Steve Koonin, the cardboard cutout of a CEO for the Hawks, the man brought in to add a smiling face and a layer of credibility between basketball operations below and hammerhead ownership above, was in semi-hiding Tuesday.
He did a couple of radio interviews to disseminate the company line, but otherwise was not made available for comment. Neither was general manager Danny Ferry. Neither was Bruce Levenson, the excommunicated majority owner, nor his jilted partner Michael Gearon, who has gone to great lengths to get Ferry fired, but apparently prefers doing his work in the shadows.
These are the men at the top of the Hawks’ food chain.
Nothing has changed.
Something has to change now. Everybody needs to go. Again.
Levenson is selling his percentage of the Hawks after the discovery of a racially charged email in 2012. But a new owner won’t desire to inherit the baggage of Levenson’s Maryland business partners, or Gearon, who’s had a long and mishap-filled tenure. Even the minority investors are tainted. A new owner would, and should, want to start fresh.
Ferry needs to go. He’s damaged goods. He has done a more-than-admirable job in his two years as general manager, ridding the franchise of Joe Johnson and other bad-fit pieces, acquiring smart and disciplined players and hiring a coach, Mike Budenholzer, who has helped point guard Jeff Teague take his game to the next level. The Hawks aren’t great yet, but because of Ferry they’re not a punchline (on the court) either.
But this stain isn’t going away. According to Gearon, Ferry was discussing a background report’s positives and negatives about impending free agent Luol Deng on a conference call when the general manager said, “He has a little African in him. Not in a bad way, but he’s like a guy who would have a nice store out front but sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back.” Ferry completed the slur by describing the player as “a two-faced liar and cheat.”
Gearon pounced and wants Ferry out. As of now, neither plans to leave. Yeah, this should work well.
It’s unclear at what point, if ever, Ferry stopped reading and started ad-libbing in the Deng commentary. Doesn’t matter. Here’s the reality: Many African-American players are going to read that and think, “Danny Ferry said black players are two-faced liars and cheats.”
The irony in all this is Deng, like Ferry, attended Duke and has been honored for his charitable work and humanitarian efforts.
This isn’t a market NBA free agents have been flocking to even when there’s no obvious grease fire. This certainly doesn’t enhance Atlanta as a potential destination.
The Hawks said they disciplined Ferry, but they won’t disclose how.
Koonin said the team “exceeded” the measure of discipline recommended by an independent law firm. But he won’t say what the recommendation was.
Close your eyes. It’s easy to imagine Koonin as an SEC football coach saying after a star player gets arrested, “We’ll handle this internally.” Maybe he’s having Ferry run arena steps.
Magic Johnson had four consecutive comments on Twitter about the Hawks, saying Ferry “should step down after making racist statements” and “… Atlanta and Hawks fans deserve and should demand better from Hawks leadership.”
Deng released a statement, reading in part: "I'm proud to say I actually have a lot of African in me, not just a little. … I'm saddened and disappointed that this (stereotyping) still exists (and) disturbed it was shared so freely in a business setting."
Do you still believe the Hawks can overcome this?
Koonin is struggling with this because Ferry is his star. Or was. But it’s going to be nearly impossible to sell this man publicly now, to build bridges to fans who’ve avoided walking into Philips Arena and appease those who are walking out.
Chris Hawkins, an African-American PGA teaching pro, is an Atlanta native and has been a Hawks’ partial season ticket-holder for two years. He’s believes Ferry should resign.
“It’s all pretty disappointing,” Hawkins said, alluding to the racially charged comments from both Ferry and Levenson. “They’re having a hard time getting people to go to games, and this just adds fuel to the fire. How are you supposed to bring a free agent here now? You have (a document) with those comments that’s being copied and going around, and it’s not being hidden. Why wasn’t it stopped? All of a sudden, it’s a Hawks problem. It’s not just bad ownership, it’s a bad general manager.”
Asked if he would cancel his tickets if Ferry was retained, Hawkins said, “I love the NBA. I’ll never say never. But it’s in the best interest of the Hawks and whoever buys controlling interest of the team to go in a different direction.”
This hasn’t just been a local embarrassment. The Hawks have been national news since Sunday. This can’t be fixed with a few brief statements and sanitized interviews.
Everybody needs to go. Ed Peskowitz and Todd Foreman are Levenson’s Maryland business partners. Gearon has had little credibility as a sports owner, and he has been bitter about the way Levenson and Ferry have run the franchise, while he’s now a silent partner.
This has been painful for the people in the organization who’ve done good work. I have no doubt it’s been painful for Ferry. But this organization needs to start fresh, the executive wing flushed.
Sometimes, the damage is too great.
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