He's coming back, and he should. It's just not official that Mike Woodson will receive a contract for a fifth season and beyond with the Hawks. Instead, Michael Gearon Jr., among the team's eight owners with Atlanta Spirit, kept suggesting Wednesday from his Vinings office that the coach who nearly had his talented but flawed team do the impossible against mighty Boston in the playoffs isn't going anywhere.

This ranks as the best non-firing in Atlanta sports history.

Just last week, Woodson discovered ways to help the Hawks overcome their two blowouts on the road in Games 1 and 2 to push the Celtics to a seventh game in the first round before losing. "Once we gave him another seasoned veteran [Mike Bibby] to complement Joe [Johnson], there certainly was more pressure," Gearon said. "The expectations were higher. We think he did an excellent job."

That's because Woodson did, especially since the Hawks were a No. 8 seed to the Celtics' No. 1. Even Doc Rivers, the former Hawks great and current Celtics coach, told Gearon to cherish Woodson for his ability to keep his youthful and inexperienced bunch playing hard no matter what. It was nice of Rivers to say so, but Gearon already had such a mind-set after watching Woodson take a mostly pitiful Hawks team from 13 victories in his first season to 26, then to 30, then to 37.

Added Gearon, "We've got a lot of momentum as a franchise right now, and what's important to us is that we do not disrupt that."

Makes sense to me. The same goes for Gearon saying, "I cannot see a situation where Woodson is not here." Which brings us to the following: All this Woodson bashing, stretching from the past to the present, is ridiculous. He didn't put together a bunch of dysfunctional rosters. He just had to coach them, and he did so well, despite having one of those eight owners suing the others, a player's death before the start of a season, the NBA's youngest team for most of those years and no decent point guard until Bibby arrived in February.

Billy Knight was the problem, but he isn't anymore. Thankfully, he announced Wednesday that he'll resign when his contract as general manager expires at the end of June. He's the one who was obsessed with giving Woodson a bunch of "long and athletic" players to the detriment of common sense. Mostly, he's the one who made the biggest NBA draft gaffe of our time and in the vicinity of all-time.

Let's just say whenever you see Chris Paul doing something extraordinary from now in the playoffs with the New Orleans Hornets until he dribbles close to the Hall of Fame, you may scream. Knight thought Paul was too small or something during the 2005 draft. Not only that, in Knight's estimation, Marvin Williams was a better pick than Deron Williams.

You may scream again. Knight chose Marvin Williams because he was another "long and athletic" player, but the Hawks needed a point guard. The Hawks needed Paul or Deron Williams, now doing potent things for a Utah Jazz team that also is in the second round of the playoffs.

Woodson had zero say in personnel decisions, by the way. He just kept his mouth shut and did the best he could with a starter out of high school (Josh Smith), another just a year out of college (Marvin Williams), a power forward playing center (Al Horford), no point guard worth mentioning before Bibby, no depth on the bench beyond Josh Childress and a dearth of shooters.

Said Michael Gearon Sr., who joins his son as Atlanta Spirit's primary owners dealing with the Hawks, "[Woodson] is patient. He doesn't panic, and he's not worried about his job."

He has a job. The same one.

tlmoore@ajc.com

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