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DEL.ICIO.USFormer Hawks rule basketball universe
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Even at their apex, the Hawks of old had to fight perception. During their titanic 1988 playoff series against Boston, assistant coach Brendan Suhr told Jack McCallum of Sports Illustrated: “We all know what people think of when they think of the Hawks. They think of a jivin’, high-fivin’, low-IQ team.”
Twenty years later, one of those Hawks (Doc Rivers) is a coach on the cusp of a championship. Randy Wittman, Rivers’ backcourt partner from 1983 through 1988, coaches the Minnesota Timberwolves. Tree Rollins, a distinguished Hawk from 1977 through 1988, coaches the WNBA’s Washington Mystics. And Reggie Theus, imported as a presumed upgrade to Wittman in the summer of ‘88, coaches the Sacramento Kings.
For a team supposedly short on brainpower, that’s an auspicious array of alums. Said Rollins, who played under Hubie Brown, Kevin Loughery and Mike Fratello as a Hawk: “You had to have a high basketball IQ to execute the things we ran.”
Said Fratello, the NBA’s coach of the year in 1985-86 and now the famed Czar of TNT’s Telestrator: “We were not low-IQ. We were sometimes impatient, but that was because we were young. With the number of things we put in, we couldn’t have done it with a low-IQ team.”
Something you didn’t know: Even in an era where 95 percent of contemporary basketball seems based in the pick-and-roll, coaches and their players still reference the Hawks of yore. “Most teams still run what they call a ‘Hawk Set’ or a ‘Hawk Cut,’ ” Rollins said. “It’s something they got from our old ‘5’ set.”
In separate conversations, Rollins and Fratello offered an oral diagram: The center (or the power forward, depending on personnel) sets a high screen for the point guard, who’s moving left to right. Fratello, in full Telestrator mode, noted that the screener’s “chest angle” is of paramount importance. “He almost has to be facing the sideline, and he has to look back over his left shoulder to see the guard. … We always ran it to the right side of the court.”
The 2-guard posts his man low on the right side. The power forward (or center, again depending) “sets a pin for the 3-man,” Rollins said, and the 3-man for the Hawks of the middle and late ’80s was Jacques Dominique Wilkins. The “5” play could have culminated with one of several men taking the shot — the high screen stepping backward and receiving a pass; the point guard driving; the 2-guard posting up or fading to the sideline — but usually it wound up with No. 21 in the left corner. “And then we got out of Dominique’s way,” said Rollins, laughing.
If you’re so inclined, you could find this play in the still-available paperback, “Hubie On Basketball — Book 1.” Fratello, who was Brown’s assistant when the book was being readied for publication, recalled that there was never a Book 2: “I did 109 diagrams by hand, and finally Hubie came in and said, ‘That’s it — we’re done. This is too much work.’”
Twenty years later, we see that there was more to those Hawks than we would have guessed. Even Cliff Levingston, author of the infamous (and unscripted) running lefty hook at the deflating end of Game 6 against the Celtics, has served as head coach of the St. Louis Flight of the ABA and the Dodge City Legend, the Gary Steelheads and the Oklahoma Cavalry of the USBL.
“I have a lot of pride in those people,” said Fratello, a proud godfather of professional coaching. “I couldn’t be happier for them.”
Said Rollins: “I see these guys all the time, and we always talk basketball. I saw Maurice Cheeks [briefly a Hawk in 1992 and now coach of the Philadelphia 76ers] in the airport the other day, and I got a play for my point guard.”
Permalink | Comments (29) | Post your comment | Categories: Hawks/NBA
Comments
By Herschel Talker
June 13, 2008 7:31 PM | Link to this
Mark: do you still think the Braves will be in first place by July 4?
By andy
June 13, 2008 11:02 PM | Link to this
What was Prist Lauderdale’s bball IQ?????????
By TYRONE
June 14, 2008 1:12 AM | Link to this
YEAH YOU RACIST HATERS HERE IN ATL CANT STAND TO SEE THE BROTHERS YOU RAN OUT OF TOWN DOING GOOD SOMEWHERES ELSE!!! IF YOU RACISTS THINK THE HAWKS YOU RUN OUT OF TOWN ARE MAKING YOU PAY NOW JUST WAIT UNTIL MIKE VICK COME BACK WITH HIS SUPPER BOWL RING WITH TAMPA BAY!!!!!
By captain Midnight
June 14, 2008 2:50 AM | Link to this
Tyrone why don’t you do something exciting and go to a Klu Klux Klan rally.
By jwkfs
June 14, 2008 4:17 AM | Link to this
A supper bowl ring!? Vick’s going to come back as a competitive eater?
By Willy
June 14, 2008 4:45 AM | Link to this
cool article, Thanks Bradley
By Maxx
June 14, 2008 4:55 AM | Link to this
Vick would be a great competitive eater. He would be the MVP of the Supper Bowl
By Maxx
June 14, 2008 4:56 AM | Link to this
Vick would be the most mobile competitive eater of all time. He would be the MVP of the Supper Bowl
By alopecoid
June 14, 2008 8:36 AM | Link to this
Speling is a lost art.
