Outside, the crowd was still backed up a couple of hundred feet at the main gates, even as the final notes of the national anthem reverberated through the packed house inside Philips Arena.
The concourse was alive, filled with pilgrims sharing in the significance — perhaps some incredulity, too — in what somehow has become one of the potent teams in the NBA. The Atlanta Hawks, riding the longest win streak in franchise history, would win their 17th consecutive game Wednesday night, commanding the attention of a city unprepared for such genuine and serious basketball.
“Yeah, they’ve bought in,” said fan Robbie Swanson, 32, taking in the scene over nachos and beer. “They’re winning, and that hasn’t happened very much around here, if you’ve haven’t noticed. I’d say buying in is the easiest thing to do.”
The Hawks will seek No. 18 on Friday night against Portland. Good luck finding a ticket. With the All-Star break still two weeks away, they have the second-best record in the NBA (38-8), having matched their win total from last season.
Their performance mirrors public response. While the Hawks rank 21st in league attendance (16,537), that marks a 15.3 percent jump from last year, and those numbers are rising by the week. TV ratings have been some of the highest in SportSouth network’s history, up 54 percent from a year ago.
This from a team that ESPN picked to finish seventh in the Eastern Conference, which the Hawks now lead by a commanding seven games.
“Whether it’s at a restaurant or at the gas station, I’m getting approached, and people are telling me how proud they are of our team and keep it going,” said center Al Horford, who has witnessed fan interest wax and mostly wane in his eight Atlanta seasons. “That’s the common phrase I hear: We’re proud and keep it going.”
All this comes four months after a calamitous September. A two-year-old email from managing partner Bruce Levenson surfaced, critical of what he perceived of the team’s black-dominated attendance, cheerleaders and even music selection. He later admitted his remarks were “inappropriate and offensive,” and the team has been put up for sale.
General manager Danny Ferry remains on a leave of absense after he was quoted reading an independently written scouting report that free-agent prospect Luol Deng “has a little African in him” during an ownership conference call.
Rocked, the team undertook a rigorous marketing campaign aimed at blacks and millennials to rekindle interest. But all this winning has flooded the gate metrics with a surge of ticket-buyers who simply are curious or who appreciate the Hawks’ sophisticated, entertaining style of play.
Turns out, there is a certain joy to be found in the execution of six or seven passes before someone actually shoots the ball.
“They’re younger, they’re more diverse, they’re different than in the past,” said team CEO Steve Koonin, a longtime TV executive hired in April in his first crack at sports team management. “But most important, everyone is welcome. There’s always confusion about target audiences, but you look at a target, there’s a bull’s-eye and there’s concentric circles around it.”
Those circles loop wide. Steve Holman, the team’s 30-year radio announcer, was walking his dog the other day when a complete stranger stopped his car, informed Holman he was taking his grandchildren to a game and promptly drove off.
Said Holman: “And this is down in Newnan! I feel like I was in the Witness Protection Program for 29 years and I just got out.”
If the summer’s racial issue has quieted down, it has surely not been forgotten. When Orlando Davenport, a 29-year-old African-American, was asked if Atlanta had forgiven the team in some way, he replied, “It seems that way.”
Has he?
“Yeah,” adding after a long pause, “It was hard.”
Thabo Sefolosha, a nine-year veteran guard who joined the Hawks two months before the ownership stories broke in September, had heard all about Atlanta’s indifferent fan base and wondered what he had just signed on to.
“Winning cures a lot of things, and I’m just happy that it happened so soon and we can put it in the past as quick as possible,” he said. “It’s great seeing that. They’re here now.”
Said Koonin: “I thought the city could come back around but not … after this weekend, we’ll have 11 sellouts. We had four last year.”
Down on the concourse, Swanson, who tries to take in a game every other week, said Hawks hoops has become a dominant conversation point among his friends. The Hawks have the best defense in the league, are scoring more points (103.6 per game) than any Hawks team in 22 years and are slamming the opposition. The average margin of victory in their past 10 games was 15.5 points.
“Everybody’s talking about it,” Swanson said. “I mean, it should be the talk. These guys are doing something right now.”
Former Hawks coach Kevin Loughery, who does not come to Philips Arena often, rushed by. “They’re legit,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “I mean, best team in the East.”
Donovan Smith, in town from St. Louis for a convention, was amazed by the passing throng. “I came to a game last year, and you could sit anywhere you wanted,” he said. “So good for them.”
The Hawks, it should be mentioned, haven’t won an NBA championship since 1958, when the team was stationed in St. Louis. The playoffs are 12 weeks away. Too soon to dream?
“I don’t know,” Davenport said. “What’s going to happen when they lose three or four in a row?”
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