Atlanta Hawks: Sale agreement between Meruelo and ASG terminated

first?

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Maybe the lockout will drag on and JJ will get injured playing in another league, which will allow us to void his contract.

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Joe’s contract is a superficial problem compared to the DASG’s ongoing reign of error. If the DASG hangs around, Joe will just be replaced with another 2nd tier player the DASG tries to fool us into thinking is a star, LD will just be replaced with another bargain basement head coach, Sund will just be replaced with another puppet, etc. As long as the DASG is here the Hawks’ irrelevance will not end. They are the Rankin and Taylor Smiths of the new millennium. Until they are gone and the Hawks get their Arthur Blank, nothing will change.

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I know, Najeh. Just trying to find a silver lining.

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YAY!

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this is what scares me..

“committed to building on our string of four straight playoff appearances”

as always, expect more of the same.

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Not a good week for pizza delivery men.

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Occupy Philips Arena!!

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GO WINNIPEG!

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No one knows how good a owner Meruelo would have been but he would have been a breath of fresh air compared to The ASG.

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The failings of the ASG are quite remarkable. The previous owners of teams like the Warriors, Pistons and 76ers have been able to find buyers with the proper “credentials” to close the sale. But the ASG? No such luck… they enter into an agreement with someone who couldn’t clear the league’s hurdles. Turn after turn, they always come up looking like mental & financial midgets in comparison to the vast majority of other NBA owners. The “ASG Era” will be recorded by history as a big-a$$ joke.

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FIRE LD

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AJ,

the fact that the ASG ended up suing their own lawyers is another example of how Inept they are.

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yeah the firm they sued is thought of as one of the best in atlanta as well.

no we can all hope that the nba doesnt get its act together and somehow a savior comes to the rescue by summer or we start this all again. oh woe is me the life long atlanta sports team fan.

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Couldn’t care less. I hope the NBA doesn’t play this year! One less year to pay iso-Joe.

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Maybe Winnipeg will buy The Hawks!

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I think LSU and Alabama could give the Miami Dolphins a tough game.

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From the associated press;

A group of about a dozen owners, led by Charlotte’s Michael Jordan, was upset that players were offered a 50-50 split and want the players’ share to be no higher than 47 percent, one person told the AP as first reported by The New York Times..

The irony. Isnt this the same MJ who told the former Washington Bullets/Wizards owner (during the lockout in the late 90’s) that “If you can’t make a profit, you should sell your team,”.

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Now that the Spirit is back I hope the lockout lasts all season.

FIRE SUND

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“Ole Hawk’s Fan
November 5th, 2011
6:01 pm

ASG is the Laughing Stock of the NBA! I hope the Strike last for three years or more.”

& people wonder why us Thrasher fans got FURIOUS when the media & other locations tried to blame that fiasco on US instead of ASG?

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well, i got my first check back from the basg. sweeet deal and i dont have any strings attached going forward. i can pnly hope to get a full reimbursement going forward as the whole of the season is now a falsehood. maybe if there had been any suggestion of solidity or trust in and from the owners i would have gone for the “bonus’” they offered and continue to offer to keep my money in play. to all those that kept their money in their hands all i can say is “this way to the egress” as pt barnum said, or to put it a different way, “sucker born every day”.

folks these guys can now run two professional teams into the ground and our mayor is worried about how much we spend on the protestors in our downtown park close to the phil. wake up mayor and help us get rid of these pariahs that are costing you triple thata week is my guess or you will be out of more money than ted turner ever thought possible when he did a bait and switch and handed over the team over the mcdavid handshake to these incompetent boobs.

i have been saying it since the beginning and over six years ago, it is not about woody, rick, billy or ld, it is and always will be about the crazy basg ….. broken atlanta spirit group. instead of all these fire somebody whomever folks wrote, it should and always should remain, get rid of the basg.

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Smells like Team Spirit …

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I miss the show on TNT. Where’s Kenny and Barkley?

