Post by jksockey on Aug 14, 2011 19:28:37 GMT -6
Attention Jets Fans, this is your Captain speaking! JK Sockey, Captain of the Blogoshpere!
Who am I?
I am a sock puppet created shortly after the Thrashers in 1999 to ward off local Atlanta media slug John Kincade from an unofficial Thrashers message board The Smirkin Chicken. He repeatedly used the forum to promote his radio show and his jkhockey website. When fans began to call him out for being a blowhard, he packed up his insight and left (he wasn’t missed). Those of you who followed the sale of the Thrashers to True North via Twitter will recognize him as the man who repeatedly denied the rumors that the team was being sold, insulted the city of Winnipeg and it’s fans, and hinted that a man he referred to as “The Balkan” (named for a character from Kincade’s favorite Soap Opera) was ready to swoop in and save hockey in Atlanta. Having seen his antics for over 10 years, I did my best to make fans in both Atlanta and Winnipeg aware that he had no more inside knowledge than the average Atlanta fan. Even though he was employed by the Atlanta Spirit Group, his “inside information” was consistently less reliable than both Eklund and Maggie The Monkey. I encourage those of you who he has not already blocked on Twitter to twit him twitter.com/#!/JohnKincade and ask him what his boyfriend #theBalkan is up to these days.
Atlanta fans are not disgruntled for “losing their team“, I gotta point out to you that Thrashers hockey did not fail in Atlanta due to lack of fan support for the team, it was a fan base that was tired of supporting an incompetent ownership group, in fact it failed both with the Flames and Thrashers due to ownership issues. The Flames were sold because the owner’s poor real estate investments bankrupted him. The Thrashers lost fan support and were sold due to the inability of the bumbling ownership group to spend time putting together a competitive team. Prior to the sale of the team earlier this summer, the 9 owners had been suing each other since 2006!
Unlike most Thrashers fans who blame Gary Bettman for the teams move, I actually blame NBA commissioner David Stern. He was the person who would not allow Turner Inc. to sell the Thrashers and Hawks to a local ownership group unless they brought on Steve Belkin. A Boston businessman that Stern had screwed over in 2002 when the Celtics were sold by Paul Gaston to Boston Basketball Partners, LLC.
There are many passionate and knowledgeable hockey fans in Atlanta. Enough to have supported both an NHL and ECHL team (Gwinnett Gladiators), and to run the second largest amateur hockey league in the United States.
www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-amateur-hockey-league-678439.html
For the record I don’t assume that just being Canadian makes you knowledgeable about hockey and I ask that you don’t assume that being an Atlanta Thrashers fan means I don’t know anything about hockey. I’m not a hater, but I’m not a homer either, I think I‘m realistic. I was a Thrashers season ticket holder from day one, but I’ve been a fan of hockey long before them and I’ll be one long after them.
Who am I?
I am a sock puppet created shortly after the Thrashers in 1999 to ward off local Atlanta media slug John Kincade from an unofficial Thrashers message board The Smirkin Chicken. He repeatedly used the forum to promote his radio show and his jkhockey website. When fans began to call him out for being a blowhard, he packed up his insight and left (he wasn’t missed). Those of you who followed the sale of the Thrashers to True North via Twitter will recognize him as the man who repeatedly denied the rumors that the team was being sold, insulted the city of Winnipeg and it’s fans, and hinted that a man he referred to as “The Balkan” (named for a character from Kincade’s favorite Soap Opera) was ready to swoop in and save hockey in Atlanta. Having seen his antics for over 10 years, I did my best to make fans in both Atlanta and Winnipeg aware that he had no more inside knowledge than the average Atlanta fan. Even though he was employed by the Atlanta Spirit Group, his “inside information” was consistently less reliable than both Eklund and Maggie The Monkey. I encourage those of you who he has not already blocked on Twitter to twit him twitter.com/#!/JohnKincade and ask him what his boyfriend #theBalkan is up to these days.
Atlanta fans are not disgruntled for “losing their team“, I gotta point out to you that Thrashers hockey did not fail in Atlanta due to lack of fan support for the team, it was a fan base that was tired of supporting an incompetent ownership group, in fact it failed both with the Flames and Thrashers due to ownership issues. The Flames were sold because the owner’s poor real estate investments bankrupted him. The Thrashers lost fan support and were sold due to the inability of the bumbling ownership group to spend time putting together a competitive team. Prior to the sale of the team earlier this summer, the 9 owners had been suing each other since 2006!
Unlike most Thrashers fans who blame Gary Bettman for the teams move, I actually blame NBA commissioner David Stern. He was the person who would not allow Turner Inc. to sell the Thrashers and Hawks to a local ownership group unless they brought on Steve Belkin. A Boston businessman that Stern had screwed over in 2002 when the Celtics were sold by Paul Gaston to Boston Basketball Partners, LLC.
There are many passionate and knowledgeable hockey fans in Atlanta. Enough to have supported both an NHL and ECHL team (Gwinnett Gladiators), and to run the second largest amateur hockey league in the United States.
www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-amateur-hockey-league-678439.html
For the record I don’t assume that just being Canadian makes you knowledgeable about hockey and I ask that you don’t assume that being an Atlanta Thrashers fan means I don’t know anything about hockey. I’m not a hater, but I’m not a homer either, I think I‘m realistic. I was a Thrashers season ticket holder from day one, but I’ve been a fan of hockey long before them and I’ll be one long after them.
