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 > October > 28
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Loss of Childress dampens Hawks’ buzz
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There should be a buzz. A team makes the playoffs for the first time this century and returns all the starters who pushed the NBA champ-to-be to the limit in Round 1, and there has to be a buzz. But do you hear one?
“To be honest, not really,” Hawks forward Al Horford said. “I’m sure people are looking forward to the season, but I know this is the South. It’s still football season.”
Well, yes. But over two careening spring weeks, something seemed to happen in our fair city. When the Hawks beat the Celtics three times in a frenzied Philips Arena, it felt as if this was becoming an NBA town.
Back then there was a real roar. Today there’s no buzz. There’s barely a murmur.
So what happened? Josh Childress happened. Josh Childress left to play in Greece. As harmful as his departure was to the Hawks in terms of talent, its symbolism was far more debilitating. It was the first time the organization had to act to keep its prized young core intact, and for some reason Childress was allowed to bolt. Talk about your comedowns.
Not three months after they played Game 7 in Boston, the bold new Hawks were seen as the same ol’ Hawks. And even the subsequent re-signing of Josh Smith, their other free agent, didn’t disabuse anyone of the notion that this remains an operation dedicated to doing things on the cheap, as opposed, say, to winning.
Such a belief isn’t unfair, but it is unfortunate. Because this team still has front-line talent, and Rick Sund, the new general manager, did seek to compensate for the loss of Childress by signing Flip Murray, who’s an avid shooter, and Maurice Evans, who last season started for division-winning Orlando.
In sum, a thin team lost its best reserve but now has at least the makings of a second unit. That’s if Acie Law IV, whose rookie season was marred by injury and overcoaching, continues to develop, and if Zaza Pachulia, who famously squared off against Kevin Garnett in the playoffs, plays the way he did before he unaccountably forgot how to play.
The bench has become a big deal because, with the addition of Mike Bibby, the starting five became quite good. Sund believes teams can play for championships when three of their starters rank among the league’s 10 best at their positions, and he believes two Hawks — Horford and Joe Johnson — do. And there’s real hope that Smith, who re-upped for $58 million over five seasons, will continue to work his way upward.
Even if Bibby isn’t quite what he was and could be marked as trade bait if Law proves himself, and even if Marvin Williams never becomes what Billy Knight thought he’d be, that’s still a formidable five. And that’s why it’s distressing that many national voices are forecasting the Hawks to regress and miss the playoffs.
It is not, it must be noted, distressing to the Hawks themselves. “We can’t look at what they’re predicting us to do,” Smith said. “We want to be one of those teams that slips under the radar. We expect a lot of ourselves.”
We’ll soon have some idea of what’s what. Six of the first eight games are on the road, and five of those are against postseason qualifiers. A slow start could replace the absence of buzz with the rumble of discontent, but let’s not be negative so soon.
With one notable exception, this is essentially the same team that made us remember how much fun pro basketball can be. At this early stage, optimism should be our watchword. Optimism, I say!
Permalink | Comments (36) | Post your comment | Categories: Hawks/NBA
No fun when Dogs, Gators refuse to talk
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This is no fun. Florida’s not talking. Georgia’s sending out a 700-word statement that’s three months old. This isn’t what we want. We want passion! We want hate! We want the solemn vow that somebody is going to dance in the end zone!
Instead we get the Urban Crier telling reporters, “Let’s move on.” (Funny, I like him better when he’s whining.) We get Mark Richt ordering his players not to talk — “coaching ‘em up,” in his words — about that which everyone else is talking nonstop. Why, it’s enough to make a teetotaler order a round of cocktails.
Toward that end, this teetotaler tried to tempt the Georgia coach. As Richt was leaving the cramped interview room in Baton Rouge, I said, “I’m not saying you don’t have guts, but if you really had guts you’d have your team take a victory lap around the stadium when you score next week.”
And then, playing fast and loose with my dwindling portfolio, I said, “I’ll give you a dollar if you do.”
(Being a stickler for procedure, I subsequently e-mailed Georgia publicist Claude Felton to ask if I’d broken any NCAA rules. His response: “No violation. But don’t make the same offer to the players.”)
Richt being Richt, he was noncommittal regarding this lavish proposal. You know this already, but here it is again: I consider him a really good coach and a really nice guy, and it’s both grossly incongruous and weirdly fitting that his one moment of bad-boy behavior resonates 51 weeks later.
Georgia’s celebration, which didn’t go according to Richt’s script and for which it was penalized twice and for which he keeps apologizing, is the single smartest thing he has done as a coach. It changed the dynamics of a series that, from the Bulldog perspective, was past due for a change. It served its purpose leading into last season’s game, turning his team’s focus from the usual Jacksonville gloom and doom to something brighter — how are we going to celebrate? — and it has become the gift that keeps on giving.
Not quite complying with his coach’s gag order, the famous Tim Tebow admitted to the Orlando Sentinel that the Gators have a photo of the dancing Dogs in their locker room. Think about that: A team that won the 2006 BCS title is concerned with the team that, until 2007, was its personal doormat. And the run-up to this year’s game will be dominated by one line of discussion:
How will the Gators respond? Have they planned something themselves? What if Georgia springs a new “spontaneous” display? Does Urban Meyer have a counter-counter-celebration in his famous playbook? And will Tebow and Co. be so bent on vengeance that they forget to execute those famous plays?
The burden of proof falls on the team that, before last season, had proved it owned Jacksonville. Georgia goes to the land of jacked-up hotel prices with a swagger unseen since Vince Dooley was outcoaching Doug Dickey and Charley Pell.
Maybe these Gators are good enough to reimpose their will on the World’s Largest Outdoor Et Cetera, but suddenly they’re the side that’s reacting. And that’s a major paradigm shift.
The Gators are really good. I believe Georgia is better and will win again, but I am, as you know, often wrong. Only this time I’m on the hook for something tangible: If a victory lap breaks out after Georgia’s first touchdown, I owe somebody a dollar.
Permalink | Comments (55) | Post your comment | Categories: UGA/SEC
