The Hawks have enlisted the help of hip-hop artist and Atlanta native T.I. "to help the Hawks rebound" from the controversy that "erupted following racially insensitive comments by soon-to-be-former co-owner Bruce Levenson," according to Jennifer Brett of the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. T.I. has agreed to perform and "help announce the players at the Nov. 1 home opener" against the Pacers (AJC.com, 10/19). T.I. also appears in a new video alongside Hawks CEO Steve Koonin to promote the upcoming season, in which Koonin refers to himself as "Stevie K." ESPN's Bomani Jones said, "This is a crazy thing to watch, especially that whole Stevie K thing, at least that's what I thought at first. Why don't you use your real name? Then I remembered, that's the unfortunately named Steve Koonin." ESPN's Dan Le Batard said, "You've got a general manager in peril away from the team, people think that he should be fired. You've got an owner saying, 'Hey, I'm selling the team because of things I've done in the past are racist.' ... That's how you solve it. That's how you fix your calamity, with that commercial? Leadership with the Hawks!" Jones: "Only in the NBA, by the way, can you look at your crisis-management team and say, 'How do we fix this?' And the answer is, 'We're going to call T.I.'" ("Highly Questionable," ESPN2, 10/21).
CHRIS' WEB: Former NBAer Chris Webber last week was identified as
part of a group interested in buying the Hawks, and he said, "It’s a wonderful opportunity with this Atlanta Hawks team right now. I have a group and I have some members that believe in me -- friends that are in the business community, mentors. I just, first of all, thank them for their belief in me and secondly, the NBA for taking us serious. It is a long process. I’m glad to be in the process, but I love the NBA. It’s not something we just act about. It’s something I’d love to be in for the rest of my life. Whether it’s here talking about the game, or it’s up in an office trying to draft some guy” (
“NBA GameTime,” NBATV, 10/21).