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the more I read about Michael Jordan, the person,husband,father and GM, the more I think that he was a great basketball player.

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Good to see stories like below:

LOS ANGELES − Washington Park is a narrow strip of green pinched between railroad tracks and a busy tree-lined street in Watts, a grassy oasis in a hardscrabble community in the heart of Los Angeles gang territory. Young men shout at each other in Spanish as they battle on the park’s soccer field. Hip-hop blasts out of car stereos. The air is thick with smoke from pork and chicken sizzling on a dozen grills.

The East Coast Crips, Kitchen Crips, Grape Street Crips and Florencia 13s all claim turf near here, but unlike many of the nearby buildings, the rec center on the north end of the park is free of graffiti. It’s neutral territory, a safe haven in an area plagued by crime and gang violence.

The rec center is the home base of the I-Can All-Stars, the basketball program founded by Rudolph (Rockhead) Johnson, a 48-year-old bear of a man with flecks of gray in his hair and goatee, a former Compton Crips leader who was once one of the most feared and dangerous men in South Central Los Angeles.

Rockhead once ruled the streets not far from the rec center by stabbing, shooting and beating anybody who got in his way, but that was before he met Jim Brown, the NFL legend, movie star and founder of the Ameri-I-Can Foundation, the gang-intervention program that has rescued thousands of young men and women from the streets. And it was before Johnson developed a passion for basketball and for mentoring kids who are filled with the same fury that once churned inside of him.

Jim Brown’s Amer-I-Can makes a difference

“Jim Brown saved my life,” says Johnson as he helps Trevor Ariza, Matt Barnes and other NBA stars hand out bags of groceries to needy families in the sunlight-filled gym on an October Saturday at the Big Assist, a charity event organized and hosted by Keyon Dooling of the Milwaukee Bucks. “Amer-I-can taught me how to be responsible for my actions. But if I didn’t have basketball and these kids, I would have taken a step back. Basketball gives me life.”

Johnson was a stone-cold thug who used guns, knives, pipes, his ham-sized fists and even his own head − hence the nickname − to inflict pain on anybody who crossed him. He has been shot and stabbed, and he has spent more than a third of his life incarcerated, much of it in the “hole,” separated from the rest of the prison population.

“Rock enjoyed being the vicious cat, the cat that everybody was afraid of, the cat that nobody could control,” Brown says. “He enjoyed creating fear in people.”

B ut thanks to Brown, Johnson now only battles for redemption. The man who once made big money selling drugs now constantly scrambles for funds to pay for travel expenses and tournament entry fees, and often dips into his own salary as an Amer-I-Can facilitator to supplement his program’s shoestring budget. He recruits kids who have been overlooked or ignored by other travel teams, and constantly pushes his players to improve themselves both on and off the court. He requires his athletes to complete Brown’s Amer-I-can curriculum, a course that teaches life-management skills.

“A lot of AAU coaches are more interested in shoe deals than the kids,” says Robert Ringer, a former I-Can All-Star who played college hoops at Alabama-Birmingham and now works for ESPNU. “There’s a shady side to it. Rock uses basketball as a way to open up opportunities for his players.”

Johnson’s kids have to attend school and pass their courses. Players who screw up, no matter how good they are, sit on the bench, but they are never thrown off the team. “I don’t give up on kids, just like Jim didn’t give up on me,” Johnson says.

Before he established the I-Can All-Stars, Johnson’s only previous basketball experience was shooting free throws in the prison yard. But the I-Can All-Stars often beat teams with more talent and resources, says former sneaker executive Sonny Vaccaro, the godfather of grass-roots youth basketball. “His kids play hard every game,” Vaccaro says.

Greg Hamilton, the father of former I-Can All-Star Jordan Hamilton, a first-round pick in the NBA draft this summer, is a youth minister who says the tough love and respect Johnson shows his players deeply reverberates with kids from broken inner city communities.
“He was in the hole and he got out,” Hamilton says. “If there’s hope for Rock Johnson, there’s hope for anybody.”

