How Joe Johnson (unwittingly) ran the Thrashers out of town
Here's where it all began: On Aug. 9, 2005, Billy Knight snubs Steve Belkin. (AP photo)
If I can return to the Thrashers, who as we know won’t be returning …
I don’t blame Atlanta as a city. I don’t blame hockey as a sport. I don’t blame Gary Bettman as a commissioner. I blame the Atlanta Spirit for buying a product that none among their membership really wanted and neglecting it.
In a weird way, I also blame Joe Johnson.
The Spirit took ownership of the Thrashers, the Hawks and Philips Arena in March 2004. In the summer of 2005 Billy Knight, then the Hawks’ general manager, sought to work a sign-and-trade with Phoenix for the restricted free agent Joe Johnson. Knight offered Boris Diaw, who’d been the Hawks’ No. 1 draftee in 2003, and two future No. 1 pick. Steve Belkin, whom the Spirit had installed as the team’s NBA governor, thought the price was too high.
The many other Spirit members moved to overthrow Belkin as governor so that the trade — described by one of the Spirit’s lawyers as “critical to the future of the the Atlanta Hawks” — could be made. Belkin sought a restraining order against his partners, and a Boston judge granted it. (It was in that courtroom that the famous photo of Knight refusing to shake Belkin’s hand was taken.)
Ultimately NBA commissioner David Stern intervened and allowed the other eight Spirit members to buy out Belkin, prompting a triumphant press conference at Philips Arena in which Johnson was introduced as a Hawk and Knight hailed as a conquering hero. But Belkin took his case to a Maryland court, where he found a judge who ruled in 2006 that he could buy out the others.
If you’re charting the Thrashers’ first step toward Winnipeg, start right there. The resulting litigation would last five years and essentially freeze the Spirit’s assets. This became clear when the Spirit — having finally bought out Belkin on Dec. 23, 2010 — filed a lawsuit this January against the law firm King & Spalding for malpractice. In the lawsuit, the Spirit claimed the five-year fight against Belkin had kept the Thrashers from being sold.
Joe Johnson is introduced as a Hawk. (AJC file photo)
There was never a great feeling for hockey among the Spirit. Belkin wanted a basketball team, having tried to buy the expansion Charlotte Bobcats. The Gearons were Hawks fans from way back. (Michael Gearon Sr. had been the Hawks’ president when Ted Turner owned the team.)
If not for the fight against Belkin, the Spirit might well have sold the Thrashers in 2006 or 2008. Instead these owners were forced to keep the team. The Hawks’ payroll kept rising. (With last summer’s $120 million re-upping of Johnson — yep, him again — it became the NBA’s seventh-highest.) The Thrashers’ payroll was consistently among the NHL’s lowest. (It ranked 28th in the 30-team league this past season.)
If you wondered why the Spirit kept Don Waddell as GM as long as it did, the answer was monetary: He didn’t go over his meager budget. With the Spirit spending to fight off Belkin in court and making the attempt — give the owners credit here — to better the Hawks, costs had to cut somewhere. These are wealthy men, yes, but they’re not Arthur Blank.
To no one’s surprise, the two best players in Thrashers history — Marian Hossa and Ilya Kovalchuk — were traded ahead of impending free agency. (Neither would take what Waddell was offering to stay.) The Thrashers made the playoffs in 2007 but never again. Attendance cratered, and no wonder.
Timeline: Belkin is bought out in December 2010, which means his 30 percent ownership stake goes away, which means the remaining Spirit members have to shoulder an even greater burden. In January the Spirit files its lawsuit against King & Spalding, a fairly embarrassing tactic — who wants to take on lawyers to court? — that was made necessary because the Spirit was low on money. (The lawsuit identifies $194 million in damages caused by King & Spalding’s mistakes in drawing up an ownership contract that favored Belkin.)
May 31, 2011: Closed for business. (AJC photo by Jason Getz)
In February Michael Gearon Jr. tells esteemed colleague Chris Vivlamore that the Thrashers are in dire need of outside investors and that if none can be found, the team will be sold even if it means Atlanta loses hockey. “I don’t think there is an ability to stomach another $20 million in losses,” Gearon says, which told us how thinly the Belkin-less Spirit was stretched and brought us, not incidentally, back to Joe Johnson.
