It's final, I got a call from one of my friends ..

[Joker]

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This whole thing just disgusts me. It's sickening. Seriously, if this stuff is true - and I'm hoping it's not - then David Stern should kick these guys out of the league, because they have to be the most incompetent owners in the history of professional sports.

First of all, they invite some guy they barely know to be their partner and help them buy a team as part of some hair-brained scheme that they apparently hatched on a whim in the space of two or three weeks - "hey, let's buy a couple professional sports teams...yeah, that sounds like fun."

Then - surprise, surprise - none of these random rich dudes can ever agree on anything, so pretty soon they get into a huge and embarrasing public fight and nearly cost themselves Joe Johnson. This results in the ouster of one of the partners. But then the remaining partners can't even manage to draft a contract correctly, so next thing they know the ousted partner is destroying them in court at every turn and making them look like morons. Soon the ousted partner has won the right to buy everyone else out.

In the meantime, these guys have been complaining that Belkin was evil because he didn't want to spend money to win, but next thing you know we're hearing that the "good guys" have a chance to trade for a 24 year-old All-NBA Center and become an instant contender without even giving up any core players, yet they'd prefer to blow the 3rd pick on a guy who isn't even a top 5 prospect just to make a

little extra money

in CHINA?

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Well it's not little, it's quite alot if you think about it, this is big business, really big business and makes sense financially. Yi is like Brad Pitt of China he way more popluar then Yao, he the face new generation in China, the face. This is globalization at it's finest. The Hawks officially have said forget the fanbase locally and takes it elsewhere.

[Clueless]

i agree horford is a bust i was thinking more of the next jon koncak instead of sam bowie though

[DrReality]

Welcome Joe.

I read/heard somewhere that we might draft a player (Yi) who will then be traded to someone else. Don't remember the details. Anyone else know them.

[vdunkndunk]

What good would more money do these guys when, according to who you believe, we could have Amare Stoudamire RIGHT NOW? How much better is it going to get than Amare Stoudamire and Joe Johnson and Josh Smith playing together the East?

How many times to you have a chance to put a SG as good as Joe Johnson together with a front court as good as Amare Stoudamire and Josh Smith - while all those guys are in their prime - and still have a top 2 pick as your starting SF, two top 6 picks coming off the bench, and all of them still playing on their rookie contracts?

And you have a chance to do this while playing in a terrible conference, a conference where the Cavs just made the NBA Finals with Lebron James and a bunch of spare part - yet you'd rather cater to a market on the other side of the world? We could win the East next year with Amare, while we're almost a lock to deliver a top 10 pick to the Suns if we draft Yi.

So I don't care - if we turn down Amare for Yi, I'm through with this franchise. I've already suffered enough - how much incompetence are we supposed to put up with? If I find out that we've passed on Chris Paul, Deron Wiliams, Luol Deng, Brandon Roy, and now Amare Stoudamire in favor of .... Josh Childress, Marvin Williams, Shelden Williams, an Yi Jianlian....that will be it for me. There's only so much I can take as an emotionally invested sports fan.

I really don't know if we turned down the Amare deal or if it never existed or if Phoenix never agreed to it. But if the facts come out and we favored Yi over Amare, that's just unforgiveable. I haven't passed judgement yet - I'm still open to being proved wrong - but the Hawks' homepage right now doesn't give me much reason for optimism since there are two pictures of Yi up right now and no pictures of Horford or anyone else.

[Clueless]

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Well it's not little, it's quite alot if you think about it, this is big business, really big business and makes sense financially. Yi is like Brad Pitt of China he way more popluar then Yao, he the face new generation in China, the face. This is globalization at it's finest. The Hawks officially have said forget the fanbase locally and takes it elsewhere.

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[/indent]

why would the owners take anyone else after durant and oden this draft is weak and doesnt have any other sure fire all star. There is no player the hawks can draft that would bring in more fans then are already going there. I know alot of fans on here are saying if they draft YI that its there done with the hawks. However that is not the truth regardless of what the hawks do you will still be a fan just as much as you are now

[Clueless]

you cant blame the owners for not getting amare it appears if hawks said not to the amare deal it is because of belkin. once belkin has killed that trade what other option do you have but to use that pick on someone. There is nothing that makes horford look that much better then YI so why not take the player who is more marketable and that can help the hawks in the future go out and get a superstar with the extra money they get from having YI

[AnakinJoe]

I doubt that you will ever see anything that confirms that Phoenix was looking to trade Amare, especially if he stays. Let's face it, they were not really looking to dump Amare, that was probably their third option after Marion and Kurt Thomas (to the Bobcats).

