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Monday, January 30, 2006
All dressed up, it’s still Detroit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Detroit — As somebody who has cringed often through the decades at just the thought of having to spend more than a millisecond around here, this city never has looked better. It’s on the verge of moving from horrible to tolerable to somewhat enjoyable. It’s a mirage, though, because you know what they say about putting lipstick on a pig.
To paraphrase, Detroit is still Detroit, with clean streets, fancy casinos and Super Bowl banners only in the areas that will get the most scrutiny with that little game sitting at the end of the week.
Even so, the state’s governor and the city’s mayor tried valiantly on Monday to convince those in a stuffed ballroom downtown that this pig is actually a prince, and that it only needs a kiss from its slew of critics around the solar system to wear a crown for the rest of its life.
“We don’t have any hurricanes. No earthquakes. Truly, truly this place has got everything you would want for those who love the seasons, and we want to be able to show you that this is a magical state and a magical city,” said Jennifer Granholm, the governor, causing more than a few rolled eyes.
Added Kwame Kilpatrick, the mayor, recalling the sports disaster of the ages that was the 1982 Super Bowl in Detroit and nearby Pontiac, “I’ve heard the complaints about what happened back then, and I want you to know that Detroiters have a pent-up desire to do well. We want to redeem ourselves and to reintroduce ourselves as the next Detroit. The new Detroit.”
This is the old Detroit with lipstick. Only New Orleans has a higher unemployment rate among big cities, and that was before Ford announced its plans last week to slice 25,000 more jobs nationally. General Motors also is hemorrhaging. Plus, murders continue to happen as rapidly within the city limits as the wind rattling through all of those buildings that were scorched into a crumbling mess nearly 40 years ago during the riots.
That said, with Detroit having its third-warmest January in 120 years, there was this ongoing rarity on Monday: The sun actually peeking through the normally gloomy skies. Not only that, there hasn’t been much precipitation in days. As a result, local officials rushed to hire somebody from Canada to make a bunch of the fake stuff for a 200-foot snow slide that is slated to highlight what they’re calling “Motown Winter Blast.”
No blizzards. No ice storms. No freezing temperatures. Nothing more than a few snow flurries and occasional rain showers are in the weather forecast from now through that little game.
“Well, that’s great,” said Jim Steeg, trying to sound enthusiastic over the phone from San Diego, but failing miserably. “They got the luck.” Then Steeg eased into a laugh, before adding, “Kwame Kilpatrick bought somebody off on that one.”
Steeg laughed some more, probably because he just finished his first year as an executive for the San Diego Chargers instead of continuing as the guy who was in charge of running every Super Bowl for the NFL for 23 years through 2005.
If you do the math, Steeg’s first Super Bowl was, well, you’ve guessed it. I was here back then, grumbling and freezing with everybody else during a miserable week of ugly wind chill factors and botched transportation. The week was salvaged a bit after the San Francisco 49ers started their dynasty with a thriller over the Cincinnati Bengals. Before, during and after that game, Steeg heard the same mantra through clenched teeth: Why in the name of beaches and sunshine did the league deviate from its system of having the Super Bowl at warm-weather sites?
“Listen. That Super Bowl almost took on mythological proportions,” Steeg said. “It was unfair for people to think that you can control the weather, and that was a winter that was brutally bad. And, of course, you had that sleet storm on Friday, which didn’t help matters. That being said, it was cold. It was all of that other stuff going together, but we had a good plan, and everything else worked pretty good.”
Yeah, but it was in Detroit. Just like this Super Bowl. To which Roger Penske, the chairman of the Detroit Super Bowl XL Host Committee, offered this vision between words of the governor and the mayor: “What I want to see [Monday morning] are headlines that say ‘Great game and great city.’ “
How about OK city?
Permalink | Comments (69) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Part of Hawks’ problem: Woodson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Two losing coaches had dinner Sunday night and split an order of misery, well done.
Of course, once you get past the malnourished win-loss percentages and the dueling hang-in-theres, there’s really only so much that Larry Brown and Mike Woodson have in common. The New York Knicks can morph into a Toronto Raptor starter kit and Brown isn’t going anywhere. Brown doesn’t get fired. He promises his undying love for a team and then quits, or he coaches one in the NBA Finals while negotiating with another. It’s the benefit of not having a conscience.
Woodson doesn’t have Brown’s comfort zone. Notwithstanding’s Monday’s 120-101 win over the Knicks, the Hawks aren’t morphing into anything. That’s the problem. They’re still the Hawks.
Change the owners, the general manager, the players, the coach, the formula for artificially inflating attendance figures. Doesn’t matter. They’re still the face Murphy was thinking about when he said, “Hmmm. I’ve got this idea for a law.”
Even with the victory, the Hawks are on pace to finish 23-59. The scary reality: That would be an improvement over last year’s franchise-worst 13-69. But that’s sort of like comparing a clean rag with a used one. In the end, it’s still a rag.
Woodson is 25-100 after a season and a half. He was the fastest to 100 defeats in Hawks coaching history, breathing or otherwise. The team let that plateau pass without a commemorative cyanide capsule giveaway.
Now, this isn’t all Woodson’s fault. The Hawks are missing parts. They have been molded by the thumbs of Billy Knight. But when a team continually fizzles down the stretch of games, there’s a problem. When a team looks as lost after a timeout as before it, there’s a problem.
When a team is getting punked by Boris Diaw, there’s a problem.
The problem is Woodson.
Brown doesn’t think so. He believes any speculation that Woodson might be fired is undeserved.
“I’ve never had an assistant who was better,” said Brown, Woodson’s boss in Detroit and Philadelphia. “If they [Hawks owners] think they can do better, they ought to coach.”
I’m thinking: Could they do worse?
Let’s be clear: The Hawks should not have been considered a playoff team before this season. But they should have been considered somewhere between a playoff team and this. Youth aside, when players make the same mistakes nightly, it does not scream significant improvement.
Either what Woodson is preaching to his players is wrong (unlikely), or what he’s preaching isn’t sinking in (more likely). Blame the message or the messenger. Regardless, it falls on Woodson.
He’s the nicest, classiest guy in the world. But it’s not working. He’s not working. Losing close games shouldn’t be taken as a sign that things are getting better. Everybody loses close games. If the Hawks were 20 games under .500 after a full season (31-51), that would be progress. But 20 games under .500 after 42 — big problem.
Here’s another problem: Almost everybody can cross the Hawks’ roster with their record and conclude, “They’re underachieving.”
Not Woodson. When asked if this team had underachieved, he said: “I can’t say that. What I am saying is there have probably been at least 10 games we controlled and were somewhat our own worst enemy.”
Guess what? Every team can make those claims. Lucky shots, bad breaks, unfair calls, tired legs — all that stuff evens out. They’re losers’ excuses.
Woodson attributed late-game breakdowns to the team’s youth, then said: “I have to take responsibility for that. I can’t put it all on the players because we’re all in it together.”
They’re in it together. But they’re not on even footing. The Hawks have already fired all the players. They’re not going to do that again. When Boris Diaw turns into a threat, it’s not all because of his supporting cast.
Woodson says he still comes to work “excited about my job every day.”
Well. That’s one.
He dismissed speculation on his future, saying: “If a head coach has to look over his shoulder always worrying about his job, he can’t do his job.”
Tunnel vision gets you through a day. But it hasn’t helped his record. Brown can relate to the loss total, but he can fall back on his résumé. Woodson is trying to fall back on hope. Good luck with that.
Permalink | Comments (53) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Jeff Schultz
