AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2005 > August > 08 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USBelkin leading Hawks down disastrous path
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
We begin with the assumption that the Joe Johnson trade will, one way or another, go through. Beyond the immediacy of that flashpoint issue, beyond even the impending indignity of the Hawks’ many owners gathered on separate sides of a Boston courtroom, is an even greater concern: What becomes of this fractured partnership?
Said Stan Kasten, who knows the principals and principles involved: “There’s no question this particular configuration [of owners] cannot survive this episode. Something’s got to happen. At least they’ve gotten past the happy talk, which was hardly believable before, and now the battle has been joined. But they need to go all the way with it. It will be bloody, but they need to finish it.�
Put simply, either Steve Belkin is defrocked of his NBA governorship and gets so mad he sells out to his partners, or Belkin’s power is upheld and those partners get so disgusted they sell to him. Sixteen months into their alliance, it’s clear these men cannot coexist. The other owners hold the same regard for Belkin that Vince Dooley does for Michael Adams.
Of this latest Hawks misadventure, Kasten hauled out the most damning comparison there is. “It really looks like Elgin Baylor and Donald Sterling,� he said, naming the addled architects of the infamously forlorn Los Angeles Clippers. “But it’s much worse than that. At least Elgin got to make his own decisions.�
Until Atlanta Spirit LLC moved to buy the Hawks, the Thrashers and Philips Arena, Kasten was president of all the above. He was likewise president of the Braves, who have become the model for organizational success, and he served for more than 20 years under Ted Turner, who created the caricature of the capricious sports owner. “This is what I was able to stop,� said Kasten, speaking of such a public tempest. And then: “Ask John [Schuerholz] or any of the other top 10 GMs if they could work under these conditions. The Braves would have never become the Braves if this [ownership] were in place.�
By moving unilaterally to undercut the biggest acquisition of Billy Knight’s tenure, Belkin has told the sporting world he doesn’t value the counsel of his general manager. (Said Kasten, “I may have disagreed with the GMs who worked for me, but you never knew it.�) Just as others in the organization were waxing ecstatic over Johnson � a big-name free agent willing to commit to a team that wasn’t sure it could lure a big-name free agent � Belkin was sullying the Hawks’ image in a bold new way. Any bad team can lose a slew of games, but it takes a spectacularly inept operation to drag itself into court.
“It’s extremely damaging,� said Michael Gearon Sr., one of the Atlanta-based owners. And what about Belkin, Gearon’s lawful partner? “He’s exactly what we don’t need � an absentee owner who doesn’t want to invest in the franchise.�
When partners start saying such things about one another, they can’t stay partnered. Belkin being a minority unto himself, you’d bet he’d be the one to leave. But he’s stubborn, and he’s also litigious. Said Kasten: “He might stay longer than you’d think. He’s waited 20 years to get into the NBA.�
And here we pause to consider the havoc that Belkin as majority owner would wreak. He doesn’t want to spend money. He doesn’t come to games. He doesn’t trust Knight. He wants to own a team not because he wants to make it a winner but just so he can say he owns a team. Who of stature would work for such a man?
In their checkered existence, the Hawks have had their share of bad coaches and players, but those men could always be fired or traded. Steve Belkin is in position to do more lasting harm. His partners need to shove some money at him and make him go away. Quick, while there’s still a franchise left to run.
Permalink | | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Mark Bradley
