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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2009 > February > 17
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Wilkins finds similarities between today’s Hawks and his Hawks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He was the leader and the star of the Atlanta Hawks’ greatest teams during the mid-to-late 1980s. So, as an executive and a broadcaster for the current Hawks with their youthful surge into prominence, he is the definitive person for this question:
How far are these Hawks from resembling those other Hawks?
Dominique Wilkins thought, and then he thought some more. Instead of answering, he preferred to dribble out the clock, but just before the buzzer, he took a shot.
“From a maturity standpoint, they’ve matured a lot,” said Wilkins, referring to the current Hawks, who entered Tuesday night’s game at Staples Center against the Los Angeles Lakers with 31 victories. The Hawks had only 37 victories last season. In contrast, those Hawks of the mid-to-late 1980s used their youthful surge into prominence to win 50 or more games for four consecutive seasons.
Added Wilkins, speaking over the phone from Southern California, where he joined the Hawks for the start of their five-game, post All-Star game trip, “The whole thing is the confidence that these young guys have shown. Even so, it’s hard to compare the two groups of teams, because I don’t really believe in comparing teams and that kind of thing. But I think this team has definitely grown up.”
Wilkins’ Hawks of yore had to do the same. And just like these Hawks, those other Hawks were formed after a mighty purge.
It was a three-year purge during the early 1980s. It led to the acquisition of Cliff Levingston and Antoine Carr through a trade, the drafting of Kevin Willis and the signing of free-agent Spud Webb. They complemented talented holdovers such as Doc Rivers and Tree Rollins.
Sound familiar? In February 2004, former general manager Billy Knight began his necessary but ugly implosion of the Hawks, and then he acquired a Josh Smith here and a Joe Johnson there.
Before long, the Hawks had what they have now. That is, a chance to rival those Hawks with the additions of Marvin Williams, Al Horford — and then point guard Mike Bibby to lead them.
“I think this Hawks team is steadily growing, and the more they grow, the better they’re going to get as a team,” Wilkins said. “So, eventually, they will get back to what we had in the 1980s, but it’s going to take time. It’s going to take believing in yourself and working hard.”
In one way, the current Hawks have surpassed those other Hawks. It’s called videos. When Horford isn’t up close and personal in a slow-dance with Ciara, Williams is sitting and styling in a cameo with Bobby Valentino.
To be fair, those old Hawks were from an NBA generation that was yet to merge with hip-hop. Too bad, because those old Hawks were charismatic, ranging from Wilkins as the Human Highlight Film to the big ways of little Webb. They also had something else. They had bulk. That’s what the current Hawks lack.
Horford is a power forward playing center, and the current Hawks see only occasional bursts of goodness from Zaza Pachulia, Solomon Jones and Randolph Morris in their frontcourt.
“We had a lot of big guys,” Wilkins said. “We had Rickey Brown. We had Jon Koncak. We had Antoine Carr. We had Cliff Levingston. So we had some solid big guys to go in there and do some dirty work in every game. Unfortunately, most of the other teams in the East back then had big guys to do some dirty work as well.”
Not that Wilkins is comparing that era to this one.
Well, guess he is.
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