McDavid blasts Atlanta Spirit

[HMFFL]

In a wide-ranging phone interview Thursday from Fort Worth, McDavid unloaded on Turner and the Atlanta Spirit, the dysfunctional group that owns the Hawks and Thrashers. He also disclosed some of his original plans for the teams, including:

• To bring in partners, claiming “six to 10” interested parties. “I would’ve kept controlling interest,” he said. “That’s one of the problems with the Spirit deal. I’ve never seen a palace coup be a success against someone who owns 51 percent of the stock. You listen to input from partners, but at the end of the day you say, ‘Thank you very much’ and make your decision.”

• To consider an offer from an undisclosed party who wanted to buy the Thrashers for “what we were paying for everything” and keep the team in Atlanta. “I don’t know if we would’ve done it but it would’ve immediately wiped out all of our debt.”

• To hire Doc Rivers or Mike Dunleavy as Hawks coach. He had conversations with both, and counts Dunleavy as a friend.

McDavid also believes the franchises and arena are worth “far more than [the Spirit] paid for it,” adding, “Our verdict validates that.”

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[JoshB914]

Well thank god we didn't end up with Mike Dunleavy.

[LL Cool Scott]

I will continue to say this until my grave: screwing over McDavid and colluding to allow the inept, cheap Atlanta Spirit group to buy this team is the second worst thing that ever happened to this franchise. I really don't think we will ever be a championship contender until some Arthur Blank type comes in and saves this team. It all starts at the top, and we have the worst ownership situation in the entire league.