If Ferry stays on as GM...

[Sothron]

Let's address the elephant in the room. If Ferry stays on as GM what does this do with our current team let alone future players? Do our players want to play for him? Will they boycott games like the Clippers threatened to do over Sterling?

I don't see how this man keeps his job outside of the fact he's got four years left on his contract and the A$G wouldn't want to pay him after firing him.

If he stays on then how does he recruit free agents? Or keep our own players? Or convince a college kid to come play here?

[macdaddy]

Let's address the elephant in the room. If Ferry stays on as GM what does this do with our current team let alone future players? Do our players want to play for him? Will they boycott games like the Clippers threatened to do over Sterling?

I don't see how this man keeps his job outside of the fact he's got four years left on his contract and the A$G wouldn't want to pay him after firing him.

If he stays on then how does he recruit free agents? Or keep our own players? Or convince a college kid to come play here?

 

It good blow over and some of these players actually know him whereas we don't.   So the hope is that they know he's not a racist or an idiot but we'll see.   I think there is more than enough evidence to fire him for cause and get out of the contract but i'm not a lawyer.   

[HawkItus]

Look lets be honest.  CREAM.  Cash rules everything around me.   If the players will take Sterlings money for as long as they did they will take the Hawks money.  Will Ferry have to pay a "Sorry my brotha" premium on contracts for a minute? Yep.

[Sothron]

Look lets be honest.  CREAM.  Cash rules everything around me.   If the players will take Sterlings money for as long as they did they will take the Hawks money.  Will Ferry have to pay a "Sorry my brotha" premium on contracts for a minute? Yep.

Danny should be blasting Wu Tang and GZA's Liquid Swords album every time he talks to players.

[High5]

At worst we'd have to pay extra to sign a player from Africa and we'll have below average attendance. So...nothing would change.

[Guest]

It good blow over and some of these players actually know him whereas we don't.   So the hope is that they know he's not a racist or an idiot but we'll see.   I think there is more than enough evidence to fire him for cause and get out of the contract but i'm not a lawyer.   

 

Problem is who's firing him?  They clearly created an atmosphere where he felt comfortable with these questionable-at-best comments.  If I'm him I dare them to fire me and I'd have a nice book teed up and ready to expose everything I have on them.  Considering he'd likely not be welcome back in the league in any major capacity, he's fighting for his career at this point.

 

Danny should be blasting Wu Tang and GZA's Liquid Swords album every time he talks to players.

 

Nah, don't wanna scare away the target demo ... as if half of them didn't grow up listening to Wu Tang.

[SerbianHawk]

He is gone. The real question now is how it will reflect on Bud position?

[tonegully]

Thank GOD Mr. Koonan hasnt fired Ferry. Lets be honest here people. Converations are held like that everyday across America. Be it a barbershop or a boardroom or emails. Im an African American and the comments dont really bother me at all. See, I dont hold people in the "sports" business to high moral standards anyways. Thats just me. I know its a cut throat game out there.

 

Soon Americans will not be able to have an opinion about anything. I think Danny Ferry has done a great job with our team and this something i would give a slap on the wrist. If Ferry said what he said out loud then i think its some bigger issues that need to be addressed, if we are all about peoples feelings.

 

Im shocked the city of Atlanta even cares. Hell they dont show up to the games to support the team but now everyone has an opinion about Danny Ferry. I hope Danny Ferry stays and the first thing he should do is to fly to where Loul Deng is at and apologize to him face to face, like a grown man should.  The whole organization needs to have some type of racial/ethinic training because i think Ferry wouldnt say nothing like that out loud if it was an accepted form of behavior.  I would also give him a nice heavy fine. 

 

Then keep it moving. Lets get ready for camp.

[Hairydawgz]

I've wondered the last few days how this will affect his ability to sign players. As hard as it has been before, it will triple now. Now you have the city which they don't want to play in, an ownership group viewed as racist, and a GM viewed as racist.

I don't see how he stays on as GM and is effective at the job. Players won't want to meet with him.

It's sad really also. In my opinion, Ferry is getting it a little harsher than he should.