[Lascar78]

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I have come to grips with the posibility of Yi on the basis of the owners doing this in their self-interest. But my question is how different is this situation from the JJ situation? Belkin went against BK and right now the owners are (supposedly) going against BK. The only real difference is that with Belkin he was fighting the additional owners while currently its a majority of owners fighting against a minority of owners and BK. Also, this isn't going into public humiliation like Belkin did. Just throwing some thoughts out there.

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There are 2 major differences here:

-1: Belkin went against the agreed power structure, which was the 3 parties vote on big moves, majority rules. Here, the owners would be coming to a concensus in the way it's supposed to happen. However it should mean that they don't trust BK any more and should fire BK.

-2: The Belkin deal was the last confirmation of the often rumored fact that he wants to run the franchise as a loser, all about profits and couldn't care about the product on the floor. It's a clear pattern. In this case they are not refusing to spend. They have already shown that they'll spend (JJ), and they were trying to get Amare (assuming they were onboard with that). Getting Yi over Horford doesn't cost them more or less, you just open yourself for more money to come in. There's a big difference between "I won't pay for that guy, I won't pay for any one, we make the most money if we spend the least" and "Well either guy could really be the best player in the long run, let's at least take the guy who will bring more cash and attention for the team". Certainly it's reprehensible and a bad sign, but it's nowhere near the Belkin level in my book

Of course I am assuming that the owners were ok with the Amare trade, and not that they refused to sign off because they wanted the China money. That would be a whole different story.

[curtmcgirt]

While I dont want Yi @3 (cough cough trade down with memphis and pick up a later pick cough cough), I can see what makes him a good pick.

Instant All-Star status: You have the largest nation on Earth picking for one of your players and probably JJ and Smoove as well.

Possible Rookie of the year.

Tap the huge Asian community in Atlanta $$$

Network and TNT games. More exposure = more cash AND free agents that can see us and may want to come here in future.

If nothing else, take him as an asset and see if we can get someone to pick Conley for us later and take him for them and pick up another pick.

[TheDude]

I was reading it and backing up BK in my mind the whole time until I read HE ACTUALLY WANTED BRANDAN WRIGHT????

[TheDude]

If they like Yi because of his bball skill or potential, i'd be fine with that..

but no, it's about money and i'm definitely NOT fine with that.

[BossTweed]

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I was reading it and backing up BK in my mind the whole time until I read HE ACTUALLY WANTED BRANDAN WRIGHT????

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Remember that this is from nbasuperstar40's "source". I wouldn't shoot BK over a rumor that may or may not be true.

[Clueless]

I think it would be spun the hawks were just interested in YI because of the money and marketability he brings regardless if Hawks liked him because of his skills or not

[AtlantaCham]

Let's see. We get a 7'1", 250lb, 38in leaping skilled basketball player with a 7'5" wingspan.

We lose BK and Woody.

This could be the greatest day ever!!!!! Bring it on!!!!!

[Clueless]

if Yao Ming was in this draft i would think it would be spun the same way.

[atlien]

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What good would more money do these guys when, according to who you believe, we could have Amare Stoudamire RIGHT NOW? How much better is it going to get than Amare Stoudamire and Joe Johnson and Josh Smith playing together the East?

How many times to you have a chance to put a SG as good as Joe Johnson together with a front court as good as Amare Stoudamire and Josh Smith - while all those guys are in their prime - and still have a top 2 pick as your starting SF, two top 6 picks coming off the bench, and all of them still playing on their rookie contracts?

And you have a chance to do this while playing in a terrible conference, a conference where the Cavs just made the NBA Finals with Lebron James and a bunch of spare part - yet you'd rather cater to a market on the other side of the world? We could win the East next year with Amare, while we're almost a lock to deliver a top 10 pick to the Suns if we draft Yi.