Owing to his new contract, he makes $20 million a year. The sale of the Thrashers will bank a net $110 million for the Spirit, which is $10 million less than they paid to keep Johnson through 2016. As simplistic as it may be to say that one basketball player had a direct effect on a hockey team … well, check those numbers.
Both the perception and the reality of the Atlanta Spirit changed in the summer of 2005. Until then, we’d viewed the group as a well-meaning bunch of guys who’d kept two of our teams from falling into the hands of a Texas car dealer. After Knight-versus-Belkin-regarding-Johnson, we saw them as a bunch of squabbling amateurs who couldn’t stay out of court. And those five years of entangling litigation are the reason we’re again without an NHL franchise.
By Mark Bradley
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95 comments Add your comment
Zombie Steve
June 9th, 2011
2:14 pm
Correction: Nashville and Tampa Bay made the playoffs this year.
News (6/9) you can use: Latest on Return of the NHL to Winnipeg | Illegal Curve Hockey
June 9th, 2011
2:16 pm
[...] Journal Constitution: How Joe Johnson (unwittingly) ran Thrashers out of town. Interesting [...]
ASHCAN.
June 9th, 2011
2:18 pm
It would be harsh for me to say who cares about hockey because i never liked it but mark,you have a point when it comes to adding dollars.Personally i think they should have let jj walk,i agree he’s not worth the $$$ he’s getting.
dougbq
June 9th, 2011
2:27 pm
Why doesn’t Time Warner get any blame here? If they had exectured the legal contract they had with the Texan, they wouldn’t have sold to a squabbling, under-capitalized group. I have long wondered if it was because Ted Turner’s son was part of that group. Regardless, you have to wonder how things would have turned out. He had money, so he might have actually been able to make it work.
Gwinnett Fred
June 9th, 2011
2:32 pm
My 2 cents on the “can hockey work in the south?” in a couple examples:
– The Lightning had higher attendance than the Rays
– Nashville (about HALF the size of Winnipeg) averaged over 16,000 a game this year and sold out many games
I think, if there is any correlation, is that hockey has a hard time in the south where there are also the BIG 3 pro sports teams (MLB, NFL & NBA) as no city (unless you consider Dallas the south) has all 4 and at least moderate success with their NHL team (though the Stars were a none too impressive 23rd out of 30 teams this past season).
The closest is Miami, but they only ranked 22nd in attendance in the NHL this year, so that’s hardly a success, then also throw in that nobody goes to Marlins games.
In this economy, in a city with multiple ways to spend your sports dollar, it’s the odd man out and in the ATL – the odd man was the Thrashers.
Reality
June 9th, 2011
2:44 pm
“Ladd says it would be good to play before a sellout crowd in a city where NHL hockey has a huge impact. He says the Thrashers are a young team that’s eager to play in a real hockey market and has the talent to succeed.”
That’s your captain speaking to the media today. Reality….
GT
June 9th, 2011
2:56 pm
I am so tired of these local guys, don’t much care about Belkin, that keep getting dress down by a bunch of carpet baggers rooted up 400 somewhere like a colony of illegal immigrants. Hockey is about as native to Atlanta as bullfighting and the only people indignant about its leaving are people who abandoned their own places of birth for greener pastures, a common trait upon these whiners and this thing called hockey. The sports Atlanta is interested in all have native Atlanta kids on their rosters, a majority of these hockey guys aren’t even Americans. The Atlanta Spirit put a pretty good product on the court this year.
I think they had to take the hockey team in the package they bought from Turner, and also to support Phillips. What I cannot understand with all the Yankees down here that seem to control the sport’s airways and have bought this “be a jerk” journalism to our town, why couldn’t one of those big shots that have all the answers,buy the hockey team. No, hell no, they rather be a bunch of tight asses, be entertained on our tab and then after losing 10s of millions of dollars tell these guys where they went wrong. How did we get so lucky as to be picked by these nomadic people to have our town as there haven.
ATL Observer
June 9th, 2011
4:11 pm
Gee, way to go, GT, here’s the hint doofus: You get people from south on your teams in hockey by growing the sport here! Having a terrible organization and not letting a team work under good ownership ensures less people from GA will get that opportunity.
