Atlanta Hawks - We are very sorry. An Open Letter to our team, fans and Atlanta

[lethalweapon3]

[Admin]

I felt this needed its own thread. Thanks for posting lw5 and I'm happy to hear all that Koonin said. Let's hope this sort of thing never happens to our franchise again. I'm skeptical about that though as it seems we're always waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

[kerrypack]

great letter.  the hawks never should have let cviv and the other utter morons at the ajc throw gasoline on the fire as long as they did.  i feel like everything has been put out there and the hawks can think, change, heal, and grow stronger.  you only grow stronger by stressing your muscles and then going through the recovery process.  if only the jr rider trade could be forgiven as well.

[hawkdude55]

Great letter and I feel its sincerity. I think that Koonin has done a very good job in an impossible situation, torn between two warring sides and having to protect the franchise. I'm sure there's a lot we don't know as well, but I did think it was cool that he acknowledged that this was an ownership issue that exploited race. I find that despicable. I think we can emerge stronger as a franchise hopefully with Steve at the helm. This week was real leadership like this franchise hasn't seen since Ted Turner

[Jody23]

Nice letter, but nothing changes until the ASG is totally gone.

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

I applaud Koonin for his actions and words throughout this entire ordeal.  It really feels like we have a good one with him here and it feels like a real possibility that we will change.  This was rock bottom for the Hawks, but there is only one way to go from here.

[OldTimeHawk]

so this racial diversity extends to the locker room too ?? Are we going to set the line on everyone and everything including music that is played that may disparage women , minorities and other races ??

[Bonkers]

Nice letter, but nothing changes until the ASG is totally gone.

Exactly

 

Until they're gone it doesn't matter

[Bahamut]

Nice letter, but nothing changes until the ASG is totally gone.

[/hawksquawk]

[Bahamut]

I'm cautiously happy about this. Geez it sounds like a real change is happening, but I've seen this before. I'm not going to expect any change until I see some change. And I'm talking about ownership feuds here as well as the Hawks committing to working out THEIR attendance problems instead of blaming me, a fan.

Same with the Thrashers, if it weren't already way too late.

[Bahamut]

This was rock bottom for the Hawks

Knowing this franchise, I'm not even sure about THAT.

[DrReality]

Listen to the words and trust the behavior.  They have a long way to go to earn back any trust. 

[NBASupes]

While this is okay for PR with Whites, with Blacks, they gonna have to haul ship especially seeing they aren't putting a contender on the court anytime soon.

Edited September 14, 2014 by nbasupes40retired

[OldTimeHawk]

While this is okay for PR with Whites, with Blacks, they gonna have to haul ship especially seeing they aren't putting a contender on the court anytime soon

In order to get a superstar you need to  completely blow up the team and hope you get lucky in the lottery or be a big market team  that  can offer the player more national exposure as an incentive to come here.  I think we lost Deng  because he was convinced by Miami  they are closer to a championship than we are  even though the money offered was  probably close.

[NBASupes]

In order to get a superstar you need to  completely blow up the team and hope you get lucky in the lottery or be a big market team  that  can offer the player more national exposure as an incentive to come here.  I think we lost Deng  because he was convinced by Miami  they are closer to a championship than we are  even though the money offered was  probably close.

Miami and us aren't close to a title at all. They are just far more attractive. He took much less to go there than come here even when he knew we were his #1 prospect.

[Guest]

While this is okay for PR with Whites, with Blacks, they gonna have to haul ship especially seeing they aren't putting a contender on the court anytime soon.

Wow - so black people will be OK if they are putting a contender on the floor? That is short sighted and insulting. You should either accept the apology or don't - it can't be contingent on what you perceive the product on the field to be - that's disengenuous.

[NBASupes]

Wow - so black people will be OK if they are putting a contender on the floor? That is short sighted and insulting. You should either accept the apology or don't - it can't be contingent on what you perceive the product on the field to be - that's disengenuous.

Putting a contender would bring everyone back and more but are the Hawks doing that? Saying otherwise would be disingenuous. I think more fans white, black, etc would like the Hawks if they were putting a quality product on the court.

[AHF]

Ferry offered the same 2 years, $20M as Miami.

[OldTimeHawk]

the core in Miami is still there - I think we will see a different Bosh  and they may actually be a better team now that they dont have to share the BB as much.  Deng fits in well there and Miami will contend next year.

[AHF]

Kenton was the core of the championship teams. The core is gone.