* * *

Rockhead Johnson’s mother was 14 years old when she ran away from home, 15 years old when she had her first child. She had eight babies with eight different men, and Johnson is her third oldest. He never met his father, he says, and until he met Jim Brown, he never had a positive male role model in his life.

Johnson says his mother worked hard to provide for her sprawling family, but she was a stern woman who beat her kids for even the smallest infractions. “I literally grew up hating my mother,” Rockhead says.

Johnson was living on the street and committing petty crimes by the time he was 11 years old. He started running with the Compton Crips a year later. He was just a ’tween when he was arrested on burglary charges and sent to a boys’ home. When older residents beat him up and threatened to rape him, Johnson used a metal pipe to exact a bloody revenge. There are only two kinds of people in those kinds of institutions, Johnson says: predators and prey.

Rockhead spent most of his teen years in correctional facilities and state prisons thanks to his frequent assaults on guards and other inmates. But Johnson says he had his limits. He looked down at gang members who extorted or sexually assaulted unaffiliated prisoners. There was no honor in exploiting the weak.

“I always dealt with cats tougher than me,” Johnson says. “I had to prove that I could be a monster.”

Johnson enrolled at Long Beach City College in 1981, after he was released from prison, paying his bills by dealing weed. The cops came looking for him again, but not because he was selling dope. He was accused of shooting three people while trying to rob a Burger King. Rockhead says he had nothing to do with that crime, but he was convicted on murder and robbery charges and sent to prison yet again, this time for 19 years.

He became an influential leader in the Consolidated Crips Organization, the hierarchy that called the shots in the state prison system. Johnson was an enforcer. He liked stabbing and beating anyone he thought needed to be disciplined. “We controlled 19 prisons by fear,” Johnson says.

The murder conviction was overturned, and after 10 years in prison, Johnson returned to Compton in the early ’90s. He heard that Brown had founded a gang-intervention organization called Amer-I-Can, and that he would invite the gangs to his home in the Hollywood Hills, hoping he could help Crips and Bloods forge a truce.

“Black men were killing each other over blue and red rags,” Brown says. “I thought it was what was needed at the time.”

Johnson figured Brown was just another hustler looking for a way to exploit L.A.’s gangs. But the football legend was respectful, intent on building bridges. He had a quiet power that Johnson found appealing.

To Brown, Rockhead appeared to be a natural leader. Underneath his swagger, Brown says, was an intelligent man.

“I was always told I was cursed at birth, but Jim gave me respect as a man,” Johnson says. “Nobody had ever paid me that kind of respect before.”

Still, Rockhead was reluctant to give up gang life, a mind-set that deeply changed when Johnson needed Brown’s help to stay out of jail. He was driving on the freeway with his friends when young men in another vehicle started pumping bullets into his car. The passengers in Johnson’s car returned the fire. When the California Highway Patrol stopped Johnson, he denied he had been involved in the incident, but the bullet holes in his car and a 9mm clip in the trunk left them unconvinced. Johnson, still on parole, was about to go back to prison.

Rockhead called Brown and asked him to appear at his hearing. “If you get me out of this,” he says he told the NFL Hall of Famer, “I will give you all of Compton.”

“I don’t want Compton,” Brown says he told Johnson. “I want your mind.”

Brown appeared at the parole hearing and persuaded the board that Rockhead could be a positive force on L.A’s streets. Johnson was sentenced to the three months he had served waiting for the hearing.

* * *

Johnson, as promised, gave Brown his mind: He completed the Amer-I-Can curriculum, a 15-point course that helps its students learn how to set goals, solve problems and strengthen family ties. He became Brown’s chief-of-staff and traveled to dozens of states to teach and share the curriculum. The ties that bound Brown and Johnson grew stronger; Johnson calls Brown his surrogate father.

