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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > April > 19 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USHawks right to believe they can win
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here’s another reason why Hawks ownership should ignore the foolish who want Mike Woodson slam-dunked as coach sooner than later: If you don’t believe you can do the impossible, you won’t. And guess what? With much help from the guy who supposedly is overmatched, too tough on his players or just bad, the Hawks believe they can do the impossible.
They really do.
After you stop giggling, you should rise and applaud. Everybody knows the Chattahoochee River will swap places with the Boston Harbor before the Hawks upset the Celtics during the next few days. Even so, when the Hawks dribble in their first playoff series in nine years tonight at TD Banknorth Garden against a Celtics franchise with greatness stretching from its past to its present, the Hawks will do so with exactly the right attitude.
It’s the only attitude that any team of any stature in any sport should have when entering the playoffs.
“I think the players and Mike believe that they can win,” said Michael Gearon Sr., who joins his son, Michael Jr., as the primary owners running the Hawks for Atlanta Spirit, LLC. Gearon Sr., spoke on Saturday, adding, “This is not that they think they are entitled to win, but they think they have the potential to win. I talked to Mike yesterday, and I was like, ‘Hey, this is really the top team in the NBA.’ Then Mike responded, ‘Yeah, I know. But I think we can do this, and I think we can do that.’ I mean, he really believes that, under the right circumstances, anything can happen.”
It won’t happen here. While the Hawks needed a desperate spurt to reach the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 37 victories, the Celtics were cruising toward their league-high 66th victory. While the Hawks have zero world championships, the Celtics have 16. Simply put, the Celtics are a Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen better than a depthless Hawks bunch that is the youngest team in the playoffs.
It’s about attitude, though, and when the Hawks players arrived this week at Philips Arena for practice, they had a replica of the NBA world championship trophy inside each of their lockers.
Was that Woodson’s idea? He nodded from behind his desk. “When you make the playoffs, they’re not going to remember you if you go out in the first round, or even if you lose in the championship game,” said Woodson, whose Hawks have improved in victories during each of his four seasons (13, 26, 30, 37). They’ve done so despite turmoil around them, ranging from one owner suing the other seven to the death of a teammate to management’s refusal to acquire a decent point guard during Woodson’s regime until late this season. Added Woodson about the Hawks’ role in the playoffs, “I just want our guys to have the attitude and to have the mentality that, when you go into Boston, you know they’re thinking about winning the championship. So we better be thinking the same way.”
Actually, Josh Smith was thinking that way for a while. He told me three weeks ago that he, along with other Hawks players, wished to resemble last season’s Golden State Warriors team that ignored their status as a No. 8 seed to shock the No. 1-seed Dallas Mavericks in the first round.
Now Smith has changed his mind, but in a good way. “We’re just trying to find our own path and do our own thing in the playoffs, but what [Golden State] proved is that things along these lines can happen,” Smith said. “[The Celtics] are beatable. They’re a good team, but nobody’s invincible.”
The Celtics are close to such a thing, but who cares? The Hawks players don’t, at least that’s their story, and with Woodson whispering confidence into their ears, they’re sticking to it.
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