September 9, 201412 yr Got it: Gearon wrote the letter after Ferry, on a conference call with management and ownership, described free agent target Luol Deng “he has a little African in him, not in a bad way, but he's a guy who would have a nice store out front, but sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back.”
September 9, 201412 yr By the way, we do all assume that he is 100% correct for the reason that white guys aren't coming, right? In the south? He's 100% right on the reasons. Don't know if I can agree with that. Just because someone is white and lives in the southeastern US, doesn't automatically make them racist or intolerant. It's frustrating being a white person who has a drawl and automatically being assumed to be racist and is somewhat of a stereotype in and of itself IMO. On the whole, Americans don't really seem huge on public transportation. Atlanta is one of the few cities that has a decent public transportation city, so I'd imagine it's hard to compare them to many places, but I know as a UK fan, I didn't mind taking the MARTA to the SEC tournament games or anything like that. Honestly, some of the worst places I've been to as far as racism goes are in the far North. Maybe it's that I'm a white guy who was born and still lives in the southern US, but I can't really say that I've seen a city worse than Cincinnati if we're strictly talking about black/white issues. I would think that in a city as large as Atlanta, there'll obviously be your problems like there are everywhere else, but I'm not really sure it'd be one of the first places that pops into my mind when it comes to racial issues. Are there some white people who don't go because of that? I'm sure there are. Is it a significant number compared to other cities? I have a hard time believing that. Truth is, NBA basketball has largely struggled in the southeast. That's throughout history. In the southeast region, once we're to the NBA playoffs, it's summer and kids are outside playing, families are going to the beaches, kids sports time is occupied with playing football (which is king), maybe some baseball or golf, whatever. What do these franchises have in common?: Orlando, Miami, New Orleans, and even Charlotte (which hasn't had an NFL team very long and is in a basketball crazy state) All are teams in the Southeast with historically poor attendance. Make it football games and you'll see them improve. People in the Southeast care about football, baseball, golf, other sports. Outside of Florida's run in the NCAA (which still doesn't make up for much), how many times have we seen good college teams from any of the SEC states outside of Kentucky? It's a people don't care about basketball thing. It doesn't seem to be a problem at all at football games. Miami had a great team for 3 years and had to resort to LeBron putting on his own dunk contest just to get people to show up to games on time. The Hawks are in the worst place to be in the NBA-- just good enough to make the playoffs each season but not good enough to be better than a #6 or so and win their first series. That kind of purgatory over a number of years would have to be draining on all fans.
September 9, 201412 yr Ferry implied that all Black people are two-faced liars and cheats http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/news/documents/2014/09/08/Gearon_letter.pdf
September 9, 201412 yr Ferry implied that all Black people are two-faced liars and cheats http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/news/documents/2014/09/08/Gearon_letter.pdf Can you quote the letter or source it from somewhere else? I don't really want to open the plug-in without knowing the source.
September 9, 201412 yr Can you quote the letter or source it from somewhere else? I don't really want to open the plug-in without knowing the source. See post #121. That's the comment.
September 9, 201412 yr See post #121. That's the comment. Gotcha. Thanks. Now I'm wondering whether he said that to a team that was predominantly black in jest and everyone more or less knew it and took it as such or why people aren't more upset with Ferry instead of the owner.
September 9, 201412 yr Gotcha. Thanks. Now I'm wondering whether he said that to a team that was predominantly black in jest and everyone more or less knew it and took it as such or why people aren't more upset with Ferry instead of the owner. Everyone is. Twitter is calling for him to resign or be fired. Noone is taking his side in this unlike Levinson. It's my understanding he said that in front of white people. Hawks GM Danny Ferry's comments about Luol Deng led to owner's ouster
September 9, 201412 yr I'll bet BET's management is relieved to have a double standard applied to their network. Imagine an entire business built upon a model of targeting a group of people as customers solely because of the color of their skin.
September 9, 201412 yr I'll bet BET's management is relieved to have a double standard applied to their network. Imagine an entire business built upon a model of targeting a group of people as customers solely because of the color of their skin. :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:
September 9, 201412 yr Again, we can all be uncomfortable with the discussion and debate whether it's a wise business move. What is NOT debatable unless there is that his #1 goal is to increase season ticket sales. He said it in his email. That should tell you that green is the color he is most interested in. If having a DJ play Wiz Khalifa at halftime of every game ensured a sellout he'd do it. If having BET Park 106 host the halftime show would ensure sellouts he'd do it. His goal is NOT to have less blacks. His goal is to have a demographic that will spend more money actually show up. Labeling this as a Sterling-like email is lazy. No history to support it and the #1 goal of the owner is STATED in his email - more season ticket sales. The rest can be debated as to the efficacy of his plan but there is NO evidence of racism. None.
September 9, 201412 yr I'm not sure where I will stand on this a week from now, but my initial reaction is that the Hawks being so mediocre has more to do with lack of season ticket sales than white/black issues. They haven't made it past the second round of the playoffs in my lifetime. Put a better product out there and you'll attract more customers. Maybe that analysis is too simplistic, but that's how I feel about it for the time being. At first blush it would seem that way. However, there are a lot of teams whose product is not great but their season ticket sales are better.
September 9, 201412 yr Again, we can all be uncomfortable with the discussion and debate whether it's a wise business move. What is NOT debatable unless there is that his #1 goal is to increase season ticket sales. He said it in his email. That should tell you that green is the color he is most interested in. If having a DJ play Wiz Khalifa at halftime of every game ensured a sellout he'd do it. If having BET Park 106 host the halftime show would ensure sellouts he'd do it. His goal is NOT to have less blacks. His goal is to have a demographic that will spend more money actually show up. Labeling this as a Sterling-like email is lazy. No history to support it and the #1 goal of the owner is STATED in his email - more season ticket sales. The rest can be debated as to the efficacy of his plan but there is NO evidence of racism. None. That is your interpretation. Doesn't make it factual anymore than my interpretation does.
September 9, 201412 yr Yeah, racism. And he's trying to figure out how to pander to that crowd to get their money. If his arena isn't selling out but the black people are the ones still lining his pocket why wouldn't he try to get more black people out? Why is going after an audience that will actually support your product derided as "pandering?" Do not all businesses do that? As to your last question a)we do not know what efforts he has already tried and b)he seems to have created an environment already that, in his mind, would get more black folk to the games. Is there an NBA team that relies predominantly on the black audience for season ticket sales?
September 9, 201412 yr Why is going after an audience that will actually support your product derided as "pandering?" Do not all businesses do that? As to your last question a)we do not know what efforts he has already tried and b)he seems to have created an environment already that, in his mind, would get more black folk to the games. Is there an NBA team that relies predominantly on the black audience for season ticket sales? Do all businesses do what? Conjure up ways to get whites that are scared of blacks to come to their games?
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