This blog has moved! Yes, already!
As of Thursday, Feb. 12, this little blog has relocated to a new home on AJC.com. It’s the same newspaper, the same Web site and the same writer (feel free to groan) — there’s just a new URL.
New features: Bigger type, more graphics, comments that load 10 times faster and a larger and more recent photo that makes me look pretty doggone old. I think you’ll like it (the blog, not the photo). But I am, as we know too well, often wrong.
Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > June > 26
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Billy Knight’s gone, but the memory lingers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the same way the Swedes celebrate Midsummer’s Day by dancing around a maypole, we Atlantans had developed our own June ritual: Every year we’d watch the NBA draft and think unkind thoughts about Billy Knight. Even last summer, when Knight plucked a plum in Al Horford, boos could be heard at Philips Arena.
Thus did the 2008 draft arrive with a jolt, we locals discovering that our festive routine had been rendered inoperable. Knight no longer works here, and the Hawks had no part in these doings. That said, the 2008 draft did carry one clear reminder of Blunt Billy.
Only three years ago, conventional wisdom held that a team shouldn’t use a lofty pick on a little man. Conventional wisdom, as it invariably does, has changed. Owing to the imprints Chris Paul and Deron Williams have left on their franchises — and surely owing to the nationwide scorn heaped on Knight for not drafting either — this draft saw six guards taken in the first 11 picks.
For only the third time in three decades, a guard went No. 1 overall. (Allen Iverson was taken first in 1996, Earvin Johnson No. 1 in 1979.) For this observer, there was no issue about Derrick Rose: He was clearly the class of this draft, a point guard on the order of Williams if not quite Paul. Michael Beasley will be a very good pro; Rose will be a great one.
How big a deal have point guards become? Big enough that Seattle overreached with the No. 4 pick to try and secure one. Russell Westbrook is a terrific floor-runner and defender, but he played point only sparingly at UCLA. And Charlotte, which already has Raymond Felton, took the 5-foot-11 D.J. Augustin of Texas at No. 9. Blunt Billy took forever to find one point guard, but Michael Jordan and Larry Brown are loading up on them.
A word here about Knight’s successor: Rick Sund, the Hawks’ new general manager, and this observer are of similar minds about two players. We both consider Kevin Love of UCLA truly intriguing — not quick but tough and smart and skilled — and Sund, when interviewed two weeks ago, predicted Love, who was being projected as the ninth or 10th pick, would go much higher. He went to Memphis at No. 5.
And we both like Joe Alexander, who was taken by Milwaukee at No. 8. He went ahead of Brook Lopez of Stanford and Jerryd Bayless, each of whom was projected higher. (FYI, I saw West Virginia against Bayless and Arizona in the NCAA tournament, and Alexander was the best player on the floor.)
Being in agreement with yours truly might or might not be a great recommendation — for the record, I also thought Shawn Bradley was a tantalizing prospect, and 18 years ago I deemed Rumeal Robinson a splendid pick — but it plays well in this space. I look forward to next season, when Sund will have picks of his own. We all can look forward to the next few days, when the Hawks will troll the list of the undrafted.
Sund has already rehearsed his pitch. “If [an undrafted free agent] goes to another team,” he said, “they’ve got a first-round pick and a second-round pick [to compete against.]” Here the path is clear for the right rookie to come in and serve as the 10th man.
After four consecutive Junes bearing lottery selections, we Atlantans went cold turkey this time. Without Blunt Billy to kick around, we had to spend Thursday night nitpicking other people’s picks. I never thought I’d say this, but it was more fun the other way.
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Cox won’t let Braves fall apart
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Even when the Braves don’t seem to have much going for them, they have one thing nobody else has. They have Bobby Cox.
This team has had every reason to fall apart, but it hasn’t yet and surely won’t. That’s due to a manager who does nothing high-profile except get thrown out of games but who runs the smoothest operation in the major leagues.
Every year we say, “This could be Cox’s best job,” and every year there’s cause. This time he’s working without 60 percent of his rotation, without both his set-up man and his closer, without two-thirds of his starting outfield (and with the other one-third in a monumental funk) … and still the Braves are within 4 1/2 games of first place with 82 games remaining.
Most teams so egregiously beset would have seized the easy excuse. Cox doesn’t accept excuses. He treats all his men like real men, and they act accordingly.
You might have read that Jerry Manuel, the Mets’ latest manager, referred to Jose Reyes as “she” and, seeking to make some sort of joke, said he’d pull a knife on his shortstop. You might have read that Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon, upset over being relegated to the bullpen, seized general manager Ed Wade by the throat and threw him to the ground. What goes unnoticed by far too many is such stuff doesn’t happen here. (John Rocker was the exception who proved the rule.) All that happens here is that a ballclub keeps plugging away.
Those folks who’ve never ventured into a clubhouse can’t really begin to appreciate the respect every Brave has for the manager. Even if they’ve read the ritual quotes - “If you can’t play for Bobby, you can’t play for anybody” - a dozen times, they still can’t grasp the depth of feeling.
Having been around since Day 1 of Cox’s second stint as Braves manager, I can testify that these aren’t empty words. These guys mean what they say, and they prove it by performing professionally at times when standards might easily slip.
Most other teams so egregiously beset wouldn’t believe they still could and should finish first. The Braves believe because they know Cox believes in them. That mightn’t sound like a big deal to those on the periphery, but inside this clubhouse it’s the biggest deal possible.
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