AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2008 > April > 23
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Boston scream party
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BOSTON - While his timing couldn’t have been worse, Mike Bibby had at least one local backer here Wednesday, a day after his inflammatory comments about Celtics fans hit our website and the airwaves.
I spent two hours at a local barbershop (had to get trimmed up man, five days without some maintenance work and I’d have the Josh Childress fro going on), and one of the barbers was adamant about Bibby being right to call out the fans.
“What did he say that wasn’t true,” he said. “They did have bags on their heads last season. I remember the picture they ran in the paper with those three guys wearing brown paper bags. There’s tons of fair-weather fans around here.”
(I apologize for not having the proper inflections so you could get the full feel for how thick a New England accent the man had, but it was as authentic as anything I’ve ever heard. And he stirred the shop up worse than Bibby did the streets.)
Just like there will be plenty of fans at TD Banknorth Garden tonight for Game 2 (aka the Boston scream party) of this playoff series in need of throat lozenges after verbally abusing Bibby until they get dizzy.
The Hawks’ point guard has certainly put himself in the line of fire by cracking the fans. But he didn’t back down one bit Wednesday and in fact, seems delighted that his words struck a chord with so many (Bibby’s comments were the lead story on every local news telecast and the lead sports story in every daily publication in New England).
He will no doubt be a marked man tonight, on and off the court. He can take whatever licks necessary from the fans. Btu he can’t let Rajon Rondo get the best of him again on the floor.
No one is sure what it means, but the Hawks did have two days of the best practice I’ve seen from them all year. They got after each other both days and spent quite a bit of time doing film study, in what had to be a futile effort to locate a weakness in the best team in the NBA.
They won’t lose tonight for lack of preparation, mental or physical (which I think had something to do with the play of the entire team).
It won’t matter anyway, if they lose. Because Bibby will be the easy target (and a well-earned one).
Services »
