AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2007 > September
September 2007
So predictable
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now that it’s (almost) over I can admit it, I set you up.
I started weeks ago, dropping player Q&As once a week with the goal of leading up to this very point right here.
You’ve had weeks to dissect every word of players and now the coach but without the benefit of context tone (and I’ve got something else planned for Sunday, the eve of training camp, that you should not miss if you care at all about the Hawks).
That’s not a bad thing. It’s just the way it works and I can deal with that.
But I must tell you, the reactions were so predictable.
I knew that when Marvin Williams didn’t talk about basketball incessantly many of you would interpret that as him not being as passionate as (I know) he is about the game.
I knew that when Mike Woodson didn’t admit to all the faults he’s been assigned here and elsewhere many of you would interpret that as him being as defiant and stubborn as ever (though that’s never been my impression of him).
And I knew that any mention of Salim Stoudamire and introspection would elicit talk of him being selfish and of little value in a team environment (yet another theory I disagree with, mostly because he’s not the myopic loner he often seems to be portrayed as being).
Truth be told, that conflict of opinions embodies the beauty of my entire scheme (and yeah, it was a diabolical scheme to stoke your interest leading up to now, the week before training camp begins. Sorry, but we’ve all got a job to do. Sometimes I have to design ways to do it that may appear to be more sinister and calculated than they were).
There is no right or wrong interpretation of what’s been said. Everyone’s entitled to his or her own interpretation. If you’ve made up your mind about one of these guys, nothing they said (or in some cases did not say) was going to sway your opinion in the opposite direction. That’s cool, too. I’m not here to persuade anybody about anything. I’m just here to provoke.
On that same path, space considerations forced me to omit two questions and answers from my conversation with Mike Woodson that I want to share, mostly because I think it’s only fair to be as straightforward about these conversations as possible:
Q. Two years ago it seemed that your youth and inexperience didn’t allow you to get over the hump and last year it was injuries. How do you make sure this team isn’t swallowed up by outside forces this time around [how do you get over that hump this season]? A. It doesn’t’ matter how you cut it, on paper some people will look at us and assume we’re still a young basketball team because we’ve been that way the past couple of years. But we think these guys have grown up from that and outgrown that label. It’s no longer a fair label of this group. The challenge for us is simple but pretty tough to do because you really don’t have any control over it, but we have to stay away from injuries to be successful this year. Like anybody else we can’t have key guys going down. If that happens, and we stay healthy, we’ll have a successful season. I’m hoping for the healthiest team we can have. But I don’t think there is any question we have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs.
Q. No other franchise in the league has had to deal with the off-court craziness that has hovered over this team the past two years with the ownership feud playing out in court. As a staff and a team, how have you guys been able to block out all the off-the-court drama and maintain your focus on basketball and trying to win games? A. Listen, I can’t concern myself with what goes on upstairs. None of us can. Not the coaches or the players. I didn’t come in here expecting there to be some, as you put it, ownership feud or friction. But there’s no way you can do your job worrying about that other stuff. At the end of the day, I’m going to be held accountable for the product that everyone sees on the floor every night. So my attention and focus can’t be on anything but that, making sure the young guys we’ve brought in continue to get better and that we stay focused on the task at hand, and that’s making the playoffs. Things that have happened at the top haven’t been a distraction, as far as I’m concerned, not for our team. And that’s because [Billy Knight and our owners] have made sure of that. And we’ve kept in mind that our No. 1 obligation is to these great fans that are yearning for us to bring playoff basketball back to Atlanta. That’s the only thing driving us.
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Nothing lasts forever…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you weren’t convinced before now that this is your year Hawks fans, you should be now. The entire sports world is currently upside down, with historical powers struggling and surprise teams everywhere, particularly in the NFL.
After all, the Detroit Lions and Houston Texans are 2-0 on the same Monday morning, proof that virtually anything preposterous can happen in sports (and I know it’s early in the season but so what, you’ve got to live in the moment if you’re fans of those teams because the good times could be rolling on at any moment).
It’s like a good friend of mine who called over the weekend reminded me, “Remember homeboy, nothing good or bad in sports lasts forever. (Yeah, I’m a bit old school, and me and my boys - all children of the 1980s - still refer to each other as homeboy).”
He’s right, too. The longest two weeks of my life (that didn’t involve high school) ended Saturday afternoon with a 38-0 smashing of Notre Dame, though I’m refraining from my normal post-win smack talk due the aforementioned longest two weeks of my life.
