The Win Column: Thanks, I love him already

Hey. Wanna party with the AJC?

We’re hosting a little get together on July 15 to watch Atlanta’s World Cup semifinal. It’s at Monday Night Brewing’s The Grove location over on the Westside, and it’s free.

Go ahead and RSVP … and then prepare yourself for an even more grab bag-y newsletter than usual.

ONE ROOTABLE DUDE

New Atlanta Hawks point guard Kingston Flemings, who usually looks much happier than this. (Adam Hunger/AP)

I really do try not to act like this. And there’s no disrespect intended to fellow Hawks draftee Zuby Ejiofor (a 6-foot-7, 245-pound senior who was Big East Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year? Yes, please).

But folks … I believe I’ve already fallen in love with Kingston Flemings.

Perhaps I should’ve known earlier this week, when our compadre Ken Sugiura talked with an NBA scout who described the soon-to-be Atlantan as both:

• “more than likely” to be “a good starter in the NBA for a long time.”
• and “one of those kinds of people that a lot of people feel good about and trust.”

I’d seen Flemings hoop at Houston (in the NCAA Tournament, at least … let’s be real). He attacks the rim but also plays efficiently. Even as a freshman, he posted almost three assists for every turnover.

Explosive. Versatile. Roughly 6-foot-3 and gets after it on defense, too.

All great attributes for the Hawks’ post-Trae Young reality. Give him some time with CJ McCollum, hand him the second-team offense and we could be cooking in no time.

Flemings is also a different kind of cat.

His college coach, Kelvin Sampson, recently dubbed him “a perceptive, insanely intelligent human being” with “a gravitational pull to him in whatever room he’s in.”

He’s a question asker, and an answer rememberer. A true basketball nerd and incorrigible competitor, by all accounts. Mature beyond his 19 years, but still … himself.

• He’s the guy who, rather preciously, asked to take his nameplate after a news conference at the NCAA tourney.
• And I don’t know what it means that his favorite movie is the animated classic “How to Train Your Dragon.” But I like it.

A few hours before the draft, The Player’s Tribune published a “letter to NBA GMs” that Flemings wrote. He talks about getting run over by a truck (really) at age 4, and why he cried on the court after his Houston squad lost in the Sweet 16.

The gist: He loves life, he loves basketball and he’s ready to work.

“I absolutely know that time is precious. (I had the tire marks to prove it!) So I’m not coming to the NBA to chill.”

That’s an easy guy to root for.

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KYLE PITTS’ PAYDAY: GOOD MOVE OR NAH?

Now for a slightly more divisive Atlanta athlete: Kyle Pitts.

The Falcons broke him off this week, to the tune of three years and $54 million ($36 million guaranteed). Among tight ends, that’s an annual average eclipsed only by San Francisco’s George Kittle and Arizona’s Trey McBride.

The new front office staff sees something it likes — but what do you think?

• A. Love it. Dude’s pretty darn good with halfway decent quarterback play.
• B. No, no, no. Absolutely not.
• C. Woulda preferred he play on the franchise tag but ...
• D. Man I don’t care, just pay Bijan. 

Get your answers in via fancy form or email … and check back next week for results.

JUST HEAR ME OUT, OK?

A conceptual rendering of Bobby Dodd Stadium’s future. (Georgia Tech Athletics)

Georgia Tech has finalized plans for its forthcoming renovation of Bobby Dodd Stadium. Come the 2027 season, Jacket fans will enjoy a revamped audio-visual experience, swankier suites and, if they’re lucky, some permanent lumbar support.

But it was this bit of the announcement that particularly piqued my interest: “This summer, Georgia Tech will announce a list of 100 improvements to the game day experience at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field that will be implemented prior to the 2026 season.”

A hundred! By Sept. 3!

In lieu of more specifics, I thought I’d offer a few suggestions of my own.

• In-stadium study rooms: The grind never sleeps. And neither does organic chemistry.
• Brent Key’s Kitchen and Karaoke Bar: Where the wait staff is enthusiastically grumbly and the song choices are limited to “Ramblin’ Wreck” and select Jimmy Buffett classics.
• Slice Me Open and See What Colors I Bleed: Relax. It’s just a pizza spot.
• The Haynes King Kids Zone: Step right up, children, and don the former Tech quarterback’s actual game-worn gear — while 11 other pint-sized participants whack you with tackling dummies until you walk funny.
• Trough urinals: Build. Back. Better.
• World of Coke soda dispensers: You know the ones. Because nothing goes better with a hot dog and an inexplicable loss to Pitt than 32 ounces of sour plum Fanta.

And with that, I think I’m done here.

OTHER INTERESTING STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

⛳ The PGA announced a fairly dramatic change in its competitive structure. The most pertinent part for folks around here, though, is that, starting in 2028, “a new-look TOUR Championship (will be) contested across a rotation of prestigious courses — many of which the PGA TOUR would play for the first time.”

• Translation? No more East Lake Golf Club every year. Rumors of such a move surfaced a while back … but still a bummer.

🔥 Atlanta’s Olympic cauldron (the real one, lit by Muhammad Ali some 30 years ago) may be moved to Centennial Olympic Park … and the folks in Summerhill, its original and longtime home, are righteously cheesed off.

😬 Shot: The folks in Forsyth County say they’re ready to break ground on a megadevelopment aimed at luring professional hockey to town. Chaser: The Associated Press reports the NHL is exploring an expansion team in Houston or Austin, Texas.

ENTER THE BASEBALL CONSPIRACY ZONE

Remember a few weeks ago, when the TV cameras caught Ronald Acuña Jr. looking puzzled while seemingly comparing two slightly different sized baseballs?

Well … he might’ve been on to something.

Bear with me as we root around a very nerdy rabbit hole:

🤔 Longtime baseball data guy Eno Sarris, currently with The Athletic, pointed out online that MLB was seeing more offense of late — and then provided a possible explanation: “Drag on the ball currently lower than any year other than 2019, when baseball broke all kinds of homer records.”

• That’s drag as in “drag coefficient” on pitched balls (specifically four-seam fastballs in this case). All other things being equal, the lower the coefficient, the farther a pitch travels once it’s hit.

🤔 Now enter Sean Zerillo, another data head who works for ActionNetworkHQ. He suggests there’s “strong evidence that MLB either changed the baseballs or introduced a new batch of baseballs (while still cycling out the old) in late May/early June.”

• “Almost every contact-quality-controlled Statcast metric has seen an outlier uptick in recent weeks,” he wrote on X. Barrel distance (how far balls travel when optimally struck, basically) jumped by more than 10 feet between April and June, he said, dubbing it the largest such leap in the Statcast area.
• Warmer weather does make balls fly farther, Zerillo wrote, but usually by less than 5 feet.
• Through June 21, MLB teams were averaging nearly half a run more per game than in May — and the most runs per game since August 2019.

Not, uh … not that it’s helped the Braves very much this month.

Before Tuesday night’s relative offensive outburst, they’d scored the fewest runs (61) of any MLB team in June. They also owned the league’s lowest OPS (.634) and had hit the second-fewest home runs (17).