In lieu of a racially charged email sent from ATL Hawks controlling majority owner, Bruce Levenson, the Hawks have been apologizing to not only their team but to the African American community and with that CEO Steve Koonin, had a meeting with Civil Rights Leaders in Atlanta. Unfortunately, Koonin decided to cancel the meeting last minute. What puzzled the leaders was that it wasn’t re-scheduled and no reason why it was even postponed.
According to NESN, Rev. Markel Hutchins said he recieved a phone call from Hawks spokesperson Garin Narain stating that the meeting was canceled and would be rescheduled for a later date. But because Koonin didn’t respond to the leaders directly, they, all 12 leaders, showed up anyway only to be reconfirmed that there was no meeting and it was postponed.
“The entire civil rights community, locally and nationally, have been offended, the likes of which we have not seen in this community in decades,” Hutchins said.
The Hawks have disciplined GM Danny Ferry and Levenson selling his portion of the team. Hopefully this mess with get straightened out soon. It seems as though the Civil Rights leaders want a personal apology for the actions of the Hawks organization. I just hope with that the leaders will ask for some type of community service be given and not just apologize in private.