And controls the airwaves (I’m assuming that’s what you meant)? Thrashers hockey occupied, what, about 0.00001% of the time devoted to sports in the local media? (Come to think of it, maybe I’m overestimating). Boy, those Yanks sure did hijack our airwaves. You can’t hear ANYTHING about UGA football anymore! (*rolls eyes*)
Section 119
June 9th, 2011
4:31 pm
Yep, the Thrashers’ autopsy results do point to Joe Johnson Disease complicated by the deadly ASG syndrome as the cause of death. I for one will never set foot into ASG (Philips) Arena until this horrible plague is eliminated!
Kevin
June 9th, 2011
4:48 pm
Excellent article.
The hockey does not work in the South rant from the local necks is tired.
Nash,Tampa,Carolina,Dallas all are smaller areas with rabid fan bases and excellent attendance. The thing they all have in common is success, each team is a playoff regular and three have Stanley Cups. Nashville began experiencing success as soon as new ownership took over with a commitment to win, our attendance here was excellent at the start and only began to decrease as each horrible year went by. Also, the marketing and game day experience became decreasingly non existent in the last 3 yrs.
Kevin
June 9th, 2011
4:51 pm
Yankees, nomadic people.
I thought that conflict was settled years ago!
Grandmaster JeJe
June 9th, 2011
7:35 pm
MB,
You’re missing the point – according to our Hall of Fame GM, we would not be where we are now (an ELITE team) without Joe Johnson
LOL
DawgsNCin2013
June 9th, 2011
11:23 pm
For those of you asking who the two first round draft picks were I will let you know…Along with the 2005-2006 Most improved player Boris Diaw, the Suns received the 21st pick in the 2006 draft in which they drafted RAJON RONDO (they traded him to Boston and he is a pretty guard point guard over there) and a 2008 first round pick of Robin Lopez (their starting center).
The 2007 pick was not given to the suns bc there was a clause stating we wouldnt give up a top 3 pick. Welcome Al Horford (best hawks draftee in who knows how long)
jose
June 10th, 2011
6:56 am
Blame the management that gave him the money!!! It’s a shame that he is the highest paid and yet we STINK STINK AND STINK. Who will deliver us from Joe Johnson?
nhlfan79
June 10th, 2011
10:54 am
Only now is it revealed that ASG and the NHL ignored a $500 million offer for all three properties a full 11 days before the deal with Winnipeg was reached. Their claim that there was no local interest was a flat out LIE. Not only that, but the offer came from racial minority investors, no less. So says USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/2011-06-09-insider-atlanta-hawks_n.htm Why does the NHL hate minorities? Isn’t Hockey For Everyone?
ATL Observer
June 10th, 2011
11:19 am
I would thoroughly “shocked” to discover that the ASG lied…..
Columbus
June 10th, 2011
12:08 pm
So will anyone at AJC dig into this and get responses from all parties involved as to why this was not made public during the QUICK sale of the Thrashers? Was it a fly in the ointment? Did Buttman just want to be done with it and not deal with other offers so they could have Hockey in Winnepeg this year? Why did they all lie and/or not make it known?
JSS
June 10th, 2011
12:18 pm
Everytime there’s a blog, Atl Observer comes on the AJC pimping that clown McDavid… The same one under constant investigation by the Texas Consumer Affairs Office for his auto franchises… The same man who the less than savory owners in MLB would not touch when they were fire selling the Rangers! McDavid and his supporters need to be counting the Time-Warner lawsuit windfall and pay the advance on the next set of attorneys regarding the next investigation…
The blame goes on Time-Warner, they took money and ran… They also did not clean house of Billy Knight of Waddell…
You need to be investigating how the next set of owners can steal the Coyotes from Phoenix next summer when the fallout of the shiftless NHL-Scottsdale agreement comes apart… That is because the ASG will not survive the NBA lockout, they are done…
JSS
June 10th, 2011
12:23 pm
Mark Bradley, what is going on with your blog filter? Thanks
J
June 10th, 2011
12:25 pm
Jose, really? The Hawks stink … NO, the HAWKS STUNK 5 years ago. Now they are actually a pretty good team. Can’t blame Joe for taking the money, dude earned it after putting the Hawks on the map of relevance again. But you’re right, his 5 all-star selections must mean he stinks stinks stinks. Seriously, you bloggers are half-ass basketball fans. Can’t wait when the Hawks go back to winning 13 games again … how would you like that? Oh, and the only professional team in the ATL to make the playoffs the past 4 seasons. Such idiots!!! Ah, get these fools out of the ATL!
