This was not your normal media day.
The date usually signifies the start of the NBA season and is full of optimism and excitement. However for Hawks players and coaches, the preseason gathering was a day of relief. For Monday, with all the interviews and photo shoots, there was the chance to finally put the firestorm that has engulfed the organization behind and turn their full attention to basketball.
Players acknowledge they were hurt by the racially inflammatory comments by controlling owner Bruce Levenson and general manager Danny Ferry that have rocked the franchise to its foundation. Levenson and his partners are selling their interest in the team. Ferry is on an indefinite leave of absence. The players were caught in the middle. They used words like sad, disheartening and surprised. It was all to describe their reaction to the email sent by Levenson to describe the ethnic makeup of the Philips Arena crowd and game operations and Ferry’s comments about free agent Luol Deng in a conference call with ownership and management.
“Please look at the bigger picture,” Paul Millsap said of his message to fans. “We are getting new ownership. Things are being changed. Things are being done. Things are headed in the right direction. We are excited about this team and things to come. Hopefully, they stand behind us.
“We had a lot of conversations up to his point. The faster we get past this and move forward, the better off we’ll be.”
Ferry received strong support from the team’s players. Most said they had personally spoken to Ferry and that he was sincere in his apology.
“Danny Ferry made a mistake,” DeMarre Carroll said. “I think he knows he made a mistake. That was definitely wrong what he said. I don’t think him making that mistake defines him as a person. Me personally, I don’t think he’s a racist. And I don’t think, as a society, one mistake should define who you are.”
Millsap said he has forgiven Ferry. Elton Brand, who agreed to return to the organization for another season, said he spoke to Deng before making his final decision which came in the midst of the controversy.
“He helped me with my decision,” Brand said of his conversation. “I said to him ‘Are you making a stand? What’s going on?’ because you are caught up in the moment. He was like ‘I want to move on.’
“He forgave Danny. I think Danny definitely deserves a second chance. This is after the heat-of-the-moment feeling. I think Danny made a mistake, a horrible mistake. But if he can get a second chance I know he’ll be the best GM when it comes to those matters. He’ll try to make a difference, try to make a change, try to make right for that mistake.”
Al Horford said he would welcome Ferry back after their conversation. He said there have been two eras in his tenure with the Hawks – pre and post Ferry.
“He’s done a lot of good assembling the group together and the coaches and bringing a different attitude – a winning attitude – into our organization,” Horford said.
Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins, who was named as Special Advisor to CEO Steve Koonin Monday, said he will work to help the franchise move forward. He didn’t offer his support to Ferry or Levenson. While Wilkins said others will ultimately decide their fate, he wants to work to save the Hawks’ brand.
“You have to move on with a clean slate,” Wilkins said. “More importantly, you have to move on with conscious of mind in making sure this never happens again. We have to be on the same page if we are to continue to grow. Unfortunately, we had bad apples on the tree. We had to wait for those bad apples to fall before we can prosper as a whole. It’s about staying above it all.”
Coach Mike Budenholzer, who has assumed some of Ferry’s basketball operations duties, said he met with the team as a group. He said he has been impressed by their commitment to each other and to moving forward. Still, the coach acknowledged the damage that has been done and the work ahead to repair the team’s soiled reputation in the community.
“The fans are hugely important and it’s important that we earn their trust and earn their respect and hopefully get them to appreciate what our players give on a nightly basis and we give them a team that they can be excited about,” Budenholzer said. “We really feel like we are doing that. But I think it’s important that we understand how we may have hurt the community here recently. But I hope the community very much knows how much myself as the coach and the players appreciate them, want them, respect them.”
The process of moving forward begins in earnest Tuesday with the start of training camp. The Hawks will spend three days on the campus of the University of Georgia before a preseason game next Monday.
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