“Sorry, Bryon. Us Legends are Born This Way!”
What was all this #InBrotherhood stuff about, after all?
It’s a sobering recognition that -- no matter how long you’ve been in greater Atlanta, no matter what part of the metro you live in, no matter how much you’re currently prospering -- in this Woulda Coulda Shoulda sports town, you and the local team you root for are no better, and no worse, than anybody else around these parts. We might as well embrace one another.
On Sunday night, one half of semi-professional pigskin was all that kept the Hawks from becoming the sole major male pro sports franchise to never win a world title for Atlanta (the Blaze, and Atlanta United, are free to join us on the couch someday soon).
Fans of the Hawks’ visitors tonight, the Utah Jazz (7:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast, ROOT Sports Utah), can commiserate with Falcons fans like few others could. Two decades ago, their team, with destiny on the line, left themselves exposed to a Legend. And made something of a legend out of themselves in the process.
Around town, I’ve got colleagues, so-called Atlanta sports fans, that have offered up every excuse for living in the ATL for decades and never embracing the Hawks. Never mind coming (or staying) downtown to pull for them every blue moon. I’m talking about simply turning on the television, or radio, and tuning in on the regular.
“It’s too late at night, walking 100 feet from my SUV can be scary, the traffic and parking sucks and I don’t wanna take MARTA because, well, y’know.” Some of the same people proceed to grab their foam tomahawks and spend four hours with their families in Summerville for some Freddie Freeman bobblehead night. Others will soon leap at the chance to flaunt their PSLs on Northside Drive, in eager anticipation of some Thursday Night Color Rush versus Tampa Bay.
Why not watch your local NBA team? “They don’t have the kind of players I like to follow”, I get that a lot. But they can recite the life histories of all 75 players on a training camp roster as they haul it up I-985 to Flowery Branch to watch “their” heroes prep for a preseason game. I ain’t mad, tho.
“The Hawks had shady ownership for so long.” Right, and what was Rankin Smith, again? “The Hawks drag you along all season, just to collapse at the end,” said the 2011 Barves fan, without so much as a wink. “The Hawks are a treadmill team that disappoints in the playoffs,” okay. And then we slap on our facepaint and scream and dance and chop for teams that are, at least as of Sunday night, the very definitions for end-of-season disappointments in their respective sports (move aside, Buffalo). And they don’t even get to the playoffs every year, at least not anymore.
Yes, it’s lousy timing for anyone to needle Falcons fans who, up until a month ago, had rationally measured expectations about how much their team might achieve this season. But if we’re truly “In Brotherhood” (or, accounting for the Dream, “In Siblinghood”) we don’t black-sheep our brethren just to uplift the favorites in our family.
All across the ATL, inside the perimeter and well beyond, Hawks fans are giving long-suffering members of the Falcons faithful a sorely-needed hug today. If we’re all truly “True To Atlanta,” though, it’s high time we start demanding a little more embracing of our Hawks, flaws and all, in return.
For far too long, Hawks fans are compelled to Feel The Pain for other pro teams’ letdowns in the winters, and autumns, but get treated like Torch Red-headed stepchildren in the springtimes, garnering far more ridicule than reciprocation. Falcon, Bravo, and Dawg/Jacket fans, must become more than just “True To The Segments of Atlanta I Choose to Associate With.” Hawk fans must no longer accept our allegiances getting pushed down to some lower, substandard tier.
Speaking of pushing…
“I know that some argue that He did not push off,” said Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Matthew Durrant just a couple weeks ago, while addressing the state legislature, adding, “most of them live in Chicago.”
“He,” naturally, is Michael Jordan, already the greatest to ever bounce a basketball in most people’s eyes, but a man who needed a foil to cement his otherworldly legacy. The foil directed his way was Utah Jazz player Bryon Russell, who moments before was about to help his team reach Game 7 of the NBA Finals and maybe break Utah’s NBA bridesmaid hex, once and for all.
The Jazz had a chance to put Game 6 away, but Karl Malone fumbled the ball, leaving just a sliver of daylight open for a Legend to create a legend. And 20 years later, it takes a judicial act just to try and take the bitter taste out of Jazz fans’ mouths.
“After much consideration, I am now prepared to rule,” said Durrant. “He pushed off. And if you think I don’t have the power to decide that, you haven’t read the Utah Constitution.” So it goes in Atlanta, and Salt Lake City. Because our teams’ leaders are not prepared to rule, we turn to judges to do the work for us. Can somebody around here overturn that Infield Fly thing?
Coincidentally, the Hawks’ color analyst was drafted-and-traded by the Jazz to become Atlanta’s iconic basketball player. Yet his teams suffered tough postseason defeats at the hands of Legends like Larry Bird and Isaiah Thomas, and he found himself on the outside of the NBA’s 50th anniversary team looking in.
Nearly two decades later, his team’s owners and management nearly tore each other, and the franchise, asunder over the central question of whether Atlanta’s basketball legend, one of the 15 leading scorers in NBA history, was worthy of a statue in front of the basketball arena. Like Matt Ryan, or Michael Vick before him, Dominique Wilkins understands quite well the feeling when you’ve failed to cast your own legacy in gold.
Nique’s best known feats of fancy weren’t achieved at Philips Arena, but one player coming off the bench for the Jazz sure had a few in this building. Joe Johnson is still getting it done as best he can at age 35, his 18 points and 4 assists helping Utah (32-19) shoo away the visiting Hornets on Saturday night. At his prime, Johnson was never going to star in “Space Jam”, or get his own corn-syrupy-drink ads. But like modern-day Paul Millsap, Joe was Atlanta’s multiple-year All-Star, and deserved to be welcomed as such, unconditionally.