Ray
June 10th, 2011
12:35 pm
Enter your comments here
Ray
June 10th, 2011
12:37 pm
The Hawks may have stunk five years ago, but I’m not going to give all the credit to Joe Max.
After that first playoff run taking Boston to 7 games Joe Max disappeared on us three straight seasons. When we got swept by Cleveland, Orlando, and just recently besides that one game in the series with Chicago where he went off dude went missing. Plus how do you give anyone money with the way he acted after the Orlando series?
LordStanley
June 10th, 2011
12:41 pm
I dont agree that it was joe johnson who ran the thrashers out of town. I know the spirit group spent a fortune on joes contract and there was probably no money left to save a flailing thrasher franchise. IF ANYONE IS TO BLAME FOR THE THRASHERS LEAVING TOWN, ITS THE GROUP OF FANS WHO WERE “BASHING” DANNY HEATLEY after his car accident that took the life of his best friend and teammate Snyder. The fans would never forgive Heatley although the snyder family forgave heatley. Everytime I would listen to the sports talk shows, many fans were saying they hope heatley spends the rest of his life in jail. How could anyone hear that on the talk shows and still play for the thrashers. I KNOW THAT HAD THE FANS KNOWN THAT HEATLEY WAS GOING TO REQUEST TO BE TRADED AWAY FROM THE THRASHERS, THOSE STUPID FANS WOULD HAVE ABSOLUTELY KEPT THEIR MOUTHS SHUT and treated Heatley with more dignity. Heatley was treated WORSE THAN MIKE VICK although Vick was a hoodlem, lawbreaker and jailbird. Heatley was as clean as a whistle and never ever got into trouble. THE FANS WERE AFTER HEATLEYS BLOOD AND THEY WOULD NEVER LET UP UNTIL HEATLEY WAS GONE. AS I MENTIONED, HAD HEATLEY STAYED WITH THE THRASHERS AND WITH THE EMERGENCE OF ILLYA KOVULCHUK AS AN NHL SUPERSTAR AND FUTURE HALL-OF-FAMER, I’M ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE THAT THE THRASHERS WOULD HAVE WON AT LEAST 3 OR 4 STANLEY CUPS. JOE JOHNSON IS NOT TO BLAME FOR ANYTHING. THE HAWKS THIS YEAR CAME WITHIN 2 wins OF MAKING THE ECF AND 6 wins OF MAKING THE nba finals. The thrasher fans TRASHED HEATLEY and were rewarded by the thrasher demise and eventual loss of their team. THE BLAME NEEDS TO BE PUT WHERE IT BELONGS.
ATL Observer
June 10th, 2011
1:01 pm
Hey Mark, judging by the defensiveness of some people on here, I think the meaning of the word “unwittingly” needs to be explained :-p
BeetleBailey
June 10th, 2011
1:58 pm
I think the Hawks need help in the front office. There have been SEVERAL free agents who were available and could have helped the Hawks but were signed by other teams instead. I dont mean the high-priced free agents of Carmello, cp3, LaBron and players of that calibre; those guys are DICTATING WHERE THEY END UP. I mean second-tier players like Rashad Lewis, Jeff Pietrus, Baron Davis, Brandon Roy, players like that who can shoot the basketball and help the Hawks win big. THE HAWKS ARE ONE FREE-AGENT SIGNING AWAY FROM WINNING THE NBA CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE.
JSS
June 10th, 2011
2:20 pm
This has officially become a “Drive-by Hawks Blog!” You got knuckleheads in here screaming about players and they can not even spell said athletes name: Dany Heatley, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Mickael Pietrus… Since when has Baron Davis or Brandon Roy been a free agent. Davis is midway into a 5 year deal… Roy was MIA like Marvin most of this season and has three left on his deal… The Blazers could not give him away at the trading deadline!
