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Report: Dikembe Mutombo meets with investors about joining bid to buy Atlanta Hawks
There's a new name in the mix in the ongoing saga surrounding ownership of the Atlanta Hawks, according to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It's a pretty long name, one best spoken with a Cookie Monstrous timbre while chastising folks with your every gesture:
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Former Hawks player Dikembe Mutombo has met with a group of investors about joining their bid to buy the Atlanta Hawks.
The group, which is made up in part of Atlanta businessmen, has begun the preliminary work to get involved in the sale of the team. Talks are ongoing. The group may also consist of other former NBA players. They hope to meet with the NBA commissioner’s office in the near future.
Mutombo did not return a message left at the office of his foundation in Atlanta.
A substantial stake in the Hawks has been up for grabs since September, when part-owner Bruce Levenson expressed his intention to sell his share of the team following the revelation of an August 2012 email he wrote in which he theorized that "the black crowd [at Philips Arena] scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a signficant [sic] season ticket base."
Levenson also wrote about prior complaints to Atlanta's game operations staff about wanting "some white cheerleaders," wanting music played in the arena "to be music familiar to a 40 year old white guy if that's our season tixs [sic] demo[graphic]," and wanting more non-black fans picked out of the stands to participate in shooting contests during timeouts, among other things: "I have even bitched that the kiss cam is too black." (Some reports suggest that Levenson was considering putting up his ownership stake before the controversy erupted, raising the possibility that his alleged "self-reporting" of the objectionable email was a sign of the post-Donald Sterling-era times in more ways than one.)
Levenson's 2012 email came to light as part of an internal investigation into Hawks general manager Danny Ferry's referring to forward Luol Deng as "having some African in him" during a conference call with ownership and management about prospective free-agent targets, a reference apparently intended to conflate something about Deng with African merchants who sell counterfeit goods. That investigation was reportedly triggered by Hawks minority partner Michael Gearon Jr., who wrote a letter pressuring Levenson "to ask for Ferry's resignation, and if he refuses, to terminate him for cause" following his comments, perhaps as a means of undercutting a power structure in which his own input in the Hawks' operations had been minimized.
The aftermath: Deng wound up signing with the Miami Heat; Ferry was not fired, but instead took an indefinite leave of absence, ceding control of the Hawks' front-office operations to CEO Steve Koonin and head coach Mike Budenholzer; and nobody's bought into the Hawks yet. We know that a controlling 50.1 percent interest in the franchise — Levenson's 24 percent, plus the 26.1 percent owned by partner Ed Peskowitz, who compose the Washington, D.C.-based portion of Atlanta Hawks LLC — are on the block. Vivlamore reports that it remains unclear whether the other two factions in the Hawks' ownership — an Atlanta-based group that owns 34 percent of the team, and a New York-based group that owns 16 percent — intend to sell, too, and that the nuts-and-bolts of any sale — what percentage of shares of the franchise will actually be sold, who will vet prospective buyers, etc. — have still yet to be hammered out. Long story short: We're quite a ways away from any deals getting done.
While no sale, big or small, seems imminent, there does appear to be plenty of interest — or, at least, discussion of potential interest — in carving out a piece of that Pac-Man pie. Hall of Famer and former Hawks great Dominique Wilkins expressed interest in buying into the franchise last month. Yahoo Sports NBA columnist Adrian Wojnarowski reported last week that five-time All-Star forward, current Turner Sports analyst and Atlanta resident Chris Webber is part of an investment group "that has submitted a letter of interest to the NBA about its desire to purchase" the franchise. Entertainment and sports attorney Doug Davis has also been connected with a prospective ownership bid.
How large a share Mutombo would plan to pursue, what kind of financial commitment that would require, what sort of role he'd have in the franchise's operations ... all of these remain, at the moment, wide-open and unanswered questions. Given both the recent turmoil and the specific nature of it, though, Mutombo's standing as not only a beloved franchise great (Deke still stands as the all-time franchise leader in rebounds per game and blocks per game) but also a well-known, highly-regarded advocate and activist who's been performing humanitarian work in Africa for decades would seem to make him a highly attractive addition to any ownership group.
Plus, y'know, with all due respect to Koonin, we'd kind of rather see Mutombo be the guy involved in promotional videos like this T.I.-performance-flogging clip:
If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go try to wrap my mind around just what "For shizzle" might sound like in Mutombo's Groot-in-a-garbage-disposal-ish garble.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
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