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Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > May > 06
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Defining offseason awaits Atlanta Spirit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the four years since taking ownership of the Hawks and Thrashers, the Atlanta Spirit too often has stumbled into implausible scenarios, like executive slapstick, only to work hard at convincing everybody that its days as a punch line were ending.
Unfortunately, as these owners have found, it’s difficult to make a convincing argument after you introduce yourself to the public as “an all-star team of owners,” but then you can’t stop suing each other.
But there is good news.
Or bad news.
Well, either way, significant news.
If ever an offseason was going to define an ownership group, this is it. Hunker down, Spirit boys, because this is when you either step up and convey some sense of stability within your franchises, or once again pull a Curly and confuse the blast powder with the pancake mix. (Boom.)
The Atlanta Spirit employs two general managers, Billy Knight and Don Waddell, with cracked track records.
It employs one basketball coach, Mike Woodson, whose regular seasons have been fairly decisive but whose recent postseason has left everybody confused (three huge upsets at home; four revolting losses on the road by 101 points).
The Spirit fired its hockey coach, Bob Hartley, six games into the NHL season, a swift and decisive, even if short-sighted, move that really accomplished nothing, unless you count forcing Waddell to form lines with his own mistakes.
OK, Spirit boys, are you tired of getting beaten up? What’s next?
It has been stated before, but it’s worth repeating. Sports franchises can be successful in a number of ways. Great players can overcome average coaching. Great coaches can succeed with average players. General managers can build winners by accruing solid, even if unspectacular, players. Or they can pick up just enough All-Stars to compensate for the duds.
Trades can make up for bad drafts, and vice-versa.
But there is one thing a sports franchise can’t overcome: bad ownership.
Fans don’t need their team to win every season. They just need to know that owners are trying to do things correctly, smartly. They need to know that they care. They don’t want to hear excuses. They don’t want to sense arrogance from the basketball GM or witness infantile outbursts by the hockey owner.
Fans want accountability.
You want to fix things, guys? Fix it now.
Waddell presumably has convinced owners he has things under control and that this season was an aberration (not to be confused with the other years of aberrations). I say “presumably” because only Bruce Levenson has publicly expressed confidence in Waddell. Michael Gearon, the other most active, non-ex-communicated owner in the group, has stayed in the background on hockey matters.
Waddell’s latest bit of amusing scrambling came in Craig Custance’s examination of the dysfunctional relationship between the Thrashers and their affiliate, the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. At one point, Waddell suggested the Thrashers were in an advantageous position over the Detroit Red Wings because Atlanta’s prospects were in the AHL playoffs and the Wings’ prospects weren’t. The problem: The Thrashers’ prospects are in the playoffs every year and it doesn’t seem to make a difference in the Thrashers’ season. The Red Wings? They win Stanley Cups.
Waddell has yet to hire a coach. The bigger concern is that owners have yet to state their plan for the franchise. They have yet to hire an outside hockey adviser, as had been suggested. The Thrashers played their last game a month ago. If owners were waiting for the basketball season to end before deliberating on hockey matters, doesn’t that make you feel a little uncomfortable?
The Hawks also have significant issues. They actually have time on the player decisions. But Gearon’s comments Monday after wanting to “take a step back for several days” are unsettling. The Knight and Woodson issues have been on the table all season. Good owners always have a Plan B. If there were thoughts of firing Knight, there must have been thoughts about qualified replacements.
If the owners decide to fire Knight but keep Woodson, what would that say about Knight’s replacement, who wouldn’t be allowed to hire his own coach? What GM would take this job under those circumstances, and would you trust his ability to grab what the Hawks accomplished in the last playoffs and take it the next level?
The easy answer is to fire everybody. But the bigger issue is whether these owners can reach clear and logical decisions that put two franchises on solid ground. We’re still waiting.
Permalink | Comments (51) | Post your comment | Categories: Hawks/NBA, Thrashers/NHL
The Tuesday Countdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
10: If I seem a little down today, I just read that Scarlett Johansson is off the market. Feel free to Google, then return. We’ll wait.
9: The monthly meeting of “Women Who Haven’t Slept with Roger Clemens” will meet this evening at Applebees. A table for six has been reserved.
8: On the open market: Avery Johnson. Mike D’Antoni. Jeff Van Gundy. Rick Carlisle (though reportedly close to the Dallas job). Please, state your case. How does Hawks coach Mike Woodson makes you better than any of them?
7: That said: This should be the general manager’s call. The new general manager’s call. If Billy Knight is fired and Woodson is kept, which is possible, what respected general manager will want this job, knowing the coach’s contract already has been extended?
6: A leftover from a chat with Falcons owner Arthur Blank last week: “When I bought the team in 2002, Michael [Vick] was already here. People credited me for drafting him, but that was before I got here. I always gave credit to the Smith family. Now when I say that, the Smith family probably doesn’t want to hear it.”
5: I’m guessing Arthur isn’t in the mood to drop any one-liners this week. Without presuming either the guilt or innocence of linebacker Michael Boley, having a player charged with spousal abuse obliterates any chance of the franchise completely cleansing its image and Blank getting any sleep this off-season.
4: Question: Do divorce attorneys go prospecting for business or do they just want for women to come to them? Because I’m just wondering how many might be contacting Debbie Clemens. You know. Just in case.
3: PETA tends to go overboard on several issues, becoming almost cartoon-like. But the organization is correct in mandating changes in thoroughbred racing.
2: You would never have known this from NBC’s coverage of the Kentucky Derby, because the network apparently didn’t want to ruin the glorious moment of Big Brown’s win and rich people with six drinks and funny hats celebrating. But second-place winner Eight Belles fractured two ankles, leading to the horse being immediately euthanized. First place goes to the Preakness. Second-place is dead. Thoroughbreds are beautiful animals. But they have Godzilla-like torsos and are running on toothpicks, and injuries and deaths are too easily accepted.
1: Longtime NFL writer Peter King of Sports Illustrated just ranked all 32 NFL teams, and guess who’s last? I don’t agree with the rankings but this analysis is dead on: “When you need 12 to 15 new starters, you’re basically dealing with a construction job like an expansion team.”
Permalink | Comments (35) | Categories: Braves/MLB, Falcons/NFL, Hawks/NBA
