DEL.ICIO.USThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/02/08
Let's get this straight, right here at the tip-off: Brent Cranfield is all about football, especially the SEC/University of Tennessee variety. And how he loves those Atlanta Braves!
But lately, a new team has made a fast break into his consciousness. It's a collection of guys who suddenly believe they can turn history on its head. Suddenly, Cranfield is rooting for the Atlanta Hawks — his Atlanta Hawks. The hometown guys are in the NBA playoffs against the Boston Celtics. The decisive game may be tonight when the Hawks and Celtics play Game 6 here in the best-of-7 series. Tip-off is 8 p.m.
 Pouya Dianat / AJC | ||
| A rare sight indeed. A sold-out crowd at Philips Arena was able to shake the Boston Celtics as the Atlanta Hawks topped the Celtics in Games 3 and 4 of the NBA playoffs. | ||
 Pouya Dianat / AJC | ||
| Atlanta has unexpectedly made it to Game 6 with Boston in the NBA playoffs, bringing crowds to Philips Arena. As one psychology expert notes, 'When you see a group that has had a hard time in the past ... it makes you particularly happy for them.' | ||
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The Celtics are up one game after waxing the Hawks' tails in Boston Wednesday night. Our guys have got to deliver tonight or put up their size 18 sneakers for another season.
Or would that be glass slippers? If ever a team qualified as Cinderella, the smudged toiler who needed magic to get to the ball, surely the Hawks are it. No less than a couple of psychologists say so. And, lest you think we're playing favorites, we ... well let's not give that away just yet.
"Well," said Cranfield, looking at the bottom of a drink at the Lamplighter Cafe on Memorial Drive, "they sort of fell into this bass-ackwards."
Yes, Cranfield said, the Hawks had a typically crummy regular season.
No, he didn't expect the team to do anything except bolster the Celtics' stats.
Maybe, he said, they can do the unthinkable.
"I'm always going to be a fan of the Atlanta teams," he said.
How can you not cheer? One-time bumblers have twice humbled the franchise that gave the sports world Havlicek, Cousy and Bird. Now, the Hawks shine as brightly as the Braves and Falcons have at times.
They've certainly put a sparkle in Jessica Zarter's eyes. She's cheerfully taken a place on the Hawks' bandwagon.
"I love it, because they are an Atlanta basketball team," said Zarter, sharing a table with Cranfield. "A true fan always pulls for the team they are closest to."
And few teams are closer to the heart of the city than the Hawks, who do their stuff at Philips Arena downtown. Wednesday afternoon, Sean Vere and a handful of buddies stood in the building's shadow, arguing about Hawks guard Josh Childress. Did he go to college? (He did.) Where? (Stanford, where he completed three years before turning pro.)
Vere is a sous chef at Philips. He's known for his pasta, but cooks "just about anything" for folks attending concerts, rallies and — yes — Hawks games.
Earlier this season, Vere said, his pots were full, but the seats were not. The Hawks played to half-empty houses. But recently, his pans have been emptier than the bleachers, and tonight should be no different. The game is sold out.
"We are busy," Vere said. "Very, very busy."
Vere fingered a lapel button on his white chef's jacket. It featured his 10-year-old twins, Sa-von and Sa-vair, who play for the Jayhawks basketball team at the East Lake Y. Their old man is hoping they might turn in those uniforms one day for some NBA duds — preferably, those belonging to the Hawks.
'High identification'
What is it about humans that makes us embrace winners? How can yesterday's bum be today's hero?
In the interest of fairness, the AJC asked two psychologists — one from Georgia, the other from Massachusetts.
First up: the visiting team — er, scholar, Linda Tropp. She is a psychology professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. A Ph.D., she has more pedigrees than a rich woman's dog.
"When you see a group that has had a hard time in the past ... it makes you particularly happy for them" when their fortunes change, Tropp said. "And you want to affiliate with that group."
A "hard time in the past"? As anyone who's ever picked up a sports page knows, the Hawks qualify as a beleaguered group.
Similarly, their true fans have been oppressed, Tropp said. People who root for their team, no matter, are called "high-identification." That is what a college professor calls them. The rest of us say "diehard."
"And I know," said Tropp, who grew up in Chicago. "I've cheered for the Cubs."
Next up: home scholar Leonard Martin, who chairs the social psychology program at the University of Georgia.
Our excitement over the Hawks is a chance to "bask in the reflective glory" of the winners, Martin said.
"Human are social animals," Martin said. "We get our values, in part, from our relationships."
That is probably just as good a reason as any to explain why Billy Watts was willing to talk about the Hawks. He was waiting Wednesday night for a plate of barbecue at Daddy D'z, a sliced-pork and chopped-chicken joint on the eastern edge of downtown Atlanta. With him was a table full of friends who nodded in implicit agreement: Yes, we're cheering for the Hawks. Even those of us who don't know much about them.
"This could be the greatest upset in NBA history," Watts said.
Buddy Michael Brooks directed a sneer across the table. "Fair-weather fan," he spat.
The fair-weather phenomenon isn't limited to Atlanta.
Wednesday's sun cast strong shadows across Centennial Olympic Park. Children hopped and squealed in the fountain's geysers while parents sat in groups and talked. Ryan Hughes squinted under the brim of his bright-green cap, emblazoned with a Celtics shamrock, and watched daughter Bella dodge a silver jet of water.
Boston, he said, "is full of fair-weather fans." A few years ago, he said, no one cared about the Celtics.
And now?
"I had to come all the way to Atlanta to see a game," said Hughes, of Plaistow, N.H.
So Atlanta, we have a game to watch tonight. Please, hop on: A few seats are left on this bandwagon.
And Cinderella, you look fabulous in your glass slippers. Yes, your size 18s.
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