No,he shouldn't have repeated those words written by the scout. He should have ignored the and focused on other parts of the report. However, the words were not Danny Ferry's words. He was quoting someone else, the scout(who interestingly enough hasn't been mentioned by name)

The scout is the real racist, Ferry was just stupid to read the words out loud instead of ignoring the stupidity of the comments( which sounded like a bad attempt at humor)

Some of the Hawks owners quoted and many articles quote the words as though Ferry himself said this, which is not accurate. Koonin seems to be the only one recognizing this.

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[Diesel]

Thank GOD Mr. Koonan hasnt fired Ferry. Lets be honest here people. Converations are held like that everyday across America. Be it a barbershop or a boardroom or emails. Im an African American and the comments dont really bother me at all. See, I dont hold people in the "sports" business to high moral standards anyways. Thats just me. I know its a cut throat game out there.

 

Soon Americans will not be able to have an opinion about anything. I think Danny Ferry has done a great job with our team and this something i would give a slap on the wrist. If Ferry said what he said out loud then i think its some bigger issues that need to be addressed, if we are all about peoples feelings.

 

Im shocked the city of Atlanta even cares. Hell they dont show up to the games to support the team but now everyone has an opinion about Danny Ferry. I hope Danny Ferry stays and the first thing he should do is to fly to where Loul Deng is at and apologize to him face to face, like a grown man should.  The whole organization needs to have some type of racial/ethinic training because i think Ferry wouldnt say nothing like that out loud if it was an accepted form of behavior.  I would also give him a nice heavy fine. 

 

Then keep it moving. Lets get ready for camp.

 

Ferry is tainted.

 

It's no longer about Loul Deng.  Maybe those Dukies can go somewhere and have a beer on Ferry.  However, this is about our ability to attract free agents with what Ferry has put out there.  It is not going to be taken very well by FAs who talk more than people know.

[Guest Zone]

If Ferry keeps his job, the perception of the Hawks will get even worse than it is now. 

 

No self respecting free agent would want to play here. Especially the mid-tier gems people on here love to talk about during free agency. 

 

Hell, players already on this team could ask for a trade.

 

I don't think people realize just how bad things could get if Ferry  remains on board. 

[Afro]

"scouting report" that hasn't been released. By a man we don't know. Containing harsh words Ferry "accidentally" read.

How plausible is that? The path of least resistance makes it far more plausible that this is an elaborate excuse from Ferry to cover up the issue.

[AHF]

The idea that is was read by accident is the sketchiest to me. No way Ferry read every scouting report verbatim. He preread them and focused on the highlights. Why was this a highlight?

I still don't understand what the quote is precisely supposed to convey. Trustworthiness, character, a disconnect between his reputation and his game, some aspect of his play? I don't know.

Edited September 9, 2014 by AHF

[ag82]

 

 

 

 

The idea that is was read by accident is the sketchiest to me. No way Ferry read every scouting report verbatim. He peeress them and focused on the highlights. Why was this a highlight?

I still don't understand what the quote is precisely supposed to convey. Trustworthiness, character, a disconnect between his reputation and his game, some aspect of his play? I don't know.

 

This. The quote doesn't make much sense to me.

 

However, I would file that quote under "insensitive" or even "dumb", rather than "racist". I think people are a little too trigger happy right now. 

 

I still think the worst part about all of this is that Levenson tried to place blame on the fan base rather than their own inability to build a team worth watching.

Edited September 9, 2014 by ag82

[High5]

Thank GOD Mr. Koonan hasnt fired Ferry. Lets be honest here people. Converations are held like that everyday across America. Be it a barbershop or a boardroom or emails. Im an African American and the comments dont really bother me at all. See, I dont hold people in the "sports" business to high moral standards anyways. Thats just me. I know its a cut throat game out there.

 

Soon Americans will not be able to have an opinion about anything. I think Danny Ferry has done a great job with our team and this something i would give a slap on the wrist. If Ferry said what he said out loud then i think its some bigger issues that need to be addressed, if we are all about peoples feelings.

 

Im shocked the city of Atlanta even cares. Hell they dont show up to the games to support the team but now everyone has an opinion about Danny Ferry. I hope Danny Ferry stays and the first thing he should do is to fly to where Loul Deng is at and apologize to him face to face, like a grown man should.  The whole organization needs to have some type of racial/ethinic training because i think Ferry wouldnt say nothing like that out loud if it was an accepted form of behavior.  I would also give him a nice heavy fine. 

