Leavenson and Koonin didn't feel like Ferry should be fired.   That's a big question mark to me.   Leavenson has fallen on his sword for his own email not for the Ferry issue.   But Koonin took the facts and implemented a punishment rather than termination.   I want to know why.    As much as I dislike Gearon and as much as I thought Ferry had us going in the right direction, it really seems like he should have been fired.  Even before this shitstorm.   The only thing I can figure is that the actual audio is not as bad as it seems or there was some kind of remorse or explanation from Ferry.   Still that's hard to imagine.  

 

It's also unclear why they went public with all this.  Was that stipulated by the nba?

[Afro]

Keeping Ferry is stupid, if only for the fact that NO ONE new is playing for him now.

[AHF]

The eternal optimist!

The A$G infuriate me so much that I cannot fully articulate how I hate every one of them. If I tried right now, it would be a series of MF-bombs and other censored words.

 

Just differentiating between destructive, infighting conflict and destructive, coordinated betrayal.  The usual.

[AHF]

Well after reading the Gearon letter and the facts more closely I have to say he actually did the right thing here.   He immediately took action and notified his boss of the issue and potential disaster.

 

For some reason Leavenson and Koonin didn't feel like Ferry should be fired.   That's a big question mark to me.   Leavenson has fallen on his sword for his own email not for the Ferry issue.   But Koonin took the facts and implemented a punishment rather than termination.   I want to know why.    As much as I dislike Gearon and as much as I thought Ferry had us going in the right direction, it really seems like he should have been fired.  Even before this shitstorm.   The only thing I can figure is that the actual audio is not as bad as it seems or there was some kind of remorse or explanation from Ferry.   Still that's hard to imagine.  

 

It's also unclear why they went public with all this.  Was that stipulated by the nba?

 

Gearon wanting to address the issue is appropriate.  The fact that they did not address it as a team and Gearon instead consulted two people outside the partnership group and then wrote a formal letter that itself would look terrible if it ever became public goes to the dysfunction.  If my company's leadership team or board of directors had an issue like this, I would hope they would get in a room together and talk it through and move forward as a coordinated group and not digress into the absolute #$*&storm we are now seeing blowing up and disgracing the franchise.

Edited September 10, 2014 by AHF

[macdaddy]

Gearon wanting to address the issue is appropriate.  The fact that they did not address it as a team and Gearon instead consulted two people outside the partnership group and then wrote a formal letter that itself would look terrible if it ever became public goes to the disfunction.  If my company's leadership team or board of directors had an issue like this, I would hope they would get in a room together and talk it through and move forward as a coordinated group and not digress into the absolute #$*&storm we are now seeing blowing up and disgracing the franchise.

 

Yes.  That was my initial reaction too.   That Gearon should have gone to Levenson and talked immediately (assuming that he didn't.  I'm not sure if we know that or not).   But he only sought advice of outside counsel and relayed that to Levenson.   I do see your point about the letter itself though.   Definitely a CYA move on Gearon's part but I'm not sure I blame him now.   

[macdaddy]

Koonin has repeatedly said the punishment for Ferry was in excess of what their outside investigators recommended. To me that is indicating that the people with the facts did not recommend Ferry to be fired.

Rereading the Gearon letter, geez it sounds like blackmail although I know that word isn't the word I am looking for. Specifically, the part in his letter that stated: "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."

From a purely speculative framework, I'm trying to figure out how a private business conversation would be made public. Is there any FOIA issues? Can the courts subpoena the conference call? I'm trying to figure out where it would be possible for that information to leak except for Gearon doing so.

(PS I think I'm on stage 3 of grief right now, hopefully I pass through all 5 stages by the end of the week)

 

 

That part really struck me too but I think he just realized that they just had a conference call with what like 15 people?   In light of the Sterling case someone is going to leak that type of remark and there would be an nba investigation.   Or Gearon is making a power play and saw his opening. 

[MaceCase]

Well I've said it before when certain posters kept mentioning that Ferry is motivated only by making moves to keep his job.....

 

 

When have you ever known the ASG to fire anyone yet alone someone with 4 guaranteed years left on his contract?

 

 

 

Now I know that Levenson is on Danny's side but some seem to be a little surprised by Koonin.  I think he looked at Danny's original comment, took offense but recognized that it wasn't a fireable enough offense by itself even with the urgings of Gearon....mainly because he saw the litigious circles that Sterling was jumping through despite his long and storied history of racial insensitivity and felt he didn't have enough legal ammo to void Ferry's deal.  Being a worker for the ASG he certainly didn't want to be paying a guy good money to sit at home either so I guess he gave Gearon his blessing on his investigation to find more evidence with the only problem being that Gearon came back with the wrong target instead of the one that started his whole vendetta.

 

So here we have Gearon trying to publicly shame his partner so that he can return to being the mouthpiece of the franchise, a role he lost after being repeatedly publicly shamed.  Levenson knows he's f***ed because he can't fight this battle in the court of public opinion especially in a post Sterling world and Koonin is miserable as hell because he doesn't have enough to fire Ferry yet will likely have to end up doing so anyway to appeal public sentiments.  What a mess.

