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Saturday, February 16, 2008
Sports heroes twice honored
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
It happens once a year. And has been happening since the year Bobby Jones, Ty Cobb, Bobby Dodd and idols of sport opened the gate. Ofttimes, halls of fame create as much bickering and ill will as adulation. In fact, the very location of the physical site of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame itself has been the center of an ongoing hassle. You’ll find it in Macon, located there through the influence of state politicians who felt their part of the state needed to share in some of its attractions.
So the facility was built, at a cost of something about $8 million. An endowment is required to keep the doors open and the place operative. It’s an attractive facility, begging more advanced curator treatment, but the vision of speeding motorists from Ohio, Connecticut and points north veering off I-75 to view the historic sports figures of Georgia has never materialized.
This year there has been change. Due to the vigorous efforts of Loran Smith, Wendell Couch, D.L. Claiborne and other Georgians, the induction ceremony was moved from Macon to the Cobb Galleria. Indications were, the place would be sold out, some 1,200 patrons at last count. There were nine inductees, and out of loyalty, Macon was not shut out. The honored nine were transported to the capital of Bibb and inducted there, then serenaded at the festive hall in Cobb.
Just how this will affect future inductions is yet to be determined. For certain, not much can be done about the present location of the Hall. Too much has been invested in it — unless some insurance company is searching for new headquarters. So, the Hall busied itself with its annual mission Saturday night. You’ve read, of course, voluminous essays on two inductees, the great Southern voice of baseball, Ernie Harwell, and the booming golfer from Augusta, Jim Dent. This was just another of many inductions for Ernie, including one in his hometown, Washington, Ga., Friday. Jim has been a member of the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame for several years. Their feats have been registered.
There are the others: Herb St. John, an All-America guard at Georgia on Wally Butts’ mid-’40s teams; Earnest Byner and Richard Dent of NFL football; Tree Rollins of NBA basketball; Elmore Smith of Macon and NBA basketball; Norman Carter of high school basketball and L.C. Baker of coaching, at Booker T. Washington High School.
L.C. Baker relates to an age when “coach” referred to the person who was the whole staff, and usually every sport. His football teams won 222 games and were unbeaten for 17 of the 37 seasons he was at Washington. The major star of his tour was Donn “Big Train” Clendenon, later the Mets’ hero of the World Series in 1969. He passed away ahead of his time a few years ago.
The other Dent, Richard, came out of high school in Atlanta, then via Tennessee State, became a Chicago Bear, five times All-Pro and MVP in Super Bowl XX, when the Bears emasculated the Patriots. Known as “Sack Man,” for that was his specialty.
In Rollins, the Hall reaches new heights. Tree becomes the tallest member of the Hall, achieved the altitude of 7 feet, 1 inch growing up in Cordele. And from there, navigated his way through Clemson, to the Hawks.
That brings me around to Earnest Byner, who grew up in Milledgeville, played at East Carolina, then moved on into the NFL for 13 seasons between the Browns, Redskins and Colts. For all the 7,948 yards he gained, 56 touchdowns he scored and telling blocks he leveled, he is cruelly remembered most in Cleveland for a fumble. The Browns were on the goal line in Denver, threatening to put the game away, when Byner fumbled, the Broncos recovered and a date in the Super Bowl for the Browns was lost. It was a crushing blow for Bud Carson, the Browns coach, and he never got that close again. A few seasons later, the Browns took Byner back, and the short and sturdy ball-carrier retired in good graces. Sorry, but that was the story. Far as Georgia is concerned, all is forgiven.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Furman Bisher
Billy Knight finally makes a play
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Given how he generally has operated, Billy Knight has left many with the impression that he wakes up in the morning, looks in the mirror, remembers who he is, maybe eats a Pop Tart and then goes back to sleep.
I’m not sure what happened Saturday. To borrow from Roger Clemens, maybe this time Knight looked in the mirror and just “misremembered.”
Who is that, and what did he just do?
The Hawks are suddenly a factor. Why? Because Knight, their general manager, acted like a general manager. He acquired a starting point guard (a little late, but let’s not quibble). He admitted a draft mistake (dumping Shelden Williams). He dealt two other players (Tyronn Lue and Anthony Johnson) who were not meant to start NBA games.
Five days before the trade deadline, Billy Knight was a player.
We pause now for a moment of reflection.
Mike Bibby is a legitimate starting point guard, and he, therefore, makes the Hawks a legitimate playoff team.
Maybe you would like to sit down.
“He embodies all the things we’ve wanted in a veteran point guard, and he’s also a guy that’s known for taking and making shots,” Joe Johnson said after learning of the trade with Sacramento.
I believe Johnson then fainted, and is questionable for Sunday night’s All-Star game.
Billy Knight woke up.
Billy Knight was proactive.
Billy … Knight.
It’s noteworthy that Johnson used the word “veteran” before point guard in his praise of Bibby. It was Johnson who vented before the season about the dormancy in the Hawks’ front office. He came to Atlanta for a lot of money. But he also expected Knight would do more to provide a supporting cast, draft picks notwithstanding.
“I knew it was a rebuilding situation where they had a lot of young guys,” he said on the eve of this season. “… But at the same time, there were supposed to be some more pieces, some more free agents. They talked about it again this past summer. But as you can see, nothing happened.”
It probably wasn’t the Knute Rockne speech that the Atlanta Spirit was looking for.