 

Then keep it moving. Lets get ready for camp.

 

It was wrong for the scout to associate Africans with being shady businessmen, but I guarantee you that worse stuff gets said on daily basis in the sports world. The Miami Dolphins GM straight up asked Dez Bryant if his mom was a prostitute and he kept his job for 4 more years until after the whole Martin/Incognito thing happened. I can only imagine what stuff has been said about "problem players" like Allen Iverson and JR Smith. I'm not defending Ferry or anyone else, but if this is as appalling as some people believe, then they may want to rethink supporting sports teams in general. I've heard plenty of comments about "fiery" Latino players in baseball, too. (Hello, Yunel!)

[Dejay]

He's. Gotta. Go.

 

As if this franchise had a hard enough time attracting free agents (who are mostly minorities) to the team and fans (who, as Levinson would say, are also minorities) to the arena for ballgames. Imagine keeping him and having this black cloud continually hang around the organization.

 

Let's face some stone-cold facts here; some that I and a number of others have stated for well over a decade. This is a poorly-run franchise operated by arguably the most incompetent group of owners that pro sports have ever seen. They so happened to reside in one of the largest transient cities in North America that has a myriad of options in terms of sports and entertainment. The fact that they've managed to attract ANYONE to their building for games when they're the only NBA franchise left standing since 1968 that has yet to reach a conference finals (don't give me that ish about 1969-70) is a testament to every diehard fan on this board and otherwise. They've managed to attract a whopping THREE free agents of note dating back over TWENTY YEARS. They managed to do even worse in the draft (talked about ad nauseum). This organization has stopped at nothing to alienate its fanbase with playoff guarantees, hideous gimmicks, and selling visiting team's merchandise on game night, all while chastising them for having the nerve to not spend $$$ on a middling franchise. And while I'm going down this street, I'd like to ask the forum this simple question; if the league had the same qualifications to get in the playoffs as, say, the NFL (12 of 32) or MLB (10 of 30), would this franchise have the same 'loser' reputation as the Cleveland Browns (the current edition) and Chicago Cubs? I'm sick and tired of hearing the 'they won't support a winning team in Atlanta' BS when they haven't WON anything of consequence since leaving the Midwest. What the heck is wrong with demanding that a team makes an appearance in a conference finals every now and again? Even the Falcons manage to do that. Anyway, back to the topic...

 

Now you have this mess in a city where anything of racial consequence sets off emotions to the nth power. All the civil rights folks you haven't heard from since (you got it) the last racial episode come running out. All of the revenends and pastors looking to build new sanctuaries come running out. All of the polar opposites of those who would otherwise stay silent come running out. And stuck in the middle (yet again) is our favorite pro basketball team.

 

I'll say this; if Hawks' execs knew of this for the last two years, sat on their hands, and only decided to come out after the Sterling fiasco, THEY ALL NEED TO GO. That includes Gearon, who is only using this as a power play to regain control of the franchise (and we all know it). That includes Ferry, who decided to throw a box of dynamite sticks onto the roaring blaze himself.

[benhillboy]

I don't have any issue. I like Ferry. I'm glad we aren't a large market right now so I don't have to listen to senseless non-stop coverage like if we were in LA and had a notorious owner. Thanks to unnecessary coverage of the irrelevant Ray Rice too.

[Johnnybravo4]

Doesn't the scout work for Ferry? He should've been fired immediately.

[MrMeltdown]

It will be a franchise crippling move to allow Ferry to stay as the business advisers warned of.

[macdaddy]

I don't have any issue. I like Ferry. I'm glad we aren't a large market right now so I don't have to listen to senseless non-stop coverage like if we were in LA and had a notorious owner. Thanks to unnecessary coverage of the irrelevant Ray Rice too.

 

I was listening to the radio and everyone is calling for him to be fired.  Frankly I think it's the only choice or this will loom over the franchise for a while.   And it's not like this franchise can easily absorb more bad publicity.   I thinking the damning part is that despite Levenson's 'self-reporting' they haven't really been forth coming with the facts at all for something that took place two years ago.   And Ferry barely offered an apology.