Johnson turned his back on violence, even after rivals − angry that he had joined Amer-I-Can and was working to get gang members off the street − shot him 11 times in 1993. He remained committed to Brown’s message of non-violence even after his 16-year-old daughter, Mercedes, was shot and killed in 1998.

Johnson had seen the potential impact of basketball to help spread Brown’s message when he took a group of kids to a Southern California AAU tournament in 1994. He had seen his boys play hoops on the street, and he wondered out loud why they weren’t playing organized ball. Bad grades and bad attitudes, they told him. Nobody wanted them on their teams, they said.

Johnson persuaded Brown to cut him a check for $17,000, enough money to pay for uniforms, travel expenses and entry fees for a Las Vegas tournament. His teams lost every game. “We stunk,” Johnson laughs, “but the kids had so much joy. Most of them had never been out of Compton before. We got our ass whupped, but we went home happy.”

Rivals quickly dubbed Rockhead’s guys the “I-Can’t All-Stars.” But by emphasizing conditioning and tenacious man-to-man defense, by doling out big servings of discipline and praise, Johnson transformed the I-Can All-Stars into a competitive program. His roster may not be full of McDonald’s All-Americans, but Vaccaro says it regularly beats teams that are.

“Rock is a great motivator,” says Jordan Hamilton, the former I-Can All-Star who will be a Denver Nuggets rookie when the NBA lockout ends.

The program now has four high school-level teams and three 14-and-under squads. Nearly 200 of Johnson’s players − mostly kids who were not on the recruiting radar when they joined the program − have received Division I basketball scholarships. Former I-Can All-Star Derrick Williams was selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the second pick of the NBA draft this summer. Former Net Hassan Adams is also an I-Can alumnus.

Despite his program’s constant money woes, the I-Can All-Stars don’t charge players. Brown continues to help the program financially − one fan recently donated $8,500 in exchange for an autographed football. Los Angeles Lakers star Lamar Odom paid the bills for a couple of seasons. Vaccaro supplies sneakers and other gear when he can. New England Patriots coach Bill Bellichick is also a supporter.

Dorell Wright of the Golden State Warriors, who used to play for a rival program, is a sponsor. “I like to give to people who do something good with my money,” Wright says. “I know Rock works hard for his kids.”

For Johnson, it’s all part of his journey from the streets to the basketball court, the transformation from monster to mentor.

“My power always came from putting the fear of God in people,” Rockhead says. “But there’s nothing good about gangs. Nothing good came out of my past life.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/a-gang-member-mentored-nfl-great-jim-brown-giving-back-hoops-article-1.972791#ixzz1cwqF7DYU

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Stick a fork in the Hawks for years to come.. Yawn..

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“I’d much rather be discussing the Dollar Tree FA that the Hawks just signed (Iike Ike Diogu & Antonio Daniels).”

For a second I thought the Hawks actually signed them. Compared to last year’s blockbuster free agent signings of Josh Powell and Etan Thomas, that would be a major reason for excitement.

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HAHAHAHAHA SUCK IT ASG!!!!! Just another example of the idiots the Atlanta Spirit Group owners are! I hope they ALL go bankrupt! Maybe there is a place in Occupy Atlanta for them when they do go belly up! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

And to think….they could have sold off the Thrashers AND the Hawks a long time ago but choose not too! IDIOTS!!!!

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personal *favorite – not – favorate, but – *favorite.

With an i. not an a, but an i.

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The only justice would be the complete bankruptcy of all members of ASG.

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Grandad, you still need the salary cap flexibility to sign someone else’s “amnesty player” and as MC explained on the previous blog, cutting Marvin won’t do much to free up cap room.

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If an NBA lockout fell in the woods would anyone hear it?