But finally … something … happened.
This is Knight’s mulligan.
He drafted Marvin Williams ahead of Chris Paul and Deron Williams in 2005. He drafted Shelden Williams ahead of several beating hearts in 2006, most notably Brandon Roy, who was Rookie of the Year.
He signed Speedy Claxton to a $25 million contract. For the kind of money, Claxton should at least be paying for his own doctors and therapists. He started 31 games last season. That’s 31 more than he’ll start this season.
Lue and Johnson are backups at best. Acie Law may be a fine point guard one day. But one day won’t be in 2008.
This season was going nowhere. Now, it may go somewhere.
Yes, the Hawks would have a healthier record if Knight had pushed the button on a deal like this before the season, or at least before things started to unravel six weeks ago. After a high-water mark of 14-12, the Hawks went 7-16 and dragged into the All-Star break at 21-28.
Fortunately, they play in the Eastern Conference, where a team can lose organs but remain alive in the playoff race. They currently rank ninth in the conference standings, but this trade potentially makes them better than at least three teams ahead of them: Philadelphia, New Jersey and Washington.
Billy Knight did this. Billy Knight — whose own job has been on the line as much as the maligned coach, Mike Woodson. And if the onus suddenly is on anybody now, it’s Woodson, because he just lost any excuse to no put a winning team on the court.
Bibby, at 29, is not the dominant player he was when he led Arizona to the national championship. But he’s well above average. He’s well above anything this franchise has had at point since at least Jason Terry and more likely Mookie Blaylock.
He has played only 15 games this season because of a thumb injury. Know what? He could land at Hartsfield with only nine good fingers and it wouldn’t matter. He has averaged as much as 21 points a game (two years ago) and has a career assist-to-turnover ratio of 6.2-to-2.5.
He is what the Hawks have needed. The void suddenly is filled. Somebody finally woke up.
Permalink | Comments (80) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Jeff Schultz
Gut-check time for Tech
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
This is the game. This is the one at Alexander Memorial Coliseum Sunday against shaky Miami that will tell us whether Georgia Tech’s splendid run for nearly three weeks before Thursday’s disaster at Clemson was a fluke.
Then again, maybe that disaster at Clemson was the fluke.
Whatever the case, the Yellow Jackets are 11-12 overall, 4-5 in the ACC and making inquiring minds want to know if they’re preparing to struggle or surge with the conference tournament approaching in less than a month.
This is the game, all right. In fact, this is the week, since wretched Virginia comes to town after Miami to give Tech a chance to get decent again in a hurry.
That is, if the Jackets are capable, which is questionable. Their disaster at Clemson that evolved into an 82-67 loss showed early and often that they remain a rebounding-challenged bunch. It’s just that the Jackets do have Matt Causey as that special guy out of nowhere. They also have enough talent in the likes of Jeremis Smith, Anthony Morrow, D’Andre Bell and the rest to keep Tech coach Paul Hewitt from trying to strangle himself during games with one of his yellow ties.
“Yeah, I’ve got a lot of optimism and hope for what this team is capable of doing, because one thing they’ve shown me, and that is, I think we’ve played very hard, and I think we’ve gotten better each time,” said Hewitt, before mentioning Tech’s games against Kansas, Indiana, North Carolina, UConn and Vanderbilt, with Duke ahead on the road. He added, chuckling, “I don’t think the coach put them in an enviable spot with some of the teams we’ve played, because I did the scheduling.”
It’s scheduling that would be just fine with Javaris Crittenton running things from the backcourt. Instead, after his first and only season at Tech, Crittenton bolted for the pros, and Hewitt was left with starting a fourth different point guard in as many years for a roster with two other crushing defections: Thaddeus Young also opted to dribble for money after his freshman year, and Mouhammad Faye transferred to SMU after refusing to embrace the “student” part of student-athlete.
You know the rest. You suddenly had uncertainty for the Jackets, and nothing has changed. They played their season opener against what the late Al McGuire used to call a “hyphenated school,” and they lost to such a school, which never is good. Worse, they did so against UNC-Greensboro on their usually accommodating home court. Kentucky also lost to a hyphenated school (Gardner-Webb) while serving as host. So, these things happen.
The same goes for Tech losing six games to teams in the top 25 at the time. Overall, those beating the Jackets this season are a combined 211-79.
That said, how did they look so wretched against a Georgia bunch with barely a pulse? And why were they listless and clueless at Clemson? “Those two games were weird. Just weird, and I kind of said to myself after both of them, ‘That wasn’t our team out there,’?” said Hewitt, who still believes his real team was the efficient one that won four of six games, including three straight ACC games on the road, before traveling this week to their basketball version of Death Valley.
So this is the game.
“The one thing that always gives me hope and promise with this team is that, even after we’ve had some discouraging losses,” said Hewitt, pausing, to reflect on the North Carolina game, when the Jackets nearly ambushed the Tar Heels at rocking Alexander Memorial Coliseum before a gaffe at the end. “That could have been an absolute back-breaker for these guys. They came right back against Virginia Tech, built a 16-point lead and held on. Then we go on the road and beat N.C. State. And then we go on the road and beat Virginia in overtime. Even the Kansas game, we lost, but we came back and played well.”
Sounds good. Now we’ll see what that actually means, starting Sunday.
Permalink | Comments (24) | Categories: Tech / ACC, Terence Moore
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