Bibby reaches 5,000 assists

By Ken Sugiura

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Guard Mike Bibby registered the 5,000th assist of his career Friday night with a feed to center Al Horford in the second quarter.

He is the 49th player in NBA history to reach that total and one of six active players -- Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Andre Miller, Allen Iverson and Baron Davis are the others.

Said coach Mike Woodson, "I tell you, we wouldn't be in the position we're in without Mike Bibby."

Bibby is in his 12th season and his third with the Hawks, averaging 6.0 assists per game for his career.

"Mike has been a steady point guard in our league," Woodson said. "You look at all the great point guards that have played, he might not be at the very top, but people know who Mike Bibby is and what he's contributed to our league."

Bibby himself wasn't overly taken with the milestone.

"I'm not really a numbers guy anymore," he said before the game. "I’m trying to rack my wins up."

All-Star balloting

Forward Josh Smith was the Hawks' leading vote-getter for All-Star balloting as of Thursday. Smith was fifth among Eastern Conference forwards with 293,680 votes. Cleveland's LeBron James led East forwards at 1,579,530. Three-time All-Star guard Joe Johnson had 288,841 votes, seventh among East guards. Miami's Dwyane Wade (more than 1.5 million) and Iverson (more than 800,000) lead guards.

Horford was third among centers behind Orlando's Dwight Howard (more than 1.4 million) and Cleveland's Shaquille O'Neal (more than 500,000) with 157,050 votes.

Protest sent

The Hawks filed their protest with the NBA on Friday over a shot-clock error late in their Wednesday loss to Cleveland.

"We filed it, and we don’t know anything as of right now," Woodson said. "We've got to go through the process, and that's all we've done."

Etc.

Woodson started a 21-day diet of nothing but fruits and vegetables to lose weight. … The Hawks debuted new white shooting shirts Friday, with their jersey number and name on the right chest.