Hawks draw motivation from critical Orlando column

By Michael Cunningham

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Teams use inflammatory quotes from opposing players as motivation all the time.

The Hawks tried a different spin on this, addressing comments from a writer from the opponent's city before playing Game 6 against the Magic on Thursday night.

The Hawks had printouts of a column by the Orlando Sentinel’s Mike Bianchi in their lockers the day after they lost Game 5 101-76 at Orlando. Bianchi wrote that the Hawks are “Team Dummy” and that “they will always do stupid things and take stupid shots.”

Some passages in the copies of the story given to Hawks players were underlined, including:

“The Magic are going to win this series and the Birdbrains are going to fold up and collapse like a $5 lawn chair. You know it, I know it and, deep down in the lonely recesses of their fragile minds, the Birdbrains know it, too.”

Hawks forward Josh Smith was offended by the column.

“You’ve got reporters calling people idiots and dummies,” Smith said Thursday. “I don’t understand how people can challenge somebody’s intelligence when you are talking about basketball. Some people take it too far.”

Hawks coach Larry Drew said it wasn't his idea to pass out the article to the team but added, “Certainly we can use bulletin-board material.”

Vote of confidence

Magic CEO Bob Vander Weider told the Orlando Sentinel on Wednesday that he and team owner Rich DeVos were happy with the job performance of coach Stan Van Gundy and GM Otis Smith.

Orlando's inconsistent regular season and struggles in the series against Atlanta had fueled speculation about Van Gundy's and Smith's job status.

“I can laughingly say that ‘votes of confidence' are the kiss of death,” Van Gundy said. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. But knowing Bob, and taking him at face value after working in the organization, you are always happy when your bosses are happy with you.

“But that’s not where my head is at. I just want to win the series.”

Etc.

Hawks guard Jamal Crawford, who holds the regular-season NBA record for four-point plays (33), scored five on one trip in the second quarter. Orlando's Ryan Anderson was called for fouling Crawford as he made a corner 3-pointer and also was assessed a technical foul after he reacted angrily to the call. Crawford made both free throws. ... Magic guard Jason Richardson played in Game 5 hours after he suffered a cut when he said he stepped on glass at his home. Richardson didn't participate in Orlando's shootaround on Thursday but started Game 6.