AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2006 > October > 31
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Ready for tip-off
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m curious to know what you guys thought of our Hawks and NBA preview that was in today’s paper. We worked hard on it and tried to cover a little bit of everything.
Aside from that, I spent part of the afternoon at the Hawks’ final practice (before Wednesday’s season opener in Philadelphia). The mood wasn’t what I expected. After weeks and weeks of hard driving by the coaching staff, it was a more laid back atmosphere. Better yet, it was a more “you-know-it’s-time-for-business” atmosphere.
I didn’t think there was anything else to be said. But Woodson and his coaching staff found plenty to talk about. Woodson gave an interesting end of practice speech about the Hawks needing to remember to have each other’s back and the fact that they had to crank their intensity up to new levels for the regular season.
Hawk assistant coach Larry Drew talked about them needing to adopt a “Road Warriors” mentality for not only this first road trip of the season but the entire season. They’ll go into this first game without their most feared Warrior (veteran Lorenzen Wright will miss the trip to serve his one-game uspension from an exhibition scuffle in Memphis). They’ll also be without Marvin Williams.
But as Wright put it, “Do you think Philly cares about any of that?”
This Hawks team operates with a much bigger chip on its shoulder (courtesy of the past two years of struggles), which I can see people admiring as this season wears on. I don’t know if that “Us against the world” mantra has always been my choice. But I can see where it fits with this bunch, which has basically been written off by most everyone but the die-hard Hawks fans.