(Dig these sage words of wisdom from Irish coaching guru Charlie Weis - I gotta worry about Notre Dame. I gotta worry about me. I gotta worry about my coaching staff. I gotta worry about my players. … after you lose a game like that, the scrutiny that you come under after a game like that has to be expected. It just comes with the territory. For those of you who love to deconstruct a quote and analyze it until you can’t breathe anymore, tell me there’s a better way to lose your team than making sure everyone knows that there are no better than fourth on your list of priorities. And to think I was bashing Lloyd Carr, and many of you Mike Woodson, this time last week).
So again, I argue why can’t this be the year the Hawks turn the basketball world on its collective ear? Why can’t they defy all odds and be the surprise team in the league this year?
(I’m not making any predictions. I’m just asking the question (besides, I’ve already made up my mind why it can’t happen. I’ve already identified what I feel are the limitations that can prevent the Hawks from being that team).
But they had people worried five games into last season. You remember that high don’t you? The players were giddy. Folks were talking playoffs, YES PLAYOFFS, with straight faces. It was bananas. The Hawks weren’t just leading their division at the time, they were leading the entire Eastern Conference. People around the league were going bonkers. My phone was ringing like crazy with folks who wanted to know if the Hawks were “for real” (you know how it ended).
Again, I’m not predicting anything. I’m just asking a question. I’m just wondering why it’s so hard for some of you to believe that your time is here? Who says the Hawks can’t win the Southeast Division and make a playoff chase, much like the Orlando Magic did last year with their monster start?
The Russian national team struck a blow for the disenfranchised over the weekend with their upset of reigning world champion Spain to win the European qualifier for the Beijing Olympics, more proof that the unthinkable is a possibility if someone’s willing to reach for it.
It’s easy for the teams that are always good to believe that the joy ride will never come to an end, take it from someone who has dealt with it (and no one is more paranoid about his team maintaining its success during the good times, just ask anyone that’s known me the last 30 years).
But like a wise man said over the weekend, nothing good or bad in sports lasts forever. So I’ll pose this question one last time (after this one you can feel free to weigh in with your theories on why you think it could happen or why you know it won’t happen), and I’m not predicting anything.
I’m just asking the question.
Is it possible that this the year the Hawks make a believer, a true believer, out of you and everyone else?
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Legalese anyone?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
All the closet (and real) attorneys are sure to chime in on the latest salvo in the Atlanta Spirit ownership proceedings, but since I stopped a few credits shy of my law degree (try three years shy) I’m going to travel down a different path on this one.
Now that we’re back to square one in this whole process, back to the day in August 2005 after Steve Belkin filed the original lawsuit, let me pose the same question I did then: How long do Hawks fans have to wait for whichever ownership group will run the team forthwith to resume regular operations?
And by regular operations I mean the folks in basketball operations being allowed to proceed without restriction and to assemble a team equipped to compete immediately for a playoff berth.
The optimistic answer, of course, would be as soon as humanly possible - perhaps even in time for the start of this season. But that would be dreaming big dreams in a place where we know those dreams get dashed with seemingly every court ruling.
Chop it up any way you’d like, but know this, the major hurdle for the Hawks the past two years has been the looming presence of this ownership feud and how it would impact whatever potential moves were made.
The proof of just how fortunate this ruling was for the Spirit group will be told by how fast they buy Belkin out, fix this team and get a playoff caliber squad on the floor at Philips Arena.
I know that’s simplified a bit, but we’re dealing in a sports world that doesn’t have the patience the Maryland Court of Appeals does when it comes to handling business (we spent two years waiting for them to tell everyone to start over from the beginning?).
Feel free to argue the other side, if there is one, starting now.
When do you know it’s over?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s a fair question.
Just take a look at some of the folks who are facing what looks like the end:
Britney Spears (whew, she’s fallen harder and faster than the Michigan football program judging from her showing at the VMAs last night).
Lloyd Carr (as the joke goes, you can’t spell LLoyd without two Ls) and Charlie Weis (the Patriots and Tom Brady look just fine without the genius calling plays, Notre Dame on the other hand …).
HBO (tried to get through their Sopranos replacement last night, on the way to my man Larry David and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and I’ll just say it was the letdown of the century. And Entourage was less than stellar this season as well).
There are plenty others I’d love to mention here, but I’ll move on. The point is, when is enough … well, enough? How do you know when it’s time to fade into the sunset honorably and step aside for someone else to take center stage?
The passionate fans of all of the entities mentioned above would tell you yesterday on all counts. I’d have a hard time disagreeing. And that’s not a knock on any of the past success that’s already in the bank. But we’re just not a society built on people surviving on sustained mediocrity (well, in most cases).
If you’re not capable of reinventing yourself on a continual basis, in whatever you do, maintaining a high level of anything becomes a mighty chore. Just ask anyone charged with maintaining a sustained level of excellence in his or her chosen endeavor.
That’s why everything I’m hearing from my spies in Hawksville should make Hawks fans feel good.
