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kg01

Get-Bak! Coach
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So here's the rest of the story (per Brian Windhorst on NBA radio):

- Hawks were having a post-Sterling ban free agency meeting during which Ferry (GM) was reading a background report.

- Report (prepared by someone outside the organization) contained something (which Ferry read out loud) that a different owner felt was offensive.

- Said owner called for a full investigation which turned up the email in question.

** Remember that since inception the Hawks' ownership group has been and remains a dysfunctional group, so it's not unusual to have an owner try to start mess. (Surprise, surprise the franchise can't get anything significant done.)

- Email was basically a poorly-worded marketing discussion which, as @forensicbuzz said, contained racially-insensitive language.

- Levinson (email author) felt selling was the least-damaging route to take. Windhorst's opinion was this was likely survivable, but Levinson stated that the process of fighting it would be unnecessarily damaging to the Hawks. So he decided to sell.

- Windhorst said there are 5-6 ownership groups ready to buy a team so the Hawks could probably sell by this afternoon if the NBA wanted.

I wonder if Ferry survives this considering it was his reading that sparked it all and considering he was hand-picked by Levinson. Ferry also said a primary reason he left SAntonio was because of the stability brought on by Levinson taking over as the Hawks' owner spokesperson or w/e.
 

Bigb

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Get rid of everyone that owns even a fraction of a percent of the Hawks. Then do the same with the Braves.
 

kg01

Get-Bak! Coach
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Get rid of everyone that owns even a fraction of a percent of the Hawks. Then do the same with the Braves.

Careful what you wish for if you're a Hawks fan like me. There's several groups wanting to move a team to Seattle.

Also, to follow-up on my post before, what Ferry said was in reference to Deng and went STTE, "he still has some African in him".
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/source...-initiated-hawks-investigation-162901096.html
"He's still a young guy overall," Ferry said, league sources with direct knowledge of the probe told Yahoo. “He's a good guy overall. But he's not perfect. He's got some African in him. And I don't say that in a bad way."

I think it was simply a reference to style of play ... maybe. I don't think it was intended as an overtly racist remark. However, they've gone radio-silent other than to say Ferry has been disciplined internally. I think he needs to come out and explain what the comment meant. Hiding just makes it worse as it allows idiots like me to self-interpret Ferry's thoughts and we can be dead wrong.
 

kg01

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Crap. This thing's getting ugly.
Letter from one owner to the other calling for Ferry's firing:

http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/letter-written-by-michael-gearon-jr-to-bruce-leven/nhJSH/
With respect to one potential free agent, a highly-regarded African-American player and humanitarian, Ferry talked about the player’s good points, and then went on to describe his negatives, stating that “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 racial slur by describing the player (and impliedly, all persons of African descent) as a two-faced liar and cheat.
And as of this morning the Hawks plan on keeping him as GM. Emphasis on "as of this morning".
 

Bigb

Jolly Good Fellow
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Careful what you wish for if you're a Hawks fan like me. There's several groups wanting to move a team to Seattle.

I doubt the NBA would let them abandon the Atlanta TV market for the Seattle TV market.
 
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