lethalweapon3

It's Lit! ~lw3

Atlanta United owes its fans at Bobby Dodd a good performance after floundering three weeks ago versus D.C. United. They'll get that chance tonight against the Houston Dynamo (7 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast). The Dynamo are playing their third match in the space of eight days, but have their eye on Sporting KC in the top spot of the Western Conference, just three points in front Houston (6-4-1 W-L-T). It will be a huge homecoming for Atlanta native and longtime midfielder Ricardo Clark. He's been playing in MLS since 2003, with intermittent stops in Germany and Norway, and was on Team USA from 2005-2012. Houston's Erick "Cubo" Torres is breaking back into stardom after two lackluster MLS seasons, and the striker ranks second in the league with 8 goals scored. New Dynamo manager Wilmer Cabrera helped spark Cubo's breakout with MLS side Chivas USA back in 2014, and appears to have the magic elixir again. All four of the Dynamo's defeats this season have come away from H-Town, including a 2-0 shutout just three days ago in Philadelphia. Some bursts of speed from attacking midfielder Miguel Almiron and some swift passing around the offensive box ought to help ATLUTD keep the Dynamo on their heels. Mike WiLL Made It fans will be pleased to know he's heading Memorial Day Weekend's MLS inaugural Summer Beat concert series. Just announced yesterday, his concert will be next Friday (United ticketholders get first dibs) at the famous Center Stage in Midtown, two days ahead of ATLUTD's Sunday rematch versus NYCFC. Let's Go United! ~lw3

