Hawks cancel meeting with leaders; 'The entire civil rights community' is offended

The Atlanta Hawks had scheduled a meeting between CEO Steve Koonin and civil rights leaders within the community for Wednesday, but the team cancelled the meeting "at the last minute."

A group of 12 showed up at Philips Arena on Wednesday because Koonin had not personally cancelled the meeting, only to be told there was no longer a meeting on the books. As if the Hawks organization doesn't look bad enough already, they've now drawn the ire of the civil rights community, and probably lost any benefit of doubt as far as the situation is concerned. 

"The entire civil rights community, locally and nationally, have been offended, the likes of which we have not seen in this community in decades," Rev. Markel Hutchins said Thursday.

While the team has said that Koonin merely postponed the meeting, saying "this conversation is a priority for us," they failed to give a reason for the cancellation just one day after agreeing to the meeting.

Hutchins has a theory on why it was called off, however:

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 have called for Danny Ferry's removal as well, while some in the basketball community have expressed support and vouched for his character. It would probably behoove the organization to put another meeting on the books with these community leaders sooner rather than later.