Somebody needs to step in and stop this. Maybe Kasim Reed, who’s the mayor of Atlanta. Maybe Adam Silver, who’s the commisioner of the NBA. Maybe Donald Trump, who fires people. But somebody soon. Somebody, please.
The past four days have been the worst in Hawks history, which is saying something. In four days, they’ve cast themselves not just as racists — as if that weren’t bad enough — but as masochists. Team leaders are fighting with each other even as their organization is fighting for credibility, and the latter battle has been all but lost.
This began with Bruce Levenson’s declaration that, in belated light of a racially insensitive email written two years ago, he would sell his piece of the team. That was bad. Everything since has been worse.
On Monday, the letter from Michael Gearon Jr. that started the probe resulting in Levenson’s letter being brought to light was obtained by two Atlanta TV stations. In it, Gearon called for general manager Danny Ferry to be fired for insensitive comments made about Luol Deng during a June conference call. That letter, it stands to reason, could only have come from the Gearon camp.
Wednesday brought what may have been intended as a return of serve. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports produced “a partial transcript” of the call in question — Gearon claims to have an audio tape — that noted Gearon didn’t raise an outcry after the offending remark. (According to the transcript, Gearon does say, “Oh, my God. That sounds like Donald Sterling on TMZ.”)
Wojnarowski also reports that Gearon responded to Levenson’s email of Aug. 27, 2012, with this: “Was tied up … Will call soon.” Wojnarowski notes the absence of “the outrage regarding Levenson’s email that existed in his pursuit of Ferry’s removal.” Is it possible that the “partial transcript” and the Gearon email were provided by someone within the Hawks’ organization seeking to paint the purported whistle-blower as nothing more than an owner marginalized by Ferry, who was essentially Levenson’s hire, and new CEO Steve Koonin?
It gets confusing, I know. But think of this way: The Hawks have split in two. There’s the Levenson-Koonin-Ferry group, and there’s the Atlanta-based segment of ownership headed by Gearon. The latter bunch has many gripes — it believes Ferry has shunned Dominique Wilkins, the Hall of Fame Hawk who’s a team vice president — but those gripes would have remained mere grumbles if Ferry hadn’t said something objectionable about Deng.
Even Koonin has conceded that point. (He told Dale Russell of WAGA that Ferry, in saying Deng “had a little African in him,” had “indicted an entire continent.”) Koonin claims Ferry has been punished — although Koonin won’t say how. And if the partial transcript was intended as exculpatory evidence, it falls short.
Writes Wojnarowski: “Ferry marched himself directly into a foolish, ignorant riff of African stereotypes. On and on, Ferry (spoke of) how Deng ‘has got some African in him’ and proceeded to make a comparison to Africans with phony facades selling counterfeit goods.”
Ferry and Koonin maintain that the GM was only reading from background reports. Wojnarowski mentions such reports but draws a different conclusion: “In context of the transcripts, it appears that those had been Ferry’s own interjections on the call, somehow supporting the intel culled outside of the Hawks.”
It wasn’t enough that outsiders are pointing angry fingers at the Hawks. (Magic Johnson tweeted that Ferry should resign.) Being the Hawks, they’re pointing fingers at one another. The spectacle of Steve Belkin suing the other owners was regrettable, but Belkin lived in Boston and was one against six. Today this franchise stands united only in its lust for mutually assured destruction.
From a PR standpoint, the Hawks have been a calamity. They released news of Levenson’s intent to sell without mentioning that Ferry had also been disciplined. (Political axiom: In a crisis, all the bad should come out immediately.) That teed up a second-day story for us media types, and they waited until 7:07 a.m. on the third day — nine hours after Gearon’s letter emerged — to produce a statement from Ferry.
Koonin was scheduled to meet with civil rights leaders Wednesday. On Tuesday, he sought to postpone the meeting. The leaders showed up anyway and, after no audience was granted, held a news conference with Philips Arena as a backdrop. The Hawks then released a statement that concluded: “We ask our community to work with us, be patient with us, and help us heal.”
So it’s come to that: The Hawks are somehow the wounded party. They’ve again embarrassed themselves and this city, but they need our patience. I don’t know about you, but I’m fresh out. I’m ready to ship this bunch to Seattle. Or to Saskatoon. Just somewhere far, far away.
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