AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2009 > February > 14
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Live from Phoenix … it’s Saturday night!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
PHOENIX - Take heart Hawks fans, the NBA’s head honcho has you on his mind.
NBA Commissioner David Stern mentioned the Hawks unsolicited, the first time that’s happened in my time here, during the intro of his state of the NBA address Saturday night at US Airways Center.
Stern mentioned that the Hawks’ ownership situation and the fact that they’re finally heading back to court this week - check AJC colleague Kristi E. Swartz’s fine work for all the latest.
When approached about it later and asked if he had any indication that this week’s trial signaled a possible conclusion to this drawn out affair, he clarified his remarks.
“I think it’s going to go on, it seems like it’s going to be endless,” Stern said. “But at least it’s beginning to get defined. Now the trial will come and then undoubtedly there will be an appeal. But at least they are beginning to match it against some timeline, whatever it is. It’s better to have the trial than to be in discovery. After the trial, when they get the appeals out of the way, hopefully it’s moving along to some resolution.”
Truth be told, the Hawks have actually managed to minimize the distraction of the ownership situation by playing a high-caliber brand of basketball for most of the season. Don’t think their 31-21 record and current standing as one of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference has gone unnoticed by Stern and others.
“The truth is,” Stern said, “they are paying a lot of attention to the team, on the court, they are paying a lot of attention to the coaching and talent selection. The fact that the owners are fighting with each other doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the product on the floor or the marketing of the team. And so, it’s going fine in Atlanta. We’re very happy with Atlanta. It’s great to see the team doing so well.”
As far trips to the principal’s office go, that couldn’t have gone much better for the Hawks.
* BIBBY TIME PART II *
Mike Bibby gets his chance for a trophy here shortly. He better home there’s some home cooking going on since we’re in his city. Because defending champion Jason Kapono is the favorite heading into the competition.
The only people here certain that Bibby is going to win the thing are members of Team Dime or his Hawks teammates.
Seriously, though, there’s an undercurrent of energy around here that believes the hometown kid is going recreate some of the same magic that helped his Shadow Mountain High team to a state title on the this same floor in 1996.
We shall see.
* H-O-R-S-E *
Joe Johnson’s dreams of hoisting the H-O-R-S-E championship trophy came to an early end on the streets outside of US Airways Center earlier Saturday.
He was the first man out of the competition (Kevin Durant rallied for the win, capping a brilliant weekend of pure scoring craziness).
Nice idea on paper. The execution wasn’t exactly on point.
