Hawks Owner Tony Ressler Says He Was a 'Schmuck' When He First Bought Team

Three years into his ownership tenure with the Atlanta Hawks, Tony Ressler admits he wasn't always the easiest person to get along with.

Speaking to The Athletic's Jeff Schultz, Ressler described himself as a "schmuck" who had no idea what he was doing in 2015.

"Let's cut the bulls--t—I didn't know what I was doing," Ressler said. "I can blame someone else, I can blame you, I can blame my wife. But there was only one schmuck in the room, and that was me."

The Hawks were in a state of disarray behind the scenes when Ressler took over. Former owner Bruce Levenson put the team up for sale in 2014 after self-reporting to the NBA that he sent emails that contained racist language two years earlier.

Former general manager Danny Ferry took a leave of absence in September 2014 after making racist comments about Luol Deng during a conference call with ownership. He officially stepped down from the position 10 months later.

A group led by Ressler purchased the Hawks for $850 million in April 2015. The 59-year-old made his fortune as the co-founder of private equity firms Apollo Global Management and Ares Management.

When Ressler and his group took over, Atlanta had won a franchise-record 60 games during the 2014-15 regular season and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Despite walking into a situation with that success on the court, Ressler noted he was "a deer in the headlights" in his first two years as owner. The Hawks' win totals declined each of the following three seasons, and they missed the postseason in 2017-18 for the first time in 11 years.

The Hawks are in a rebuilding phase with first-year head coach Lloyd Pierce, but they've found a potential franchise cornerstone in guard Trae Young. There seems to be a plan in place to move forward after three years of decline.