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Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Hawks longer on talent, but short on time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Marvin Williams was considered the most promising player in the 2005 draft, and if he hasn’t had — sorry for broaching this yet again — the galvanic NBA impact of a Chris Paul, it’s nonetheless true that Williams averages 15.8 points and 5.8 rebounds. And he’s now the fifth-best starter among Hawks.
You could — yes, this again — stock a playoff roster with the guys Billy Knight hasn’t drafted, but the greater point is that Knight has, at excruciating last, built a playoff roster for his team. Not many teams can boast five starters of this eminence:
— Al Horford, the third player picked in 2007.
— Williams, the second player picked in 2005.
— Josh Smith, the 17th player picked in 2004.
— Joe Johnson, the 10th player picked in 2001.
— Mike Bibby, the second player picked in 1998.
Asked Wednesday what he saw when he watched tape of the Hawks, Reggie Theus — Bibby’s coach with Sacramento and briefly a Hawk himself — said this: “I see a very athletic team, a very dangerous team. When they get it going, they can cause a lot of problems … They could be a very exciting team in the long run.”
Here’s the thing, though. The long run starts this minute. The Hawks awoke Wednesday 10 games under .500, which should never have happened. But now they’ve seen their last excuse shredded — the Hawks have a point guard! — and these next two months cannot be two months more of false starts and broken promises.
They could and should make the playoffs. They could and should become a rising force in the thin-gruel East. Then again, they could and should have done that already.
The trade with Sacramento has been characterized as Bibby’s chance to land with a playoff team, but the cold truth is that the Kings have a better record in a more difficult conference. The Kings do not, however, have better players. A lot of teams with better records have worse players than the Hawks, especially now.
Asked before his first home game in Philips Arena if his new team has the wherewithal to qualify for the postseason for the first time this century, Bibby said: “I think it does. We’ve just got to get on the same page. We’ve only had five games, and it’s still tough — we’ve only had one practice. But it will come.”
Asked the same question, Johnson said: “We do, but it depends on how bad we want it.”
It’s a cliché, sure, but it’s one of those clichés that has the benefit of being true. In calendar year 2008 the Hawks too often have played like a team that didn’t know how to win. Bibby could change that. He knows what he’s doing. He knows because he has done it.
And if you want to know if he, at the ancient age of 29, has anything left … yeah, he does. He showed that against the Kings, scoring 24 points and making 12 assists and steering the Hawks to their highest-scoring quarter of the season in his first quarter as a Hawk in Philips. (And Williams, who was ill, didn’t participate.)
To watch this team swooping and slashing and stacking 40 points on Sacramento in 12 minutes was to wonder if this is how it will be, and if it is there’s no doubt this team will be playing beyond its 82nd game. But what got the Hawks 10 games below .500 was the bizarre inability to consolidate a single gain. This powerful effort — the Hawks won 123-117 — cannot be a one-night or a one-month thing. This must be sustained.
Said Josh Childress, who scored 25 points and who’s yet another lottery pick (sixth overall in 2004): “We have to make it a goal and commit to getting a win by whatever means necessary.”
Sure, that notion could and should have taken hold long ago. But there’s still time, just, for this to work. There’s no longer any reason for these Hawks to stink.
Permalink | Comments (43) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Mark Bradley
Author Heinz was at his best on boxing, war
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Too often, distinguished journalists move on without a proper benediction, like those who write songs but to the singer goes the glory. W.C. Heinz shall not be one of those, especially to those of us who strive along in his path.
Bill Heinz was one of America’s finest writers, not just of sports. Three decades or more ago, his name lit up the sky of journalism. Know who wrote “Run to Daylight” with Vince Lombardi? Know who wrote “M.A.S.H,” the book? Know who wrote “The Professional,” which Ernest Hemingway said was “the only good book about a fighter I’ve ever read” (in a note personally written)?
One and the same W.C. Heinz. There’s more, but first, I want to say this: That there are special persons who influence those who follow them, and those who aspire to their state in journalism, as out of reach as it may be. There was a time when my newspaper sent me to New York to cover major boxing events (Patterson vs. Johanssen, Ali vs. Norton, and so on), and it was on one of these adventures that I happened into Bill Heinz on the street, walking toward a press conference. We talked, and in the time that followed, we became acquaintances and he made this country rube feel like a friend.
He began at the lowest level, as a copyboy. (There are no such now.) He later went to Europe as a war correspondent and followed the 1st Army across France, through the Battle of Huertgen Forest, and on until V-E Day. When he came home, he was given his own column, and America was in for a treat. It was boxing that hooked him, and he came up through the age of Marciano, Pep, Sugar Ray and Graziano, and Stillman’s Gym, more a warehouse filled with sweaty hopefuls, became his campus.
When his newspaper folded, he moved on to freelancing and won award after award, including the A.J. Liebling Award for boxing writing. There wasn’t a subject he couldn’t move into with grace, and thus was led to Dr. H.R. Homberger, who had been struggling with a novel about the war in Korea in 1968. Bill took over, and thus “M.A.S.H” resulted, followed by one of the most successful television shows in history. It may be noted that the author is listed as Richard Hooker. That’s Bill Heinz, his pen name.
After the clock ticked on and journalism sank into its bottomless mire, he was in demand on television, but only occasionally did he respond. Writing was his art, and now a great artist has passed on. He retired to a farm overlooking the Vermont countryside at Dorset. After his wife passed away a few years ago, he moved into a retirement home in Bennington, and it was in a hospital there that Bill Heinz passed away Wednesday. He was 93, but his work is ageless.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Furman Bisher
Torn over thoughts on HGH testing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
In Tom Glavine We Trust, particularly on issues involving labor and management in baseball.
After all, the Braves future Hall of Fame pitcher led the players’ mostly admirable charge against the Evil Owners during the 1994 strike before resuming his stroll to Cooperstown.
So I’m torn when it comes to how the game should approach this HGH thing regarding testing.
Chipper Jones brings up a wonderful point. In fact, he is just seconding the remarks of Derek Jeter. In sum, they say that if a player has nothing to hide, why wouldn’t he agree to a blood test for HGH and other performance-enhancing drugs?
Said Jones to our David O’Brien at the Braves spring home in Orlando: “The only people I would say who would object would be people afraid of needles, or who are on something.”
Makes sense to me. It doesn’t to Glavine, though, which is why I’m torn.
Said Glavine to O’Brien, “It’s (blood testing) potentially opening up a big can of worms. There’s the potential for so many problems with the way it’s handled, the way it’s stored. It scares me to think of somebody having my blood and the potential to tamper with it down the road, and you wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.”
That actually makes more sense to me, but only by the length of Louisville Slugger.
What a mess.
Permalink | Comments (39) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
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