By Hawks Fan
June 14, 2008 10:16 AM | Link to this
Could we get those guys to share some of that BB IQ with Woodson?
By Bigbird
June 14, 2008 10:17 AM | Link to this
Tyrone………..shut up.
By reddawg
June 14, 2008 10:37 AM | Link to this
I always thought a “racist hater” was a good guy. Sad to see Tyrone loves racists. Must be a vitamin deficit from improper meal planning. , PS I don’t hate Ron Mexico because of his color; it is his total lack of any social redeeming graces that angers me. So go ahead Tyrone, pull for your boy because that is just what Vick is. A spoiled child.
By hmm...
June 14, 2008 11:23 AM | Link to this
Vick won’t be a part of the Falcons because he is doing time in a federal prison. If it was because of his race, he would have never gotten that lucrative contract.
By samuel
June 14, 2008 12:32 PM | Link to this
the sorry white people in this town don’t deserve no black heros the way they treat sport legends like vick and the hawks they run off. atl = looserville
By Mark Bradley
June 14, 2008 1:03 PM | Link to this
Thanks, Willy. And please … call me Mark.
By Ronald
June 14, 2008 1:24 PM | Link to this
it sad that we still have some people that are still stuck on stupit with racist that I wornder about them do they have a life do they have love in their life this is about sport not hate
By Dr. Warren
June 14, 2008 2:13 PM | Link to this
Mark, don’t forget about late 70’s Hawk point guard, Armund Hill, a Princeton grad who became head coach at Columbia (although did poorly) and now serves as an a*’t coach for the Celtics (and apparently doing better).
By Dr. Warren
June 14, 2008 2:14 PM | Link to this
Mark, don’t forget about late 70’s Hawk point guard, Armund Hill, a Princeton grad who became head coach at Columbia (although did poorly) and now serves as an a*’t coach for the Celtics (and apparently doing better).
By Bob from Acworth
June 14, 2008 5:15 PM | Link to this
Mark. Great Column. Thanks for the update on former Hawks players,where they are and what they’re doing. I hate to do it,but I’m cheering for the Celtics in the Finals ONLY because Doc Rivers is their coach. I still wince when I think of the series between the Hawks and Celtics from twenty years ago. Note to Tyrone and Samuel. The best response to people like you is this.(Which you won’t understand anyway.)Updating a quote from Abraham Lincoln. It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool. Than to open your mouth(or post on a web site) and remove all doubt!
By Dunwoody Roundball
June 14, 2008 11:11 PM | Link to this
Our city is far better off without Vick and HIS KIND. I actually like Doc Rivers but it was probably his white half that allowed him to be smart enough to stay from Atlanta and the Atlanta Spirit Group.
By Herman the Braveman
June 15, 2008 1:28 AM | Link to this
I Hate Koons!!!
By Misawaagent
June 15, 2008 1:54 AM | Link to this
Some of you Atlanta people make me sick…some of you are so filled with hate. It’s so disappointing to see an article start out about former Hawks doing great and …. degenerates into sad commentary on the state of race affairs. Maybe that’s why the city and state is in the shape that it’s in.
By CobbMom
June 15, 2008 8:09 AM | Link to this
I agree with Misawaagent. It is such a shame that our local sports landscape has been decimated by degenerate coloreds who use drugs, shoot guns and rape and abuse other animals like pit bulls. I can’t even stand to take my kids to a Hawks game anymore for all the tattooed freaks with VD and illegitimate kids running around on the floor. Many of Atlanta’s respectful pro athletes get out of here ASAP and find their greatness elsewhere. I miss Spud Webb and Warrick Dunn.
By your REAL dad
June 15, 2008 11:51 AM | Link to this
Vick was simply a pawn the govt wanted to make an example out of. He killed his own dog(s) in his own backyard (which happens everyday in suburbia) after training them to fight. He recieved a worse punishment then hundreds of white murderers and child molesters. Plain and simple the Falcon’s won games with Vick and have lost games without him! Like him or not the guy sold out the DOME that was used to weekly black-outs on TV and made our city proud of the TEAM that we were embarrassed about for decades. Bartkowski, Favre, & Vick!!! Best atlanta QB’s period!!!!!
By McGruff The Crime Dog
June 15, 2008 1:08 PM | Link to this
Vick was the best Atlanta QB ever…… The BEST at raping dogs and giving K-9s and white women venereal diseases that is!
By Ian in Costa Rica
June 15, 2008 3:21 PM | Link to this
Mark, as much as I get a kick out of reading the nonsense that follows most AJC sports blogs, I think we Atlantans would benefit if the most ignorant and offensive posts were taken down. Is it any surprise the rest of the country thinks we’re backwards?
By Armond Hill
June 16, 2008 12:47 AM | Link to this
I agree with Ian in Costa Rica. Thanks for the love Dr Warren
By Pete
June 16, 2008 11:03 AM | Link to this
Good article Mark
By Casey
June 19, 2008 1:14 AM | Link to this
Listen up! The Great Rev. Casey is here and will always remain! Mark Bradley, you are a dousch bag!
Go Lakers! You will win next year guaranteed!
The Great Rev. Casey verses 5:57-7:82.
Holla!