Hiring a guy right before the deadline… roster gonna be hit with a hammer
deegzx
Life would be so much easier if we had just kept Travis. This front office is a flaming dumpster fire.
ATLsShah
Had no idea who this guy is. His wiki page says he served as the hawks Vp of basketball operations and assistant gm in 04. Then left for Cleveland in 05. So I’m trying to look back at his track record.
04 off season we drafted Childress, Josh smith. Traded for Antoine Walker, Al Harrington, and Tony Delk. Signed Mike Woodson as coach. Then he made some odd trades. He traded Antoine Walker back to the Celtics for Gary Payton then let Gary Payton go so he could go back to the Celtics?
The team finished 13-69. 15 games worse than the previous season.
———
From 05-10 he was in Cleveland trying to build around Lebron. From memory he just kept trying to pair Lebron with aged stars like Shaq and Antoine Jamison.
———
In 2016 he became a scout for San Antonio. Not sure how he’s been doing there. I feel like San Antonio has drafted well throughout the years. Even without Wemby they have a nice young roster. So maybe a lot of that can be attributed to Grants contributions.
MiserableSoft2344
Chris Grant is another guy who used to work under the Spirit Group as an assistant VP of basketball operations. I’m not sure if Grant actually wrote the Luol Deng report but he was not the one who spoke those words in the notorious front office meeting. That individual was Danny Ferry. Danny Ferry was hired as Hawks GM in 2012 ([ESPN, 2012](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/8093482/danny-ferry-hired-atlanta-hawks-new-gm)).
Ferry resigned as Cavs GE/GM in 2010, Asst. GM Grant was then promoted ([Cavs History, 2009](http://www.cavshistory.com/gms/chris-grant/)). Grant was fired in February of 2014 after starting the season 16-33. There was a lot of noise behind the scenes about the Cavalier culture Grant influenced. Chris Amico, former Cleveland Cavalier reporter for Fox Sports at the time, detailed the following:
> My biggest problem was the culture… Grant built a LOSING mindset in the locker room. LeBron wouldn’t have come back if he was still GM, that much I can promise. Griffin went in said, basically, “You know what. We’re not losers. We’re not losing on purpose.” Kyre, Dion, etc.. hated playing for Mike Brown, and Brown was Grant’s guy.
> I’m in the locker room. Trust me, please, when I tell you Grant’s approach, regardless of the assets they obtained (and he obtained many) was toxic, T-O-X-I-C. If you want to debate that, OK. But I know, I was there.
> One example: He would tell players if they didn’t get their act together he was gonna trade them. Griffin had to come in and tell them “You’re not getting traded. It’s all OK> Let’s have some fun.” Then, despite a coach who was overmatched and the players didn’t like playing for, the Cavs finished 17-16 and made a run to the playoffs. ([SB Nation, 2014](https://www.fearthesword.com/2014/9/5/6102439/amico-cleveland-cavaliers-locker-room-situation-in-2013-14-was-toxic))
Nonetheless, I’m a firm believer Spirit Group business practices have never left the Atlanta Hawks franchise despite Ressler’s ownership. You can say that a few events were overblown by the media but there is a pile of shit following this guy from his days in the 2010s.
5 Comments
Care to say why it’s not great?
Hiring a guy right before the deadline… roster gonna be hit with a hammer
Life would be so much easier if we had just kept Travis. This front office is a flaming dumpster fire.
Had no idea who this guy is. His wiki page says he served as the hawks Vp of basketball operations and assistant gm in 04. Then left for Cleveland in 05. So I’m trying to look back at his track record.
04 off season we drafted Childress, Josh smith. Traded for Antoine Walker, Al Harrington, and Tony Delk. Signed Mike Woodson as coach. Then he made some odd trades. He traded Antoine Walker back to the Celtics for Gary Payton then let Gary Payton go so he could go back to the Celtics?
The team finished 13-69. 15 games worse than the previous season.
———
From 05-10 he was in Cleveland trying to build around Lebron. From memory he just kept trying to pair Lebron with aged stars like Shaq and Antoine Jamison.
———
In 2016 he became a scout for San Antonio. Not sure how he’s been doing there. I feel like San Antonio has drafted well throughout the years. Even without Wemby they have a nice young roster. So maybe a lot of that can be attributed to Grants contributions.
Chris Grant is another guy who used to work under the Spirit Group as an assistant VP of basketball operations. I’m not sure if Grant actually wrote the Luol Deng report but he was not the one who spoke those words in the notorious front office meeting. That individual was Danny Ferry. Danny Ferry was hired as Hawks GM in 2012 ([ESPN, 2012](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/8093482/danny-ferry-hired-atlanta-hawks-new-gm)).
> June 6, 2014: The Hawks hold a conference call with owners and management to discuss potential free agents. During the call, racist remarks are made about Luol Deng by Ferry, who later says he was reading from a background report ([AJC, 2014](https://www.ajc.com/sports/pro-sports/timeline-the-atlanta-spirit-decade-dysfunction/JMN0qtQFJznkMKNg2vImKO/)).
Now rewind a little bit,
Ferry resigned as Cavs GE/GM in 2010, Asst. GM Grant was then promoted ([Cavs History, 2009](http://www.cavshistory.com/gms/chris-grant/)). Grant was fired in February of 2014 after starting the season 16-33. There was a lot of noise behind the scenes about the Cavalier culture Grant influenced. Chris Amico, former Cleveland Cavalier reporter for Fox Sports at the time, detailed the following:
> My biggest problem was the culture… Grant built a LOSING mindset in the locker room. LeBron wouldn’t have come back if he was still GM, that much I can promise. Griffin went in said, basically, “You know what. We’re not losers. We’re not losing on purpose.” Kyre, Dion, etc.. hated playing for Mike Brown, and Brown was Grant’s guy.
> I’m in the locker room. Trust me, please, when I tell you Grant’s approach, regardless of the assets they obtained (and he obtained many) was toxic, T-O-X-I-C. If you want to debate that, OK. But I know, I was there.
> One example: He would tell players if they didn’t get their act together he was gonna trade them. Griffin had to come in and tell them “You’re not getting traded. It’s all OK> Let’s have some fun.” Then, despite a coach who was overmatched and the players didn’t like playing for, the Cavs finished 17-16 and made a run to the playoffs. ([SB Nation, 2014](https://www.fearthesword.com/2014/9/5/6102439/amico-cleveland-cavaliers-locker-room-situation-in-2013-14-was-toxic))
The Hawks hired Ferry as GM in 2012 and Grant follows him to the Hawks organization. ([ESPN, 2012](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/8093482/danny-ferry-hired-atlanta-hawks-new-gm))
Nonetheless, I’m a firm believer Spirit Group business practices have never left the Atlanta Hawks franchise despite Ressler’s ownership. You can say that a few events were overblown by the media but there is a pile of shit following this guy from his days in the 2010s.