Suit’s winner might have won here

As the Hawks steadily drift back to the pack and the Thrashers reaffirm their place among the worst-run franchises in sports, do you wonder what it would’ve been like with an owner who spent more time, money and brainpower on the actual product than, say, attorney’s fees?

I do. David McDavid doesn’t. He knows he would’ve done better.

“Do you know what a camel is? It’s a horse designed by a committee,” McDavid said Thursday when asked about the Atlanta Spirit ownership group. “Those franchises are being run by a committee. They’re a camel. If I had taken over, nobody would be fighting, unless I was fighting with myself. Does that guarantee anything? No. But I will always believe I would have done a better job.

“Look at their history. None of them had run a business like that in their life. If you look at sports, you’ll find a lot of teams that have been run by automotive people. They’re similar businesses. You have a product to sell. You try to make it as pretty as you can. You deal with people. You make it a good experience. I mean, you can buy a Honda anywhere.”

A jury ruled Tuesday that McDavid should have been allowed to purchase the Hawks, Thrashers and the operating rights to Philips Arena in 2003 from Turner Broadcasting. He was awarded $281 million. All that money —- and, as a bonus, he’s not mocked for his power play.

McDavid called the trial and the years leading up to it a “phenomenal burden.” He believes he has lost his desire to own a team. What he hasn’t lost is his wit, his opinions or his Texas-twang, blast-furnace delivery.

In a wide-ranging phone interview Thursday from Fort Worth, McDavid unloaded on Turner and the Atlanta Spirit, the dysfunctional group that owns the Hawks and Thrashers. He also disclosed some of his original plans for the teams, including:

> To bring in partners, claiming “six to 10” interested parties. “I would’ve kept controlling interest,” he said. “That’s one of the problems with the Spirit deal. I’ve never seen a palace coup be a success against someone who owns 51 percent of the stock. You listen to input from partners, but at the end of the day you say, ‘Thank you very much,’ and make your decision.”

> To consider an offer from an undisclosed party who wanted to buy the Thrashers for “what we were paying for everything” and keep the team in Atlanta. “I don’t know if we would’ve done it, but it would’ve immediately wiped out all of our debt.”

> To hire Doc Rivers or Mike Dunleavy as Hawks coach. He had conversations with both, and counts Dunleavy as a friend.

McDavid also believes the franchises and arena are worth “far more than [the Spirit] paid for it,” adding, “Our verdict validates that.”

He said Turner put in a “[fool] clause” in the original sale contract. “It said after the deal, we couldn’t sell the teams for 12 months,” McDavid said. “The reason we referred to it as ‘The [fool] clause’ was because they didn’t want to look like [fools] if we bought the teams for $96 million and then turned around and sold them for $500 million. I thought it was kind of funny.”

He doesn’t know estranged team owner Steve Belkin personally, but said, “It’s clear from what he’s asking for his 30 percent that he also thinks the teams are worth a lot.”

And while he is not taking sides in the battle between the feuding owners, the lawsuit makes for an amusing spectator sport.

“Anytime you have insiders not getting along, you can’t run a business,” he said. “It goes further than just trying to make it a successful team. If I was the head of a corporation and people wanted to talk to me about sponsorships, and then they saw us all fighting with each other, why would I want to be a part of that? Nobody wants to get into that mess.”

Would Belkin be a better owner than the non-Belkins?

“My personal view is that those teams would be better off with anybody except those guys,” he said. “Anytime you have all this crap going on … they just don’t seem to get it.”

He says he felt a connection with Atlanta. His daughter nearly enrolled at Georgia. His best friend owns an auto dealership in Athens. He remembers receiving a phone call from his friend after the 1984 Cotton Bowl when Georgia rallied to defeat Texas 10-9.

McDavid laughed. “He called and said, ‘Kiss my behind, 10 to 9.’ “

He loves sports. He’s no fan of corporate ownership.

“A team is such a personal item for [fans], they want a face to go with it,” he said. “They want to know there’s somebody who cares. They want somebody they can walk up to and say, ‘Are you a moron or something?’ “

We can’t be sure he would’ve won championships. But look what he just did to Turner in court.

“They were not pleasant to deal with,” he said. “It was the world according to Turner. Whatever they say the truth is the truth is. That’s not the way the world works. The jury foreman said, ‘All of McDavid’s witnesses were on the same page, and none of the Turner witnesses were.’ My response is, it’s real easy to be on the same page when you’re telling the truth.”

He claimed Turner representatives told him before the trial, “We’ll embarrass you. We’ll make you look like a pretender.”

McDavid paused after that recollection.

“I’m not going to say the money’s not important,” he said. “But what we really wanted was to not let them get away with it. Vindication is sweet. I don’t take well to threats.”

An owner who fights. An owner who wins.

It would’ve been nice.

jschultz@ajc.com