Thrashers weren’t going to win a Cup because they were averse to playing defense. That didn’t matter if Fraser, Hartley, Waddell, the mystery AHL coach, or Ramsey was calling the shots…
J
June 10th, 2011
4:33 pm
Even if Danny stayed, Ilya still would have been a huge problem b/c he didn’t play defense. Look where Ilya has gotten the NJ Devils … i rest my case. The Thrashers best year to win it all was 0607 & i would even say 0506 if Pasi hadn’t blown out his knee. Loved seeing Savard/Hossa/Kovy/Bondra out there, even if i wasn’t a Kovy fan. That team could score 6 goals on any given night (of course, they would give up that many as well on any given night b/c of the goalie situation)
Thrashers weren’t run out of town b/c Joe decided to take the deal, this article is really out there to get people to read it and respond. I hope somebody isn’t dumb enough to believe this non-sense. I’ll say it again, the media in ATL knows nothing about hockey. They never gave much of a crap to report on them so why even bother now? Why try to act like you know the reasons why the team is leaving? You’re partially responsible for this mess …
True Hawks Fan
June 10th, 2011
5:45 pm
Anybody who would listen to anything (or read) a guy who advocated picking “Big Country” Reeves over Shaq in the draft deserves to lose their hockey team. If you want to blame someone for Joe’s contract blame Rick Sund since he gave it to him. I’ll take T. Moore over Mark Bradley any day. More knowledgable about sports than Bradley, that’s for sure. ASG has been trying to sell your hockey team for longer than Joe’s current contract. Don’t forget, ASG claims the 5 year legal fight is what stopped them from being able to sell the Thrashers. They were going to sell one way or another.
Sage of Bluesland
June 10th, 2011
7:28 pm
It’s funny, Mark–I wrote the very same idea last week….Hmmmm. One thing you didn’t really mention was that Belkin had the deepest pockets of the entire collection–and that since the lawsuits began, his contributions to the teams was nil, forcing the other collection of wanna-be’s to foot the entire bill, likely something they weren’t prepared for from the very start.
In fact, I suggested a book be written chronicalling the entire events as they unfolded–and gave it a title: “How Joe Johnson killed a Thrasher”.
One final benefit is reading the tripe from LordStanley (well, attempting to read it)…Please put your tin-foil hat back on. Please.
Sage of Bluesland
June 10th, 2011
7:30 pm
(At least he, or she, stopped with the garbage-assertion that Heatley was driving in Roswell when the accident happened! What an utter clown.)
Rick
June 11th, 2011
10:46 am
It is crazy to put any spin of a blame on Joe. The buck begins and ends with the spirit groups unsound decisions. They chose not to lock down Joe before free agency knowing full well he value was going to rise if he was retained as afree agent. It would not have taken 125 Mil to get him signed to an extention. They screwed that up royally. It is a long long of screw ups and now we have what we have. No thrashers and the Hawks not positioned well for improvement (but still a good team… don’t forget that). The blame as well as any minor success and huge failures belong on the spirit group and not any player .. hockey or basketball.
Dark Karma
June 11th, 2011
3:15 pm
Ah yes. Joe Johnson. The Superstar that never was. The Spirit Group blamed Belkin for wanting to run the team on the cheap. Belkin blamed the Spirit Group for wanting to run the team on the stupid.
Belkin is still right, and has to be laughing today. I’d take stupid over cheap.
Dark Karma
June 11th, 2011
3:16 pm
Any moron could see Joe was no superstar to begin with. He wasn’t the most important guy on the team he left. He was fourth. Now he’s richer than anybody else on an NBA paycheck. How ridiculous is that?
Ray
June 12th, 2011
9:46 am
Well no matter what it seems this offseason will be like every other except we dump a few players and add on other no name people.
Still the core remains in tact I bet except Crawford walks this offseason.
Blitz Money
June 12th, 2011
12:56 pm
KeepDreaming
June 9th, 2011
12:16 pm
Good article Mark. But hockey doesnt belong in the south. It was all inevitable if you ask me.
————————————————————————————————————-
Hockey doesn’t work in the South? I submit, for your approval, the Carolina Hurricanes. As a Raleigh resident, I can honestly tell you how much Interstate 40 is avoided by travelers near the RBC Center on game days. I’m not a ‘Caniac’, but this is one transplant area that has embraced the NHL.