[AHF]

Yes. That was my initial reaction too. That Gearon should have gone to Levenson and talked immediately (assuming that he didn't. I'm not sure if we know that or not). But he only sought advice of outside counsel and relayed that to Levenson. I do see your point about the letter itself though. Definitely a CYA move on Gearon's part but I'm not sure I blame him now.

The ASG has counsel for the team that would ordinarily advise them on this. Getting two outside opinions on this subject without your partners knowing in advance is very unusual and problematic. If they are the group's attorneys shouldn't they know? If they only represent Gearon, sharing this with Levenson waives the attorney client privilege. What if each owner does this and the attorneys give different advise? This is likely where one owner wants Ferry gone (can we fire him for this?) and another isn't sold on that (are we required to fire him?).

Gearon's approach here is conflict oriented not collaborative.

[tonegully]

Keeping Ferry is stupid, if only for the fact that NO ONE new is playing for him now.

You said that like we are a desitiation for top tier FA?

 

Im glad Ferry isnt fired and our CEO is taking control making sound leadership decisions instead of doing what people want him to do.

[tonegully]

Yeah, I'm unsure of how many people were on the line but it could have been a good bit. So that is a good point. The varying degree to which they are connected to the Hawks could also have influence. For instance, a co-owner would/should not want this to leak as it undoubtedly harms the value of your asset. Potentially a player development or similar positioned person may be of interest. The motives of Junior are still in question to me based upon his past actions.

I'm still a bit fascinated by the reaction of "FIRE HIS ASS" reactions on twitter. Reminds me of the "THROW HIM IN JAIL FOREVER" reactions we got out of the Vick allegations (which got louder after convictions). Man, some people are very extreme and don't have an ounce of patience or a personality willing to forgive. I know it is hard to be the kind of person that takes a step back to reexamines and say "hey maybe they can change". But I guess that's the public perception and I shouldn't be so naive about that.

I agree. I read all the text and letters and it didnt bother me one bit. Now someone being that rich like our owners, you figure they would have someone to proof read their emails and corrspondance before they sent it out.

I have already moved past what was said and typed. Being a 37 year old black man, I have been called and seen worse. I would like Ferry to discipline the scout (whoever) sent him that report on Deng.

Now i wish we did get ONE owner of the team who actually cared and get rid of Gearon Jr and his crew.

[frosgrim]

Following AHF's lead and setting the racism issue to the side.

 

I see this as a pure power grab by Gearon Jr. On the surface his intentions appear "noble" but he's just been waiting in the grass to strike and take control. In my book that is even worse than the original statements. Gearon is using racial tensions to manipulate the public and charges of racism within the NBA system to get what he wants. The guy is a petulant, little child who will use whatever means he has to get what he wants.

 

I honestly hope Silver puts the investigator's lens on the ASG and cleans the whole rat's nest out. We as a city and Hawks fans need much better than this crap.

[Guest]

Stepping back from the racially charged discussion for a second (just leaving it for another thread), I am just shaking my head over what an abomination the ASG has been in terms of their ability to productively cooperate. There have been hundreds of owners in major US sports over the last century. Family owners, corporations, partnerships, and even league management. There have been grossly incompetent owners during that time.

But there has never been a group as disfunctional as the ASG.

Back with Belkin, you had a minority owner who didn't try to buy out his partners but instead tried a hostile takeover after he was outvoted on a trade he didn't like. That resulted in years of litigation and the only spending restrictions on any franchise in the history of US sports. (If you recall, the court issued an order prohibiting the team from spending any money for a whole then modified it to set a lower cap on spending than was on any other team in the league). This resulted in years of uncertainty and the Hawks became an embarrassment nationally for their disfunction.

Now you have a minority owner who, instead of working with his partners to come to a concensus to address an issue with Ferry behind closed doors, ends up retaining an outside judge, an outside employment litigator and the launching an investigation to deal with an issue that he says in writing could be a catastrophic embarrassment for the team. He then makes no effort to do any type of damage control as this spills out to the press and once again results in humiliation for the team and it's fan base. I cannot imagine handling an issue like this at my company without being very sensitive to the catastrophic fallout that would likely result from this airing publicly but that seems to be the case here.

How did we get so lucky as to get an ownership group that would end up dragging us through the mud repeatedly in new and novel ways because they could not get together and work through things behind closed doors like adults? If Ferry had either been let go or retained with training and a final warning that he signs where he agrees that any similar conduct will result in his termination for cause (thus forfeiting his severance package/future guaranteed money) then you don't end up publicly dragging your franchise through the mud. This is how most organizations handle things but not the Hawks. Lucky us.

I couldn't agree more, this in particular stood out to me about Gearon: "As a minority partner with no effective say in decision-making" - seems to me Gearon is still pissed he got bumped out by Levinson as the ASG front man. It's a power grab. I trust none of them.

Get them all out.

Edited September 9, 2014 by JayBirdHawk

[NJHAWK]

So it was Gearon Jr all along then. Just pizzed off because Levenson took his gm title away from him before Ferry got hired. Im not excusing B.L's  stupid email. I dont know what to think of Ferrys comments. If that was really on his league wide scouting report thats a black eye on the whole league not just Ferry for reading it allowed. Still this fkn ownership group has made a joke of our team from day one. Time to flush them all down the toilet.

Edited September 9, 2014 by NJHAWK