<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>For more than a year, a court order has held that Boston businessman Steve Belkin is the rightful sole owner of Atlanta's professional basketball and hockey franchises.</p> That order was struck down on Tuesday.</p> The Marylandcourt that Belkin, an estranged member of the Atlanta Spirit group that owns the Hawks and Thrashers, was entitled to buy out, at cost, the other owners and take over the teams.</p> The appellate court sent the dispute - one of the nastiest ownership feuds in sports history - back to the lower court for further proceedings. Tens of millions of dollars and the future direction of the teams are at stake.</p> It is now uncertain exactly what will happen next in the two-year-old struggle between Belkin and the other owners, but off the table for now is the prospect of Belkin wresting control of the teams.</p> "As a practical matter, that's dead," said Atlanta attorney Steven Estep, one of the lawyers representing part-owners Bruce Levenson, Ed Peskowitz, Michael Gearon Jr. and four others.</p> Said Gearon: "It's now clear Belkin does not have the right to buy us out, and we look forward to getting back to the process of buying him out."</p> Belkin and his Boston attorneys, Jack Fabiano and Neil Jacobs, declined to comment on the appellate court's ruling.</p> "We are going to continue our policy of not commenting until there is a final decision," Fabiano said.</p> The fight has been marked by a series of bitter court filings and hearings - and by Hawks general manager Billy Knight famously refusing to shake Belkin's hand during one court appearance.</p> The current litigation stems from an August 2005 contract that called for Belkin to sell his 30 percent stake in Atlanta Spirit to the other owners for a price to be set by a series of up to three appraisals.</p> The planned buyout of Belkin quickly was derailed by the failure of the contract to specifically state who had the right to choose the second appraiser if both sides objected to the results of the first, as they did.</div></p> Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution</p>
I think that this won't effect the Hawks to much. Just as long as the owner doesn't want to move the team. </p> Agree though, Knight should be fired.</p>
