AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2005 > September > 05
Monday, September 5, 2005
How can Hornets possibly prepare?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Instead of just blabbering on about basketball, I hope you all will allow me to vent about the mind-boggling devastation wrought by Katrina. I feel for all the people who’ve lost, and that includes members of my own family and quite a few friends. Having gone to college in Mississippi and lived and worked there for a number of years, the past week has been tough to stomach. Lives have been shattered. I’ve got friends in New Orleans and on the Mississippi coast who have literally lost everything.
This whole thing hit home for me when I got a call from my younger sister who lives in Jackson, Miss. She was hiding in her closet the night the high winds and rain tore through her neighborhood, claiming the life of one of her neighbors. She had no idea just how bad the damage was in New Orleans or on the coast because she didn’t see any of the video footage of the carnage until Thursday, when she finally was able to get out of her storm-damaged neighborhood to a safe and dry place. I’m just thankful she’s safe.
We’ve donated what we could to the relief effort but it doesn’t feel like enough. So I’m planning to use some of my vacation time to help a devastated colleague return to his hometown (New Orleans) for some volunteer work in a two weeks.
As the days have passed it’s become clear that the city of New Orleans won’t recover — physically or emotionally — from this devastation anytime soon. And it wasn’t until then that I even wondered about the Hornets and how they’re going to approach this season. I understand the Saints have already made alternate plans for their season, moving to San Antonio for the foreseeable future. But how do you focus after something like this happens? I know some people have mixed emotions about how sports should proceed during times like this. I remember all the consternation about whether or not the games should be played the week after 9/11. I was in favor of playing right away, if for no reason other than the message it would send to the rest of the world that we wouldn’t let anything knock us off our stride.
But this is different, in so many ways. Hornets’ beat writer John Reid is a good friend and a Road Dog (translation: someone you hang out with on the road during the season) and I don’t even know if he’s safe.
So I can’t imagine how he or anyone else affiliated with the Hornets is supposed to prepare for something that seems so trivial, given the circumstances.
What would you do?
