Atlanta Hawks CEO 'Stevie K' fo shizzles his way into our hearts
A promo video featuring Steve Koonin and T.I. is not receiving the reaction the Hawks had hoped for
Talk about doubling down on the race card, Steve Koonin takes his last name quite literally in this latest Atlanta Hawks ad with T.I. This is so 2014 it's hard to know where to begin. Perhaps no moment better encapsulates the point of absurdity we've reached in American race relations than a two-minute appeal to Black Atlanta that manages to pander and patronize.
Not to mention it's effin' hilarious. Don't forget that.
Sorry sketch comedians. Nothing to parody here. It's like they skipped the overly sincere plea and went straight for the over-the-top Key & Peele skit.
When the NBA team announced last week that T.I. was scheduled to perform at Philips Arena before, during halftime, and after the Nov. 1 home opener against the Indiana Pacers, it was clear that the Hawks' front office was anxious to put September's racially-charged P.R. debacle behind it. But in the eagerness to do so, Koonin seems quite clueless.
? ? ?
- screenshot/YouTube
- 'FO SHIZZLE': T.I.'s reaction is worth a thousand words.
On the other hand, I can empathize with him. He's been put in challenging position as the CEO of the organization and he seems to be trying really hard to clean up the mess former Hawks' majority owner Bruce Levenson left in his wake. (In addition to Danny Ferry and his insensitive characterization — or repeat of someone else's insensitive characterization — of one-time Hawks' prospect Luol Deng.)
In the aftermath, the team has announced it's search for a chief diversity and inclusion officer (which T.I. seems like a shoo-in for). Koonin also went on the radio for an interview with top urban station V-103's morning show host Ryan Cameron — who's also the Hawks' longtime home-game PA announcer — in the days immediately following the crisis.
In that 30-minute interview, which I'm embedding below just to help the guy save face, Koonin talks about the huge effort it will take to undo what's been said and done. "This has been a divided city. Sports should unite, sports shouldn't divide," Koonin says around the 14-minute mark. "And again, I'm trying to do the best I can. I'm going to make mistakes."
No doubt.
He also addresses the damage done by the former ownership's devaluation of the African-American audience and his hope to right that wrong. "This is Atlanta," Koonin says. "This is who cares about basketball in Atlanta. This is who pays their money to come to the game. And you're saying they're not good enough? I'll never recover from that."
So in the desperate attempt to ingratiate the team with its biggest fanbase, someone thought it wise to put "Stevie K" in a commercial awkwardly ad-libbing slang like "for shizzle?" Talk about taking one for the team. Seriously, I almost want to give the guy a courtesy hug for effort.
From the beginning, this whole debacle has been crying out for a much more nuanced conversation about the skewed and narrowed perceptions surrounding race in Atlanta. And really, that's not Steve Koonin's responsibility. He's a CEO, not a cultural critic. And Atlanta is the capital of hip-hop, a commercial genre that tends to promote artists known to glorify stereotypes and conspicuous consumption. So it's easy to see how a rushed marketing campaign might make the mistake of reducing a race of fans down to a tired hip-hop cliché in the name of outreach. But if exaggerated posturing is the strategy for keeping the team in the black, it's gonna be a long season.
Somebody qualified better apply for that chief diversity officer position quick before Stevie K starts rapping "The Star Spangled Banner" from center court.