Rather, because Joe’s teams failed to outshine the Paul Pierces, LeBron Jameses and Dwight Howards in the postseason, he became reviled around town, especially after accepting a salary that would have cost teams an extra $10-15 million annually today for the same scales of production and accomplishment. His Hawks jersey will someday be retired, but his was not the Red #2 many Atlanta sports fans were willing to tout.
Despite the ghosts of would-be-championships past, Utah sports fans held little disagreement over whether John Stockton or Karl Malone were “monumental” figures. They are also quite content with the present state of affairs, especially now that their primary pro sports team is ensconced in the state, thanks to a new Miller family legacy trust.
Now on a more manageable $11 million annual deal, the esteemed veteran Johnson is well-accepted around SLC, even while being arguably the second-best Joe on coach Quin Snyder’s team. He shares bench duties these days with Joe Ingles, the Aussie breaking out with a 43.2 three-point percentage (4th in NBA). Either Joe can spell Gordon Hayward, the Jazz leading scorer (career-bests of 22.0 PPG, 87.1 FT%, 5.7 RPG; 33 points vs. CHA on Saturday) who is headed to his first All-Star Game.
Coaches’ votes for the ASG were probably headed toward teammate center Rudy Gobert (99.8 D-Rating, 3rd among NBA players with 30+ MPG; NBA-high 2.5 BPG), until Chris Paul’s injury compelled voters to take Clipper center DeAndre Jordan in the frontcourt instead. Nonetheless, even with third-year swingman Rodney Hood (sprained knee) unavailable and young Alec Burks coming back slowly, Utah boasts exceptional depth of skill and experience at the wing spots.
They’ve been deep enough to absorb injury setbacks across the board, a competitive advantage that has kept them comfortably in the midst of the Western Conference playoff chase. Boris Diaw’s espresso-fueled stints have been efficient enough to alleviate Gobert while making the emergence of either Derrick Favors (a dying-hard Falcons fan, born in Atlanta during the summer of the Bravos’ 1991 worst-to-first campaign) or Trey Lyles less urgent. Relying on ex-Hawk Shelvin Mack and Dante Exum, the Jazz weathered the storm while George Hill (5-for-8 3FGs vs. CHA on Saturday) recuperated from injury.
Snyder’s Jazz embrace a style, if you will, of space-and-trace. They keep the tempo at a snail’s crawl (NBA-low 93.4 pace), and don’t waste time gambling for live-ball turnovers (6.6 team SPG and 12.2 opponent TOs/game, 29th in NBA). Instead, the Jazz excel at contesting shots (NBA-best 48.5 opponent eFG%), using Gobert and the bigs to secure the defensive boards (78.2 D-Reb%, 4th in NBA), and then controlling the rock and draining the clock until they find an advantageous matchup on offense, like Hayward or Hill (8-for-14 FGs apiece vs. ATL on Nov. 25).
Mike Budenholzer’s Hawks know this firsthand. Playing right into their opponent’s hands, the Hawks scored just 68 points in Utah’s arena back in November, Atlanta’s lowest output since a forgettable 97-58 loss in Chicago back in January 2013. It had been that long since a Hawks team shot as poorly as 31.3% from the field.
Mack chipped in for Utah with five assists, plus steals that accounted for four of Atlanta’s mere 14 player turnovers. Johnson collected 10 D-Rebs in 24 minutes for a Jazz team that was more than happy to let Kent Bazemore, Junior Hardaway, Malcolm Delaney and Mike Muscala fire away (combined 3-for-24 FGs) while their defenders blanketed Kyle Korver (1-for-3 FGs).
Even without Derrick available for Utah, it was Howard and Millsap (combined 6-for-20 FGs, zero assists) that did their team no Favors on that November evening. Adequately contested at turns by Gobert (10 D-Rebs and 5 blocks vs. ATL on Nov. 25), Diaw, Lyles, and Jeff Withey, Atlanta’s starting frontcourt duo could produce neither buckets nor second-chances for Atlanta (11.5 O-Reb%, second-lowest of the season), as half of the team’s six offensive rebounds came from Thabo Sefolosha (out again tonight) off the bench.
The Hawks mimicked Quinball as best they could (84.4 team D-Reb%, 39.1 opponent eFG%) in Saturday’s 113-86 mastery of the Magic, an outcome that could have only been more dominant had Atlanta found a way to keep Orlando (25-for-28 FTs) off the free throw line.
Key to the rare relaxing victory was Dennis Schroder, shedding his recent slump by controlling the ball, directing player movement, and defending well (10 assists, 2 TOs, 2 steals), while helping all five Hawk starters shoot above 50% from the field. Delaney, off the bench, and Hardaway also provided some sorely needed perimeter shots (combined 5-for-10 3FGs) to help keep the Magic at bay.
A similar effort from Atlanta’s guards will result in a far more competitive effort against Hill, Hayward and the Jazz. Three-pointers will be hard to come by for Schroder, with Hill (98.2 D-Rating, 1st among players w/ min. 30 MPG) in his face for much of the game. But if Dennis can find some space for mid-range shots off his drives, he can draw Gobert away from the rim and open up Howard and Millsap inside. Whenever Gobert’s teammates effectively rotate, the frontcourt players in turn must keep the ball moving and identify open shooters and cutters.
For the next several months, there will be no blitzing, no five-step drops, no onside kicks. And there is, sadly, no parade preparation in the wings. But there is no excuse for our Rise Up chanters to Pack Up and Settle Down.
There remains a prominent Atlanta team, a presently and consistently winning one at that, to rally around. Until the next kickoff at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the more recalcitrant among our Falcon-fan “Brotherhood” ought to take some time to acknowledge, and support, the field goals being converted right down the street at Philips Arena.
Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