So I don't care - if we turn down Amare for Yi, I'm through with this franchise. I've already suffered enough - how much incompetence are we supposed to put up with? If I find out that we've passed on Chris Paul, Deron Wiliams, Luol Deng, Brandon Roy, and now Amare Stoudamire in favor of .... Josh Childress, Marvin Williams, Shelden Williams, an Yi Jianlian....that will be it for me. There's only so much I can take as an emotionally invested sports fan.

I really don't know if we turned down the Amare deal or if it never existed or if Phoenix never agreed to it. But if the facts come out and we favored Yi over Amare, that's just unforgiveable. I haven't passed judgement yet - I'm still open to being proved wrong - but the Hawks' homepage right now doesn't give me much reason for optimism since there are two pictures of Yi up right now and no pictures of Horford or anyone else.

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as always, ditto that

[bird_dirt]

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Let's see. We get a 7'1", 250lb, 38in leaping skilled basketball player with a 7'5" wingspan.

We lose BK and Woody.

This could be the greatest day ever!!!!! Bring it on!!!!!

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[vdunkndunk]

Okay...I've called down a little. Hopefully all this talk is bogus.

If we take Horford, all is forgiven and I take everything I said back.

And I'm not even totally against Yi - I'm just totally against taking him for non-basketball reasons. If he's the best prospect (which I don't think he is), then take him. If Horford's the best, take him. Don't take Yi just for the money.

But even so, that's not the worst part. The worst part is if we passed on Amare for Yi. If that's true, it's unforgiveable. But I'm still hoping it's not true. It couldn't be true, could it?

[Guest Walter]

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Let's see. We get a 7'1", 250lb, 38in leaping skilled basketball player with a 7'5" wingspan.

We lose BK and Woody.

This could be the greatest day ever!!!!! Bring it on!!!!!

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I would be ecstatic. Definite post of the day and the draft hasn't happened yet.

W

[bird_dirt]

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who works in the NBA that the serveral Hawks onwers were against the trade for Amare. They were sold about Yi. He said that Yi would not only bring a TV deal for the Hawks to China but it will bring big money sponsers as well. What does this mean for fans of the Hawks, not much other then the fact that the onwers only wan't to make money and winning is secondary, they don't care about winning they just want to make money, as for BK he been pretty much screwed and he probably in his last year in Atlanta. He was strongly advocating the Amare deal and did everything to show why it would be most reasonable, but the two owners where already sold on Yi and sold the Hawks to Yi people like a corporate trade. This is a great day for some of the Hawks owners, they now can expand they profits and make some with the addition of Yi, but a bad day for Hawk fans becuase this is the beginning of the end.

Note: Don't expect Woodson or Knight to be here next year due to the emergent of a rookie who play great who the Hawks passed on and media bashing of passing on the Amare trade, and what was said to Ford was talk from one of the owners to put the fault on Belkin and which Belkin is from his understanding is piss to the tee and is now trying vastly to take control of the team when the trial resumes. This has really make a sticky sitution in Atlanta even sticktier.

BK is currently pissed as well, he wanted Brandan Wright and was override and now the Amare trade and was ovveride, he currently has no power. Two owners are running to show and other owners have no backbone or well is Belkinm Belkin really has no power right now neither.

My friend works for the NBA in Seacacus, NJ. No he doesn't work for the Hawks but this is causing quite a stir in NBA intercircle as well. Stern needs to step in but I doubt he will, this is only getting worst.

My personal thoughts

, I think BK screwed himself over years ago but now is getting what he did to us when he selected Marvin but then again, owners had a big part in that as well. The ownership in this organization is all about business, which I knew that serveral years ago, that's what happen when you take corporate world, white men in their 40's and let them buy a NBA and NHL team without even knowing what a basketball rim regulation height or what it take to win a hockey title is. These guys are not about bring the best product to it market, there about bring the most profitble product to the market and this move is like striking gold for this organization. Many of you are sadden or happy by the moves made by the organization and the fact that they keep selling garbage and you buy it up like it's really good. All I got to say is do you, but I'm not falling for that and I'm done with the organization and I'm becoming a full pleage Denver Nuggets fan.

Take care, nbasuperstar40.

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so much for this great "insider" info. thanks superstar, keep it coming.