Owner Bruce Levenson selling Atlanta Hawks after racist email

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  • Livefromclayco
    Livefromclayco Members Posts: 14,074 ✭✭✭✭✭
    A$AP_A$TON wrote: »
    Will the Hawks eventually be moved some where else down the road? In like the next 5-10 years?

    No
  • apollo greed
    apollo greed Members Posts: 135 ✭✭✭
    I read the Human Highlight Reel and former Hawks Player DW is looking to buy them. I'm all for that.
  • zerocool
    zerocool Members Posts: 3,973 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I read the Human Highlight Reel and former Hawks Player DW is looking to buy them. I'm all for that.

    Dominique will be a minority owner...,, thats about it.....
    I wish we had more black owners
  • MR.CJ
    MR.CJ Members Posts: 64,689 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I read the Human Highlight Reel and former Hawks Player DW is looking to buy them. I'm all for that.

    Probably a minority owner, he ain't got that much money
  • stringer bell
    stringer bell Members Posts: 26,212 ✭✭✭✭✭
    espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11502906/rev-markel-hutchins-offended-atlanta-hawks-cancel-talk

    Hawks cancel meeting at 'last minute'


    ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Hawks cancelled a scheduled meeting between their CEO and city civil rights leaders Wednesday, prompting one of the group's leaders to say his community was greatly offended.

    The Rev. Markel Hutchins said the meeting with CEO Steve Koonin was called off "at the last minute." He later said he received a call from Hawks spokesman Garin Narain on Tuesday night asking the appointment be postponed.

    Hutchins said he needed to hear that request from Koonin, and because Koonin didn't personally cancel the meeting, the group of 12 civil rights leaders showed up as planned.

    When they entered Philips Arena and were told there would be no meeting, Hutchins and the other leaders said they were insulted.

    "The entire civil rights community, locally and nationally, have been offended, the likes of which we have not seen in this community in decades," Hutchins said.

    The group asked for the meeting to discuss what Hutchins said was the Hawks' "disrespect for people of color." The request followed racially charged comments by Hawks co-owner Bruce Levenson and general manager Danny Ferry.

    In a statement Wednesday, the Hawks asked for patience from the community and said they want to reschedule the meeting.

    "Koonin postponed today's meeting last night," the Hawks' statement said. "This conversation is a priority for us. We are committed to having this meeting and will work with community leaders to reschedule as soon as possible. We ask our community to work with us, be patient with us, and help us heal."

    The Hawks did not say why the meeting was cancelled.

    Levenson said Sunday he will sell his majority share of the team. Koonin said Tuesday Ferry has been punished but won't be fired.

    Hutchins said when he arranged the meeting with Koonin on Monday night, he made it clear the group wanted Ferry to lose his job.

    "Perhaps one of the reasons why they cancelled the meeting is we made it very clear we were going to demand in our conversations that Danny Ferry be fired or resign," Hutchins said. "There is no way that a man who uses the kind of language and holds the kind of sentiments that he does should be the general manager of the basketball team in the home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the cradle of the civil rights movement."

    Others also have called for Ferry to be fired. Former NBA great Magic Johnson said late Tuesday on his Twitter feed "Atlanta Hawks GM Danny Ferry should step down after making racist statements about NBA player Luol Deng."


    Deng and Ferry are former Duke players under Mike Krzyzewski, who is coaching the U.S. team at the World Cup. Krzyzewski said he couldn't comment on the controversy involving his former players because he hasn't followed the news.

    Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, serving as an assistant on the U.S. team, defended Deng on Wednesday.

    "I've never been around a better person," Thibodeau said. "He's not only a great basketball player, he's an even better person. I'll stand by Luol any day. He's good. He's done a lot of great things in the community. He's a great human being. He's a very humble guy. He has a lot of integrity. I can't say enough good things about him. ... It was a privilege for me to be his coach."

    Thibodeau said he "can't imagine" why Ferry made the statements.

    Ferry made inflammatory comments about Deng in a conference call with the Hawks' ownership group in June when the team pursued Deng as a free agent. Ferry described Deng as someone who "has a little African in him."

    Deng, who was born in what is now South Sudan, now plays for the Miami Heat. He responded to Ferry's comment on Tuesday by saying, "I'm proud to say I actually have a lot of African in me, not just `a little."

    A letter from co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. to Levenson recommended that Ferry resign or be fired. Gearon said Ferry made that description of Deng to the team's ownership group.

    Gearon's June 12 letter to Levenson said Ferry went on to say, "Not in a bad way, but he's like a guy who would have a nice store out front and sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back."

    Added Gearon: "Ferry completed the racial slur by describing the player (and impliedly all persons of African descent) as a two-faced liar and cheat."
  • nujerz84
    nujerz84 Members Posts: 15,418 ✭✭✭✭✭
  • twizza 77
    twizza 77 Members Posts: 4,201 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Silver said that he won't force the hawks to fire Ferry either.
  • zerocool
    zerocool Members Posts: 3,973 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Stew wrote: »

    He needs to go.....how thefuck can you appeal to the blacks in ATL after this?
  • stringer bell
    stringer bell Members Posts: 26,212 ✭✭✭✭✭


    The way too late obligatory damage control tweet...
  • stringer bell
    stringer bell Members Posts: 26,212 ✭✭✭✭✭
    ftw.usatoday.com/2014/09/carmelo-anthony-atlanta-hawks-free-agents
    Carmelo Anthony says there 'ain't nobody' who would want to play for the Hawks

    The Atlanta Hawks are in turmoil in the wake of a racist e-mail self reported by owner Bruce Levenson and general manager Danny Ferry’s announcement that he will take a leave of absence after making racist comments while reading a scouting report.

    At his basketball camp in New York, Carmelo Anthony said that Levenson and Ferry’s remarks were “uncalled for,” and that he thinks the situation in Atlanta will make it much harder for the team to attract talent.

    Via ESPN:

    “[There] ain’t nobody [who] would want to go there. At the end of the day, Atlanta, I think it puts Atlanta back even further now, from that standpoint.”

    Although the Hawks had positioned themselves as potential suitors for the likes of Dwight Howard in previous free-agency windows, the team has steadily been losing star players. The Hawks traded away Joe Johnson in 2012 for a bevy of expiring contracts, and Josh Smith left as a free agent in the summer of 2013. The Hawks limped into the playoffs as the eighth seed with a record of 38-44, but with the shifting landscape in the Eastern Conference over the summer, Atlanta looks likely to head to the lottery.

    “Atlanta is a great city, a great market, great people, great atmosphere. But as far as the comments [that] were made, I think it was uncalled for. From an owner, from a GM, those are not things you play with…. I’m speaking on behalf of all athletes. We would never look at a situation like that, I don’t care what it is.”

    Melo = real ? .. I haven't seen any other NBA player speak out as forcibly as Melo has.. This more NBA ? need speak up and ? on this fools...
  • Young_Chitlin
    Young_Chitlin Members Posts: 23,852 ✭✭✭✭✭


    The way too late obligatory damage control tweet...

    gif_write_371b0b.gif
  • Livefromclayco
    Livefromclayco Members Posts: 14,074 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Yeah cause the Hawks were having to turn people away before.

    And I wonder what Melo's thought's on this is

  • Chef_Taylor
    Chef_Taylor Members Posts: 26,584 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Nba just need all black owners theaw white muthafuckas need to move around with this undercover racist ?
  • Chef_Taylor
    Chef_Taylor Members Posts: 26,584 ✭✭✭✭✭