arc of time

bk and i went to the funeral march that was game four of the eastern conference semis yesterday at phillips. we had incredible seats thanks to the president of my company’s international division and the ceo of my company.

of course, by now, you know the drill. the hawks got swept by the reigning mvp and his supporting casts of clowns (sorry, after lbj there is almost no one on cleveland i like.)

the guys did give us a show though, keeping it close and eventually being done in by their inability to hit key shots, lebron’s insnace three point shooting and bad officiating.

so the season is over. but i am excited and happy with the hawks performance. i wrote a thank you note over on the atlanta metblog, so cruise on over there and check that out.

while you are there register for the site and leave a comment. we sure would love it.

sekou smith has a message for all of use hawks fans and i couldn’t agree more:

We’re going to have plenty of time to roast those who need to be roasted. And there will be loads of opportunities for second-guessing and all that other fun stuff.

Just not tonight. I’m giving it a rest until 2009.

Your team is 21-10 for Baby New Year’s sake (43-42 in the calendar year for 2008, just fyi), show ‘em a little love for once.

HAH!

for sure. it must be symptomatic of watching so much losing basketball that hawks fans will completely dissect a team that enters the new year ELEVEN games above .500!

for the next few days i am taking sekou’s advice

i wouldn’t write something like this usually, but in this instance i feel it is worth it. you may not know who rodney rodgers is or why i want you to pray for him, but i hope you will take a few minutes and read this article in the raleigh news observer.

rodney rodgers had a long and distinguished nba career, but even more important had the kind of “post career” that makes me think he is the kind of guy i would have loved to have known.

my favorite line from this piece:

Williams, Rogers’ agent and lawyer for 15 years, said the former power forward enjoyed the woods, off-road sports and trucks.

“He is an outdoorsman, plain and simple,” Williams said. “He hunts, motorcycles, rides horses. He loves big trucks.”

That love of big trucks led to his present job as a heavy equipment operator for the city of Durham’s Public Works Department. Rogers “is financially set,” Williams said, but he wanted demanding daily work.

“Rodney isn’t the type to sit around twiddling his thumbs. There aren’t any jobs he considers too small for him,” Williams said. “He started his own trucking company and was usually the lead driver. He’d be out there driving to the quarry at 3:30 in the morning.”

it’s easy to by cynical about professional athletes with all the antics some of them get into. rodney rodgers reminds me of how awesome they can be too.

keep him in your prayers please.

i have to agree with the folks at deadspin. everything about this is hilarious.

according to the new york times, the one and only the big aristotle, mr. shaq-fu himself, has set up a twitter account after discovering an imposter posting on twitter.

i can think of no media more perfect for shaq’s style of short, highly entertaining quips than twitter.

this ought to be tons of fun.

you really need to follow this now….

and i hate the celtics.

the hawks beat the hornets last night to go three and oh. this is a team many consider to be a contender for the nba title and one of the elite teams in the league.

for my part, what i am starting to love about this team is the grit they play with. they came out and jumped all over new orleans, especially after chris paul had to sit with two fouls. but cp3 came back in and he was unstoppable.

the hornets pulled ahead and last year’s hawks team, down 6 on the road against an elite team would have folded and the hornets would have put them away big. not this year. just like they did against the sixers they reached in and found some huge defensive stops and made some key baskets, including big threes from flip murray and yes, marvin williams.

wow.

it’s going to be an exciting season.

see you guys at the highlight factory on friday.

my favorite and much-maligned nba franchise, and the only atlanta team i root for, the atlanta hawks showed up at phillips arena for the home opener last night, having shocked even me, probably the most optimistic hawks fan on the planet, with an absurdly dominant win in orlando.

i was looking forward to good things as as, bk and i took our seats at phillips arena to watch the hawks take on elton brown, tech dropout thaddeaus young and the 76ers.

by midway through the first half things were going horrible wrong. the hawks couldn’t score a basket to save their lives, marvin williams was throwing up brick after brick after brick, and josh smith had a sum total of zero points.

by the half point of the second quarter the hawks had started whittling away at the lead and like micah hart writes in the official hawks basketblog the crowd never gave up on the team, giving them a boost of energy every time they put together a small run.

and then in the 4th quarter they turned it on. marvin had been benched, joe johnson decided once again to put the team on it’s back and carry them, and josh smith finally showed up to play (he finished with an impressive double-double.) even zaza pachulia (the only hawk who has an actual blog dedicated to him, incredible i know) came through with some big putbacks under the glass.

when the hawks tied and then took the lead, phillips arena went absolutely nuts. loud, raucous, flags waving, it was a sight to be seen. it honestly was even more energetic than the crowd for the opener against the mavs last year.

and when j.j. hit the three that sealed it, i felt like i was once and for all in a real basketball city.

so we’re 2-0 now having beaten two quality teams in two good wins.

some initial thoughts…

1. atlanta has the potential to be a great basketball town. the arena is amazing, the profile of the city screams for it. i think another playoff season advancing beyond round one might do it
2. there is no player in the nba i would rather watch than joe johnson. i know he isn’t kobe, or kg or lebron or chris paul. but in terms of sheer guts, character and determination matched with unquestionable skill, i will take him as my team leader over any of those guys
3. thank god we resigned josh smith
4. it’s time for marvin to put up or get out. he spent the second half on the bench watching flip murray.

well he came in second in rookie of the year voting, but we’ll still give a tribute to al horford for a great season and a lot of fun.