AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 08
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Wake Up!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The trip from Hades begins today, for both the Hawks and your boy Blog-Z (I’ve got 15 days on the road between now and the home game against San Antonio Feb. 21 at Philips Arena). But while I’ll only have travel snafus to worry about between now and the Feb. 20 game in Chicago to worry about, the Hawks have to worry about their season going down the tubes with a lousy showing on this road trip.
If there is anything that should make Hawks fans feel good about the next five games, it’s that they’re all on the road, where the Hawks seem to play 100 percent better than they do at home.
I know you all have looked at the potential potholes in the road already. We all have. And that’s why this trip, more than any other stretch of this season, will give us a true measure of this team’s mettle. We’ll see now, exactly what this (current) team is made of (even if a trade occurs between now and the Feb. 22 deadline, it won’t be done in time to impact this trip).
An optimist would predict that the Hawks will pull off a miracle or two and win two games on this trip (same way they did on their December foray west of the Rockies). I don’t have a clue. This team has left me so discombobulated lately, I don’t know what to expect. When you think they’re going to do something, they don’t. And when you think they’ve finally begun to understand each other and the sacrifices it takes to win tough games, they have a brain freeze (like they did late last night against the Nets).
So my days of prognosticating are over. Seriously, your guess is as good as mine as to what lies ahead. Your predictions are welcome. But I’d much rather someone explain to me what it’s going to take for this team to finally jump the broom. Their breakthrough opportunity has presented itself time and time again this season. And not once has this team pounced on said opportunity.
We’ve spent a lot of our time point fingers at owners, executives and coaches. But at some point the players (the same guys who are great one night and disastrous the next) have to step up and take hold of their own destiny. Watching them last night (I had the night off and watched the game at the house, so I got a chance to see it the way many of you do every night) I got the eerie feeling that each and every one of them was waiting for someone else to step up and do something. That never works. Never has, never will.
It’s time for the Hawks (the players) to stop looking over their shoulders to see who’s going to fix this problem or that other problem. They have to be the ones to create their own fortunes. It’s time for them to seize the moment themselves and stop waiting for the miracle cure (that may or may not be coming).
If they don’t wake up and do something … they’ll have no one to blame but themselves.
