The Atlanta Hawks have decided to cancel the meeting with civil rights leader. The CEO of the Hawks was scheduled to meet the leader of a civil rights group last Wednesday but it was cancelled. The cancellation prompted the civil rights leader to be offended of the action.
The Rev. Markel Hutchins said the meeting with CEO Steve Koonin was called off ''at the last minute.'' He later said he received a call from Hawks spokesman Garin Narain on Tuesday night asking the appointment be postponed.
Hutchins said that he wanted to hear Koonin cancel the request himself and since the call came from a spokesperson, the group of 12 civil rights leaders showed up as planned. He said "The entire civil rights community, locally and nationally, have been offended, the likes of which we have not seen in this community in decades."
Hawks released a statement last Wednesday addressing the issue asking for patience and stating that they want to reschedule the meeting.
The statement says "Koonin postponed today's meeting last night. This conversation is a priority for us. We are committed to having this meeting and will work with community leaders to reschedule as soon as possible. We ask our community to work with us, be patient with us, and help us heal."
The Hawks did not divulge the reason for cancellation though. Hutchins said that the meeting with Koonin was arranged making it clear that the group wanted Ferry to lose his job.
He said "'Perhaps one of the reasons why they cancelled the meeting is we made it very clear we were going to demand in our conversations that Danny Ferry be fired or resign. There is no way that a man who uses the kind of language and holds the kind of sentiments that he does should be the general manager of the basketball team in the home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the cradle of the civil rights movement."
Others has also called for Ferry to be fired. Former NBA great Magic Johnson said late Tuesday on his Twitter feed ''Atlanta Hawks GM Danny Ferry should step down after making racist statements about NBA player Luol Deng.''
