AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2008 > May > 11
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Breaking the silence
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - Welcome to the alarmist’s paradise.
I know you’re in a panic about what comes next, or better yet who comes walking out of or through the door next.
I know it scares you, the prospect of what good is to come or what evil fate is set to befall your beloved Hawks.
(I received over 100 emails in the past 24 hours wondering if, and I’m paraphrasing here, the Hawks are going to blow this GM thing the way the Thrashers have their coaching search and GM situation? - a legitimate question and concern without a good, clear-cut answer right now.)
That loud noise you hear is every wanna-be NBA GM knocking on the Hawks’ door (in the backdoor fashion these things are usually conducted in when there is an opening that everybody seems to want but nobody seems to want to be known as openly campaigning for).
While other team’s hire and fire people with a list of successor’s always at the ready, the Hawks are actually doing the digging themselves.
They’re vetting candidates on their own for the open GM position (for those of you fresh out of the Fulton County lock up, Billy Knight resigned last week after six years on the job effective July 1).
And that means surrogates for each and every hopeful is working hard to push their guy.
No one is willing to break the silence on a list of potential candidates (though you might have already seen a preliminary list of six somewhere around here http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/hawks/stories/2008/05/07/hawksnext_0508.html). I can confirm that there are more than a dozen legitimate candidates poking around this opening and probably twice that many guys with no shot doing the same.
Many of the legitimate names you already know. Several others, including the likes of Walt Perrin in Utah, Randy Pfund in Miami, John Gabriel in Portland to name a few - have yet to emerge … welll, until now.
Instead of making a mockery of the two dozen or so wishful thinkers trying to squeeze their way into the mix, I’ll show the respect they haven’t and keep their names away from here (someone has to wear the thinking cap this summer).
But that’s the dilemma we’re all facing here. With so many perceived quality candidates, I said perceived, there is no clear guideline for a process like the one the Hawks are embracing right now. It’s really a subjective thing, where the Hawks can’t rely on any quantitative data to show them which person is the best candidate for the job.
It’s going to come down to the feel the Hawks’ ownership group gets from each candidate they consider/pursue/interview. All you, as fans, can do is hope (or better yet, demand) that they get it right (insert superstitious lucky charms here) this time. That they are listening to the right people and not the folks with loaded agendas. That they are attacking this GM search with the zeal it deserves (and not the wait-and-see-who-falls-out-the-tree indifference that’s been afforded the hockey coaching search).
Because the wrong choice here, on a position so crucial and this pivotal to the Hawks’ immediate and long-term future, could be fatal blow for a franchise that is still basking in the glow of that surprising 7-game playoff run.