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NO NBA NO NBA….If I bought, paid, took on all the expenditures and risks of a business and had someone tell me they want a majority of my income (52%) from that business, I would tell them shove it where the sun don’t shine and start over. Sounds like organized crime, doesn’t it?
Just on principal alone, shouldn’t the owner have at least 51%.
They’re all greedy, but these players disgust me more. 99% come from a ghetto, do nothing of significance in their life, play and dream basketball 24-7, hit the lottery by making it pro, are paid Millions immediately, and then decide they are ENTITLED to more…..Stop the insanity!

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well, that saves me some money.

I said I’d never go to another event that would put a single dollar in the ASG’s pockets – so Philips Arena is back on my stay away from list.

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And Astro, that is a good question.

Who IS the Hawks player rep? Is it Etan Thomas, even though he’s not technically with the team anymore? Is it Horford?

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Astro Joe:

Grandad’s Trade O’the Day:

Josh Smith -to- Golden State
*[has been reported that GS is interested in Josh]

ATL -receives- Stephen Curry & Andris Biedrins

**I realize that no one, and by no one,
I mean anybody, will like this trade except for me.
I have the idea that Curry is a future SS,
while Biedrins is still young + a defender & a rebounder.
*(I personally like Josh) – *(sell high)

This is one of two trades I would attempt to make.

Never gonna happen.

Never gonna play.

Never gonna sell [Hawks].

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agreed with nothcyde of 10 pm today who elegantly made the point and distinction between salary expenses for cap and capital expenses which are real and our organization will keep low and said as much from my iphone in the blog on amnesty on the 3rd …

“the way i see it amnesty only helps teams with deep pockets and haqks arent one if em. marvin is a warm body ajd right now that counts. we wont amnesty anyone as good as the concept sounds.”

amnesty players we aint though as gdad points out it might mean some cheaper labor. those teams to use it to their advantage will be based on what the cap looks like after the cba is formed, hopefully within this decade. but it could be the rich get richer.

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BETTER CALL TRUE NORTH, WINNIPEG NEEDS A REAL WORTHLESS TEAM, NEVER ATTEND A GAME OF THIS TEAM UNTIL IT MOVES !!!!

asg YOU SUCK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Well Kobe has spoken !
A deal will get done now.
If players do not accept deal on the table; -season over-.
Hardline Owners wish to break the union. [Jordan]
*Jordan is just as ruthless as an owner as he was a teammate & competitor.
Owners will win. “One way or the other”.
As the Players are beginng to fold:
Steve Blake is canvassing union peers;
calling for a full member vote
on owners proposal currently on the table.

The deal will be done Today !
Gradad the Predictor !
[or some would say - G-dad the dict]

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Grandad, I agree and have said the same previously… amnesty is for the owners who have the most and/or make the most. Neither applies to our situation. The notion that would would pay player X several million dollars to leave and then turn around and pay player B a few million to come in and replacee player A clearly suggests that you have “money to burn” as they said in “Dead Presidents”. Again, not our situation. I have been consistent in my opinion that upgrading this roster will rest entirely on making trades. I’d even go so far as to suggest that what the hawks should do is either trade those with a high-perceived value, or invest a few more months trying to increase the trade value of their players. Said differently, I’d rather roll the dice that Marvin may improve his trade value then dump him off now for a few stale donuts and some weak coffee. The stale donuts and weak coffee will always be available to take back. Its hard to bring back value when you’re trading the least productive players from your team. It may be ideal in the mind of the average fan but it simply isn’t realistic to trade in a Chevy Nova for a late model BMW.

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Biedrins is injury prone, has bad hands and has not lived up to his contract (worse than Marvin’s).

Why trade a bad player for another of the same liking.

What we need is to get Horford back into his overalls and out of his cheap accountant’s suit.

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I was out of town when I heard the news about the sale being off and I screamed aloud in the hotel room…not because Meruelo would have been any more of a success but simply because I’m stuck with the ASG clowns that tanked an NHL franchise, obviously doesn’t care about developing a strong front office, and let’s their teams play under a scoreboard that has hundreds of blown bulbs in it. Atlanta…big city, small time sports.

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