Money Now
June 12th, 2011
3:14 pm
Belkin—-apparently, the only owner who knew the real deal about johnson.
War Eagle
June 13th, 2011
8:35 am
As George Steinbrenner once said “all of the operating costs are covered by TV/Radio/Cable/Satellite revenue. All other revenues are just gravy.”
Ken Strickland
June 13th, 2011
9:32 am
MARK BRADLEY-It looks like you’re the only remaining gm in town, since the AJC has shut down the other Atlanta Hawk blogs. Do you think JJohnson had anything to do with that?
Ray
June 13th, 2011
10:08 am
I would be surprised K.S lol.
There is no way we should be able to not dump Marvin this offseason he’s a bum that needs to leave town on a Midnight Train to anywhere.
It seems were kinda stuck with J.J I think there is a way to trade him just got to get creative which ASG lacks in that department of all things.
Who Cares?
June 13th, 2011
10:08 am
Who cares Mark???
Blaming Joe what an idiot…………
Must be the water down here.Ish flows down hill….
@ Ken/ aka Captain cool-aid, maybe you could assist in getting the Hawks sold too??
Who Cares?
June 13th, 2011
10:14 am
Joe is the main reason the Hawks have been to the playoff the past 4 years Earth to Mark?? It was a failed experiment..Suck it up and move on to Blame Joe means you need to seek professional help immediately.
Who Cares?
June 13th, 2011
10:22 am
Marvin is a 20ppg scorer if given the chance Ray! He was a #2 pick by the Genius Billy Knight! Thats got to count for something?
He’s a star if Larry will give him a chance!
Grandpa Ellis
June 13th, 2011
3:17 pm
Does anyone question why the NHL is willing to give time to the Arizona franchise to secure good ownership, while the Bettman seemed not to care, at least publically, what happened in Atlanta?
ASG embarassed themselves and the Atlanta metropolitan area with their shenanigans. The league had the final descision and one that should have been made earlier; sell the Thrashers to local interests, period.
max deal
June 13th, 2011
3:17 pm
give jj another max deal soon or he’ll walk. He tired of being disrespected and will want a lot more money next time.
Ken Strickland
June 13th, 2011
6:30 pm
RAY-It’s wrong to blame JJ for not being able to do the impossible, and that’s overcome the stupid decisions of his last 2 HC’s. As our primary OFF weapon since his arrival, he’s faced constant double and sometimes triple teams. Woodson stuck with ISO no matter what and refused to do anything to limited that DEF strategy.
Both he and LDrew made it much earier for teams to use that strategy by insisting on matching him with MBibby, a complete DEF liability with severe OFF limitations. Having a SF who gave limited production certainly didn’t help. JJ simply doesn’t have the speed, quickness or athleticism to successfully beat these double and triple teams like his counterparts, Kobe, LeBron, DWade, CP3, DRose etc.
During our last 3 playoff appearances we all saw the Heat, Bucks, Magic, Cavaliers, Heat and Bulls double team him whenever he touched the ball. The Bulls even used that strategy successfully against JCrawford. I don’t care how much you pay a player, it’s not going to automatically make him quicker, faster, more athletic or anything else other than richer.
If LDrew involves MWilliams more in the OFF, allows JTeague to be the player he’s capable of being, and gets JSmith to be more effective and efficient, JJ will become the assassin he’s being paid to be. I’m not a hockey fan and have no interest in the gm whatsoever, but I am a fan of Atlanta sports. Therefore, I will root for any professional team in Atlanta.
There are hockey fans in Atlanta, and I feel for their loss. JJ is only about 2″ shorter than Marvin and just as big and strong. He’s far, far more skilled and productive offensively, and is at worst his equal defensively and rebounding wise. With his ability to defend against PG’s and SG’s, along with his size and strength, he’d have no trouble defending the vast majority of SF’s.
He’d certainly be a handful offensively for those same SF’s. A guard combination of Teague and Hinrich could/would give us almost as much OFF production as we got from JJ and Bibby. And their ability to play superior overall DEF would definitely compensate for any OFF differences.