There is a scene in "Animal House" —- after John Belushi screams something about Germans and Pearl Harbor and the Delta house wreaks havoc on the annual homecoming parade —- when the townsfolk go bonkers, run down Main Street and trample the poor ROTC schlep as he pleas, "Remain calm! All is well."

I'm fairly certain Michael Gearon Jr. wasn't wearing an ROTC uniform Thursday as we spoke by phone. But I couldn't shake the visual of footprints on his forehead as he said, "I'm confident we have the solutions. We have a plan."

It's July. The Hawks' first game is nearly three months away. There is ample time for a basketball team to replace its sixth man, albeit a very good sixth man. But if there's relative panic in the streets over Josh Childress fleeing to Greece —- is this even worse than losing a player to the Clippers? —- it's because dread has become a conditioned response in most things related to our city's NBA franchise.

These are the Hawks. They're supposed to wear exploding clown shoes, right? If these were the Lakers, the Celtics, the Pistons, the Spurs, nobody melts down when Childress declares, "My heart belongs to Olympiakos. And which way to the ATM?"

Our head tells us Childress is not worth $10 million a year.

Our damaged psyche reminds us of so much baggage and screams that, somewhere along the way, the Hawks must have driven him to madness.

This is what you're battling if you're Gearon, one of the team's owners. Fans and media see a head coach rehired to mixed reviews, a key player leave and a star, Josh Smith, seemingly nowhere close to an agreement. It's easy to assume the usual: ugh.

"I disagree completely," Gearon said when asked about negative perceptions. "You're saying it doesn't look good that we weren't willing to pay Josh Childress $10 million a year. But if we did that, I'd expect you to write, 'What the hell are those guys doing?' If you give out bad contracts, you can't compete. Are pieces needed to make the team better? Yes. But [general manager] Rick [Sund] is working right now to make us a better team.

"What's frustrating to me is the perception that we didn't offer more money than every NBA team to keep him. There's never been a European offer like this. Now there has been. Was Josh Childress worth $10 million to the Atlanta Hawks?"

And then this: "No matter what we do, I think some people will look at us as the glass being half-empty."

Gearon says he doesn't believe the Hawks should have handled negotiations any differently. He talks about how no other restricted free agents have been signed. He admits there were "a couple" of sign-and-trade possibilities involving Childress, but said: "What they were willing to give back was garbage. We're not going to take back garbage."

Left unsaid: Childress seemed more willing to play elsewhere than here, by the mere fact his agent was trying to orchestrate a sign-and-trade. There's also this: If an athlete is completely sold on an organization, its direction and a head coach, he's probably not considering a recruiting trip to Europe —- even at $10 million a year.

But Gearon is correct about one thing: Losing Childress does not tip this offseason one way or the other. It just makes things more difficult. Losing Smith —- that would be worthy of a stampede.

"With Childress, because he was here, you tend to look at things from more of an emotional standpoint," he said. "Am I enthusiastic about this team? Yes, and we're working on things right now that are a testament to that. I still feel excited about where we're headed."

All is well, Gearon said.

But pardon if that alone doesn't calm the masses.

jschultz@ajc.com