Claws out: How a Hawks regime fell

[jayu70]

This is a very long read. But it is a must read and worth the time. Some details we knew or suspected, and some new details.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/13457071/nba-how-atlanta-hawks-regime-fell-apart

A few highlights:

Ferry was in high demand in the spring of 2012.

He had run the Cleveland Cavaliers in LeBron James' early years, from 2005-10. After a stint in the San Antonio Spurs' front office, offers from the Philadelphia 76ers and the Hawks put him on the delightful end of a bidding war. But he didn't need the money. He'd earned more than $50 million in his career as a player and executive and had invested well. He was more interested in power and stability.

The Hawks ownership concerned Ferry -- a history of squabbling, a recent near-sale of the team, the attempts to limit expenses. But Levenson, who had long admired the fellow Washingtonian, was determined to reel Ferry in.

Levenson addressed Ferry's concerns with one of the most wide-ranging, demanding contracts ever scored by an NBA general manager: A six-year contract at more than $2 million per season, guarantees the ownership would invest tens of millions into both a D-League team and a new practice facility and, the big one, Ferry would report to only one man in the organization -- Levenson.

Before the contract was signed, Levenson brought all of the owners together for a meeting at his apartment in Atlanta. During the discussion, Ferry explained what he intended to do and how he planned to operate the team. The Hawks presented a unique opportunity to replicate the Spurs model, an incubator to create a sustainable winner.

Gearon was at the meeting and aware of the parameters of Ferry's deal before it was signed. He would later make it clear he did not agree with the weight and scope of the contract.

When it came to Ferry actually functioning in his new role, Gearon wasn't ready for it at all.

hortly after he took over in June 2012, Ferry traded away Joe Johnson, the team's most high-profile player. Then he dealt Marvin Williams, a Hawk since he was drafted by the franchise second overall in 2005. Each move returned few significant contributors but added future draft picks and financial flexibility.

The overhaul didn't stop there. In addition to getting a commitment from the Hawks to build a training facility, Ferry persuaded ownership to set up a bona fide analytics operation, something the team had never invested in before. He later encouraged Levenson to consider hiring a true CEO, and Levenson eventually enlisted former Turner Entertainment Networks president Steve Koonin.

All of which was more than a little unsettling to Gearon, who cherished the team's past, no matter how mixed the results had been.

That was only the beginning.

Ferry also wanted to modernize the Hawks' medical program and staff. More than scouting or analytics, player health was a sphere where smart organizations were gaining a competitive advantage over old-fashioned ones. Ferry had gained a first-hand understanding of this during his time with the Spurs, arguably the NBA's earliest adopters of innovation on the training side.

To Ferry, the Hawks were still in the stone age. After his first season, he planned to fire head athletic trainer Wally Blase and, to Gearon's dismay, Radulovic.

Levenson and Ferry weren't fans of Wilkins' work as an analyst on the Hawks' local television broadcasts, either. Ferry wanted to provide Wilkins opportunities to improve, such as introducing him to a media consultant to work on his techniques and having the Hawks' assistant coaches meet with him before games to offer context on game plans that could be explained to fans. But Gearon believed Ferry's unsaid and underlying position, whether he was talking about his ambassadorial work for the organization or his talent as a color commentator, was that Wilkins wasn't up to the task.

Ferry was in favor of signing Deng, an unrestricted free agent, but Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer was skeptical. Several weeks before, Ferry and Budenholzer had traveled to Durham, North Carolina, and spent a day with Mike Krzyzewski, who coached both Deng and Ferry at Duke, to brief Budenholzer on Deng's game and personality.

[Jamaaliver]

With so much drama in the LBC...

Very well written and researched piece. Gearon definitely comes out of this looking like the villain.

I respect Ferry's strategy and ambition, but I took umbrage with some of his specific decisions. (Not trading Smoove, wasting 1st round draft picks, swinging for the fences in Free Agency every summer.)

Regardless, he'll undoubtedly get another shot in the NBA...and rightfully so. Most League insiders still consider him the architect and mastermind of the Hawks ascension.

[Jamaaliver]

Telling passages from the story:

Yet Budenholzer felt Ferry should resign, lest the Hawks be subsumed in disruption when training camp opened, and he made his wishes known in a heartfelt conversation with Ferry and Levenson at that time.

Ferry's efforts at contrition sometimes fell short to some inside the organization. Several Hawks executives were at times put off by Ferry's behavior during a compulsory two-day sensitive training session, especially since they considered his actions triggered the assembly in the first place. He came across as inattentive and dismissive of the exercise, some said, and fiddled with his phone quite a bit. Ferry contends he was taking notes on the meeting.

Thoughts:

• Bud saw the writing on the wall. That Ferry's presence threatened to undermine the season and that the team should have moved on from him immediately. (Stretching it out for 8+ months made no sense.)
  
• Ferry was strongly disliked by co-workers and subordinates.

Inattentive and dismissive? Yikes. never good things for a leader to be accused of.

[Jamaaliver]

Zach Lowe, probably the most well respected NBA writer in the game, speaks with Brian Windhorst about a bunch of stuff...including the story of Gearon, levenson and Ferry.

Hawks portion begins around 54 minute mark.

Here

Lowe and Windhorst assert that Mike Bud seized the opportunity to...benefit from DF's controversy and move into the void Ferry's departure would create.

Windhorst dubs it 'Spurs on Spurs violence'.

Budenholzer, apparently, bombed his initial interview with Levenson, but it was DF (and Popovich) that got him a 2nd shot. Coach Bud worked to push Ferry out of the picture before last season. And the success of the season, ironically, decreased the likelihood Ferry came back.

'Bud is now one of the most powerful men in the NBA'. -Brian Windhorst

As a result, CMB got a raise, a promotion and Ferry got canned.

What do we think? Did Bud have the franchise's best interests in mind...or did he make a power play to move up the ranks at the expense of an old friend?

[ATL Boy]

Finally got around to reading it all, it's a fantastic piece. I feel that Bud did deliberately undermine Ferry to pave his way into a position of true power.

[Jamaaliver]

Watch on YouTube

[tbhawksfan1]

in-fighting always brings squeletons out of the closet. Ferry's handling of draft assets was terrible, though he did a lot to push the team in a better direction.

Bud seems to be a very ambitious man, but he brought us 60 win season and ECF. Worst GM in the league though.

Hawks are in a much better place now. A single owner and all of the improvements to modernize the team.

[Jamaaliver]

Giving a bump to the last time our franchise was in complete tatters due to dysfunction in the front office and incompetent ownership.