Thanks to lofty spots in the draft lottery every year, they’ve had the opportunity to reinvent themselves every year. And if the early reviews of Al Horford’s workouts with the rest of his veteran teammates are any indication, he’s going to bring a much-needed dose of toughness to the Hawks’ interior rotation.
According to my spies, the usual suspects are showing as expected. “Joe Johnson’s as smooth as ever. Josh Smith is all over the place. Marvin’s shooting it picture perfect. But man, Al Horford has some lift around that basket. He’s going to be a monster.”
Having seen Horford (albeit on a bad ankle) in summer league, it’s easy to see him becoming the type of guy that relishes the opportunity to mix it up around the basket. He wasn’t able to show off that “lift” around the basket the way I’m sure he would have liked in Salt Lake City. But he’s been in the gym all summer, based on reports from some of my other spies.
Without the addition of any high profile free agents this summer, the Hawks will need for both Horford and fellow rookie Acie Law IV (who has also made a strong early impression on his veteran teammates) to navigate the transition from college stars to NBA regulars rather quickly.
How low can I go? Not much lower than this!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After a weekend that included the most humiliating loss in the storied history of college football (and arguably all of sports), I couldn’t crawl on my belly in the jungle and get any lower (and forgive me in advance for venting about Michigan, but surely you didn’t think I’d come here and ignore the subject, did you?) than I am right now.
I feel your pain Hawks fans. I know what it feels like, thank you Lloyd Carr, to be the laughingstock of your sport, justifiably so in my case as a Michigan fan.
Now I realize what it must be like to take heat from the rest of the world’s fandom and not have a snappy comeback because, well, most of what’s being said is in some way shape or form accurate, thank you again Lloyd Carr.
But unlike some cat who is only around to gloat when things are going well, I’m here to take your licks now that my Wolverines have been beheaded by mighty Appalachian State - and I refuse to hate on those boys from Boone, NC, because they’ve won more national titles in the past two years than my boys have won in my lifetime. The better [prepared] team certainly prevailed Saturday. And I can live with that.
That said, this was indeed the weekend from Hades for m and my big brother, who like me refuses to root for anyone else other than the Maize and Blue, despite our disdain for the head coach and his conservative ways. We suffered through the longest Labor Day weekend on record. And that’s not including the sweltering temperature over the grill (he ran the show and I was his assistant).
To make matters worse, we were so convinced that a victory was a given that we didn’t even bother watching. Early Saturday morning we slapped up a new door on the screened back porch of our parents’ house and then slid down to the Edward Jones Dome to watch Illinois and Missouri play their season opener (the capper was a the girl sporting a truly hilarious “MUCK FICHIGAN” t-shirt that expressed the jubilation of the crowd when it was announced that the Wolverines had joined the list of infamous upset victims on par with Mike Tyson after Buster Douglas knocked him into “oblivious”).
The two Michigan haters in our party (my pops and my son, who is a fair-weather fan of whatever big name team is closest to where we live at the time - he’s bragging on his Georgia Bulldogs these days) relished seeing our misery up close, as did the thousands of other haters in our midst. But we persevered. We sucked it up and took it all in, knowing full well that the jokes won’t last forever … will they?
No, I won’t get over this loss anytime soon, and thank you ESPN for riding this story harder than Mike Vick and Barry Bonds put together. But even if my boys run the table and smash somebody in a BCS bowl, it won’t help ease my mind. Pain like this doesn’t go away overnight. It just doesn’t.
So now all I can do is pour myself into all things Hawks.
And there’s no better time to get caught up in the work matrix than right now, with most of the Hawks returning to Atlanta to begin their so-called player arranged workouts in preparation for the Oct. 2 open of training camp.
It really is good to see someone taking their preparation so seriously (you might want to try that Lloyd Carr). The Hawks are so eager to get things started that they decided to come back an entire month early, just like the Portland TrailBlazers, another young team loaded with talent that needs every advantage to compete against more seasoned teams in its division and conference.
If chemistry development is the reason the Hawks are gathering so early, kudos to them. They’ve come back early in season’s past, but they were a much younger bunch then. To see them making the commitment now, with so many of them two, three and four years into their careers, is a sign that the proper foundation (despite a putrid won-loss record) for some sort of success is clearly in place. When that success translates into something that propels you beyond the regular season is anyone’s guess.
The truth is, players are always feeling good during the summer. Fort-five minutes of blind optimism three days a week must be written into the summer training regimen for most teams - how else to explain the unbridled confidence of guys like Zaza Pachulia (other than spiked Gatorade)?
So again, forgive me for venting, and stay tuned for updates on who looks like what and other assorted observations from Hawksville - the pre-training camp edition.
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