TheNorthCydeRises

And Joe Johnson got the biggest contract in the league at one time ... by this same ownership group. If what Woj said was true about Ferry's deal, he negotiated a hell of a sweetheart deal. - 6 yrs guaranteed - 12 million total - only had to answer to Levenson And people wondered why some of the owners wanted him out? Ferry got that money not because he was a great GM in Cleveland. He got it strictly because he was affiliated with the Spurs, and could sell our feeble minded ownership on the dream of doing things like the Spurs ... without the Hall of Fame PF/C of course

Ferry is the real deal? He's not even a top 3 GM in this division, let alone being "the real deal".

It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to sound. I can even see why Koonin gave him some of the benefit of the doubt, because he didn't say it in a malicious way. But he wasn't reading off of a report, and if he was, he was at best paraphrasing from it. The thing to take from this call, is that he said those words way too comfortably. And as this gets played over and over for the next 48 hours, he's going to get ripped apart unless he comes out on TV or radio and explain himself. And the heat will now be turned up on Koonin to do something with Ferry. If he doesn't, he may fall too. Lol @ Channing Frye and Sefolosha being 2 of the main guys he was looking at. That's enough to suspend him right there.

Hope you're not referring to me. Because I always go line by line as to why I'm not a fan of the GM

LMAO !! And that was before I saw the small print at the bottom. That banner is funny as hell. I'm going to have to borrow that.

Great ball? See ... This is what I'm talking about. We were a "whopping" 16 - 13 at the time Horford went down. We were only 1 of 3 teams in the conference that had a winning record in the East. And we had played a bottom 5 strength of schedule up until that point. We hadn't even gotten into the meat of our schedule yet, and we were barely over .500. The season before, the Hawks were 19 - 10 in the first 29 games of the season. We were the 3rd seed only because most of the conference sucked. You know that, right? It's just wierd how people are spinning last season. We even went through one of our worst stretches in franchise history, losing 14 of 15 games. Even teams with injuries play better ball than that. We needed a significant talent or 2 to help this team out. A guy like Deng, while not an All-Star, would've represented a significant upgrade to this roster. So would a lot of other people. But fans are all giddy about Thabo Sefolosha and Kent Bazemore? That's the used car salesman in Ferry. Trying to convince people that all we need is marginal talent, because the system is so good. No ... This is a league in which you need significant talent.

Hawks fans have propped up this dude as being the Savior, simply because he got us out from under JJ's contract. People forget that Ferry has always been one of those stereotypical Dukies who carried himself like he's better than everyone. Whether people believe Bonzi or not, the fact is that our beloved GM is nowhere near as smart or squeaky clean as they think he is.

Wow. That team won 38 games last year, and pushed a Pacers team in turmoil to 7 games, and people think we're on the brink of something great ... despite missing out on every good free agent this summer. Ferry got called out as late as early April for his comments about making the playoffs not being important. Even SOME Hawks fans though we were thinking about tanking for a ping pong ball. I've said even before all of this went down, that the GM is nothing but a used car salesman. Can't attract big names. Doesn't target the right personnel. We're a solid .500 team in the Ferry Administration, with us losing more games in Year 2, yet Ferry is the savior? People are willing to bring him back, and risk losing what little support we already have in the city? People still trust the decision making of the GM after all of this? I'm sorry. I'm not willing to play Russian Roulette with the credibility of this franchise, just to keep a mediocre GM in power. Get him, and the rest of those clowns outta here.

And teams will flat out use this against us, when vying for the same free agents.

Funny that the Falcons use Rise Up these days ... when we used the same slogan back in the mid 2000s. But yeah, I wouldn't be against an all-female power structure with the Hawks. No way they could be more dysfunctional than what we have now.

If you wanted to go with an all female management hierarchy, Oprah and Sara would be majority owners, and this woman would be the new GM and be in charge of basketball operations: Nancy Leiberman And the wild thing is ... she's actually qualified to do it. She's been a former GM on the WNBA level. She's currently an assistant GM of the Texas Legends ( Dallas Mavericks ) in the D League . She does GREAT NBA analysis on Sirius NBA radio and on TV on occasion. She knows the NBA game. And most of all, she has credibility around the league. The average uneducated ( and possibly sexist ) media writer or basketball fan would see a move like this as a publicity stunt. But if the Hawks really wanted to do a radical shift in thought and management, a female power hierarchy might just work.

Imagine Sara and Oprah becoming majority owners of the team. You'd effectively ease racial tensions in that city, along with bringing in 2 women that could tap into the REAL cash cow in the Atlanta market ... The female professional with tons of disposable income. From an advertising and sponsorship standpoint, corporations would line up to be affiliated with these 2. The Big issue though would be this ... Could a good enough basketball mind emerge to run the basketball operatons, to maximize the money that these 2 could generate and put into the team, by creating an exciting and championship level product on the floor?

LOL. I'm fairness to Gucci though, that is the only squad in the last 15 years that has won 50 games in a season, and at least threatened a little bit to win a 2nd round series.

I'll start. - Dominique announces his intentions to become an owner, but also aligns himself with Gearon Jr. In the process, he blasts Levenson and doesn't give his endorsement to Ferry.

Some of you need to be thinking in the best interest of the Hawks, and not of Ferry. He has played a part in this entire drama that threatens to damage this franchise for many years. Clear ALL OF THEM OUT. The Hawks were here before Ferry, and we'll be here after Ferry.

I don't like Gearon, but look at what you're typing. You're blaming Gearon for "destroying the franchise", when it was Ferry who said the dumb ass comments about Deng ( even if he didn't write the report ) .. and it was Levenson that wrote an email TO THE NEW GM, crying about how middle aged White males who are scared of Blacks, don't come to the games .. and that everything at Philips is too Black. Gearon had nothing to do with what those 2 dumbasses said. So go ahead and blame Gearon for trying to get the GM outta here and causing the ripple effect that we have now. But without those 2 idiots saying borderline racist things, Gearon would still be in the background with no "cards" to play. Direct your anger toward ALL OF THEM, not just the one you hate the most.

This is not going away man. If not for the Ray Rice video, the heat would be turned all the way up on the Hawks. Those national writers can cause extensive damage as to how this franchise is perceived by others ... namely other NBA free agents. The toxicity of all of this could stain this franchise for a long time, if Koonin doesn't clean house.

I want them ALL GONE. Gearon can kick rocks for all I care.

Those twitter zombies include the national media writers.

- So the GM admits to saying this - The GM is willing to accept the punishment from Koonin - You can see what he said for yourself But you need to HEAR the tape as well? OK man.

Vocal minorities ... - which include most of the Black basketball fans in metro Atlanta - a good chunk of the White Hawks fans - most of the Atlanta media - most of the national media - some of the NBA past and present players - 1 or 2 Hawks owners - and Deng himself.

But as of right now, our current GM hasn't done anything more than the previous "crappy GMs" of the past. People may act like he has, but he hasn't. All the fan base has, is the "hope" that he can do better. There might be better candidates out there who can turn this around much quickly than our current guy.

Please review the past 30 hours. It was more than that, that was said.

I don't think it has anything to do with seeing the bad in people. It's all about seeing the potential money and prospects being lost, if we kept him on. The Levenson letter combined with what was in the scouting report that the GM read, makes this a very toxic situation for the Hawks. And to me, you can't put the entire organization in jeopardy, just to save one person.

He fooled SOME of you. Not me. I never trusted the dude from day 1. He's always came across as a Jay Bills-like.. "I'm the smartest person in the room" type personna.