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Thursday, June 29, 2006
Hawks need identity, image change
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
With eight, nine, 147 or whatever amount of guys that the Hawks have at the top of their flow chart, and with one among that group suing the others to take control of the franchise, the ownership situation is a bad reality show. Home crowds have finished in the bottom two in NBA attendance during each of the last five seasons. Not coincidentally, the Hawks haven’t reached the playoffs after any of those years.
So this was typical: Those who decide such things for the Hawks placed team icon Dominique Wilkins in the awkward position of announcing their pick in this year’s NBA draft. Let’s just say that the 1,200 or so folks in Philips Arena for the Hawks’ draft party didn’t respond to the Human Highlight Film as if he had slammed over Air Jordan when he used “Shelden Williams” and “pick” in the same sentence.
Boooooo. Among other things, the Hawks are tone deaf to the public’s overwhelming disdain for most things they do. Said Michael Gearon Jr., among those 487 or so Hawks owners, “You know, image is important, but what matters more to me is the conviction that a person has. What matters more to me about Billy [Knight, the Hawks’ general manager] is that he has great character along with courage, and what you see is what you get.”
What the majority of those see away from Hawks ownership and management is a franchise that has surpassed the Los Angeles Clippers as the league’s clumsiest. There is the problem for the Hawks, and then you have the symptoms, exemplified by what remains of their fan base wishing to dangle Knight over the edge of Philips Arena by his toes for drafting another forward.
Before we continue, goodness knows that the Hawks need a point guard as much as they do a better sense (or any sense) of public relations when it comes to the basketball side. Even so, Williams actually was a decent pick in a draft that featured 19 other teams doing a fast break in the first round past Marcus Williams, supposedly this year’s best point guard.
It’s just that, at this point in the Hawks’ existence, it wouldn’t have mattered if they had drafted the combination of Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson. Perception trumps reality, and despite a new regime for the Hawks during the past two years that has changed an old, boring team into a young, entertaining one with a slew of bold moves, much of the public still views those running the Hawks as clueless.
Which brings us to the two-fold problem: The Hawks really are clueless when it comes to trying (and wanting) to change their image and using the talent they’ve collected. And, yes, the Hawks do have talent. Said Gearon, an Atlanta native, who is among the few who have hugged the Hawks forever, “Unfortunately, this isn’t a town where you have that many knowledgeable Hawks fans, and when you hear about all of these people that the Hawks have drafted through the years [Ed Gray, Priest Lauderdale, Cal Bowdler], although we didn’t have anything to do with it, they associate us with that regime. I think that’s unfortunate. I’m not aware of any sports team or business where you turn a situation like this around immediately.”
Well, there was at least one, and it involved … the Hawks.
See if this sounds familiar: A Hawks team with an ugly ownership situation, a management group that decided to implode a veteran roster and go with youth, a franchise that hadn’t reached the playoffs in five years. Those were the Hawks of the mid-1970s that Hubie Brown inherited. That said, they went from a 31-51 record during Brown’s first year to advancing to the playoffs the next along the way to becoming a consistent NBA force.
“Every great team, no matter what the sport, has a distinct style of play,” said Brown, who still lives in Atlanta and spends his time as a basketball analyst for national television. “We played 10 guys a quarter, and we had a pressing, trapping style for 48 minutes. It was the quickest team that I ever coached, and when I went to Memphis, we did the same thing. We moved nine guys between years one and two and up to the trade deadline, because there was a distinct style of play that we wanted.”
Brown paused, adding, “With the Hawks, what is their style of play?”
Don’t know. Thus the second part of the Hawks’ problem.
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Knight doesn’t get the point
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
New York — Not that there was ever much doubt, but Wednesday’s Round 2 made it official. Billy Knight doesn’t care one whit what his constituency thinks or wants. As if taking yet another forward in Round 1 wasn’t enough, Knight spent his second-round pick on …
Yet another forward.
It would have done no harm — and might have done much good — to have taken a chance on Dee Brown, the scrawny Illinois point guard, or Guillermo Diaz, the swift Miami combo guard, with the draft’s 33rd pick. Even if the Hawks sign a veteran point guard over the summer — and that’s a big “if,” given the convoluted issue of team ownership — they’ll still need a younger guy to bring along behind him. (Or so you’d think.) But the Hawks, once again, acted as if a point guard is last on their list of concerns.
Maybe Solomon Jones of South Florida is the next Kevin Garnett, but I kind of doubt it. And I doubt that a team still lacking a point guard is going to be transformed by the addition of two more power forwards.
And I doubt fans are going to Rise Up to support this woebegone team on the strength — more precisely, the weakness — of the 2006 draft.
And one last thing about Shelden Williams: I think he’ll be a good NBA player, but at this time with that pick he was the wrong choice.
Same as Marvin Williams a year ago. Same as it ever was.
Permalink | Comments (55) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
