AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2006 > October > 27 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For you Hawks fans who think you have it bad with starters going down with injuries that will keep them out six to eight weeks, I’ve got some sobering news for you. It could be much, much worse. Marvin Williams said the same thing to me three times Thursday. But it didn’t register until Friday morning. Waking up and scanning the paper, ajc.com and the morning news shows for some of the other unbelievable things that go on in our world, however, can force you to gain a different perspective on things.
In a span of 10 minutes Friday morning I either read about or watched:
— A Dallas Cowboys assistant coach suing McDonald’s because he claims there was a dead rat in a salad. Huh? A dead rat in a salad. If it wasn’t an episode of Punk’d, I’d be suing, too.
— A woman in New York was repeatedly beaten senseless by her husband who, and I still can’t believe this, made his son video tape the entire thing. And he’s explaining to his son while he’s doing it that he has to treat his mother the same despicable way. I wouldn’t have believed it either if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.
— Four firefighters in Southern California died while battling a fire authorities believe was deliberately set near Palm Springs. A fifth was in critical condition. Deliberately set, are you kidding me? Who does this kind of stuff?
— Some genius at an exhibition game between the Orlando Magic and Houston Rockets allegedly decides it would be cute to hurl racist slurs at former Hawks center Dikembe Mutombo. Deke, of course, did not appreciate the gesture and made it clear that he wasn’t going to put up with it. The fan was tossed by arena security and Mutombo remains incensed that he was subjected to such nonsense. Can you blame him? Think about it for a minute. Some guy is watching you work and starts tossing racial slurs your way. Sounds like a great way to spend a Thursday night doesn’t it? Unbelievable.
That’s why Marvin Williams handling the news of his broken hand Thursday with a relative calm you wouldn’t expect from a 20-year-old is really a bit startling. While it seemed like the absolute end of the world to a lot of other people (and please believe that it is indeed a blow for the Hawks on the floor and whatever plans they had to get off to a good start), Williams realized that it was just a broken hand.
“It could be a whole lot worse than this,” Williams said. “It could have been my knee or my ankle. Tear a ligament in your knee or something like that and then you’re talking about missing serious time, an entire season. It’s actually a good thing that I broke my finger and didn’t sprain it, which would have forced me to miss even more time. But I’ll be fine. This will heal and I’ll just keep working and try and come back better than I am right now. This isn’t the end of the world.”
Perspective.
Comments
By robdawg06
October 27, 2006 02:56 PM | Link to this
What does real life have to do with the sorry Hawks franchise : ownership,players,GM,and coaching ? I don’t think Dallas Mavericks or Miami Heat beat writers are steering fans from the Hawks problems to real life problems. Sports is an escape from the real world. Its players getting paid millions to do for what we all wish we could do. Its like fantasy. No player in any sport is worth a million dollars a year much less the many making $2 to $20 million a year for playing a sport for 4 months out of the year. You want to compare real life ? What about the doctors that save lives that make $200 thousand dollars a year ? Or the teachers that teach EVERYONE including these millionaire athletes that make between $25 and $60 thousand dollars a year ?