After a decent showing on the road against Connecticut, the Atlanta Dream get a pair of games this weekend against the Chicago Sky, tonight (8:30 PM Eastern, League Pass only in ATL) and on Sunday afternoon (3:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast in ATL, NBATV). The offseason was anything but a breeze in the Windy City. Despite a playoff win over the Dream and a 3-1 series defeat in the next round to the eventual WNBA champs, there remained a lot of unease among the members of the Chicago Sky. Most notably, franchise face Elena Delle Donne, who engineered a trade to Washington so she could be closer to her family in Delaware during the WNBA season. Delle Donne never seemed to get along with her head coach-slash-GM, so the Sky cut loose Pokey Chatman in a vain attempt to appease EDD. Elena’s forced departure follows that of former Sky star Sylvia Fowles, who won Finals MVP in 2015 with Minnesota after sitting out half the season. Chatman helped the Sky reach the WNBA Finals in 2014, and later crawled into the 2016 playoffs with a 18-16 record (2nd in the WNBA East), despite Delle Donne missing the end of the season and the playoffs to undergo thumb surgery. The Sky ownership felt there was insufficient progress toward a championship, and now they move on without either of Chatman or Delle Donne. Chatman was replaced by Amber Stocks, an assistant coach on the 2016 champion L.A. Sparks’ club. Elena’s trade to D.C. netted the Sky center Stefanie Dolson (a 2015 All-Star in her rookie season), second-year pro Kahleah Copper, and the #2 pick in the 2017 draft, where Chicago chose injured South Carolina center Alaina Coates. As Atlanta knows well, it’s hard to replace 21.5 PPG. Yet Stocks referred to Copper on media day as “a superstar unfolding before our very eyes,” an unveiling that continues slowly for Kahleah, the small forward getting just 16 minutes of action off the bench in her first game as a Sky player. Stocks is looking to stack the deck with posts on the floor together. She is looking to pair Dolson with 2016 WNBA All-Rookie center Imani Boyette, and include a third big, Jessica Breland, in the Sky-scraping mix. Whether her strategy to go with super-big frontcourt lineups will work is questionable. But it would help if Chicago had their #2-overall pick to turn to as well. Coates is likely to miss most of this season, and is apparently un-signed to allow Chicago to maximize its roster space. It’s not out of the question that Coates re-enters herself in next year’s draft. If that happens, Chicago could wind up empty-handed after picking twice in the first round. Their pick at #9, Tori Jankoska, has already been waived after making the roster for one WNBA game. Jankoska was the victim of a numbers game, as backcourt stars Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley are returning late from obligations in Turkey. Point guard is of more urgent need for the Sky without Jameirra Faulkner, who is out for the season after tearing her ACL in Poland. At least until Vandersloot and Quigley get up to speed, Stocks is leaning heavily on veteran guard Cappie Pondexter to be the team’s “pusher”, the 34-year-old directing the offense, forcing play inside and making ballhandling decisions in the clutch. The Sky also are looking to former Dreamette Tamera Young and Copper to serve as sparkplugs off the bench. Despite a predictable season-opening defeat, the Sky put together a low-scoring but spirited effort in their 70-61 loss last Sunday in Minnesota, Young leading the way with 14 points as a reserve. Stocks’ extra-big frontline was insufficient to deal with ex-Sky center Fowles (26 points, 10 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 blocks), and the Sky shot just 35.3% from the floor while missing seven of their 19 free throws. Still, Chicago used a rusty start by Maya Moore (1-for-11 3FGs, the Lynx 3-for-20 overall) to hang around for much of the game, Dolson’s jumpers pulling the Sky within three points of the Lynx lead in the final quarter. Chicago will spend this weekend looking for answers to awaken their offense, and Vandersloot and Quigley cannot return soon enough. Playing so many bigs (including third-year pro Cheyenne Parker) at one time, and a seasoned but aging lead guard, could be problematic against teams, like Michael Cooper’s Dream (1-0) and the Lynx, that want to push the tempo. There were anomalies abound in Atlanta’s 81-74 win in Connecticut last Saturday. As alluded to in the postgame by @Gray Mule, the Dream broke a WNBA record by making 21 free throws in the first half, all on made attempts (!!!), and finished the game sinking 25 of 27. Tiffany Hayes went 11-for-12 from the stripe, and Layshia Clarendon went 6-for-6. Neither starting guard shot the ball well from the floor, but Hayes made the play Atlanta needed when it counted, a triple with under thirty seconds to go to set the Sun. It was Tip’s temper that must have flared up at an inopportune time again, drawing a technical foul with under a minute to spare and her team up by four points. But the Sun missed the freebie, and Hayes made them pay. She and Clarendon accounted for 8 of Atlanta’s final 9 points in crunch time. Clarendon committed four turnovers, but that accounted for surprisingly half of Atlanta players’ turnover count for the game. Angel’s absence is a factor, and Connecticut is no defensive stalwart. Yet Atlanta had single-digit player turnover tallies on just five occasions last season, with eight-or-fewer turnovers in just two games. As anomalies go, this is one the Dream hopes will stick around for a while. Atlanta in 2016 was a team that crashed the offensive glass to make up for poor shooting. But the Dream players were stifled in Connecticut, Jonquel Jones and Lynetta Kizer tag-teaming to keep the Dream frontcourt to one solitary offensive rebound. Hayes and Clarendon accounted for Atlanta’s other two O-Rebs. Sancho Lyttle (5 rebounds, 4 steals, 1-for-4 3FGs in 27 minutes @ CON) has to play more like a traditional four and help Elizabeth Williams create second-chance opportunities for Atlanta. Against a big lineup like Chicago’s, the Dream can draw even more fouls and trips to the line if they look for early scores inside and crash the glass. Let’s Go Dream! ~lw3

Since most players have other 9-to-5 duties they're pretty limited to playing on weekends (Saturdays), and with the league trying to fit its schedule around other things (like the NCAA Final Four next week), we get long stretches between NLL games like this one. The radio promos have definitely been nonstop. ~lw3

I have been selected the top basketball player in my bedroom, for this week. Similarly, Marcus Eriksson of FC Barcelona has been named by Euro-Basket as the top Swedish player in international ball a couple weeks ago. Here is what they had to say: Liga Endesa is the sponsorship name for the "ACB" league in Spain. Eriksson plays backup small forward behind Stratosphere Pepperglue, or somesuch. The show in Barca belongs to Croatian Jazz stashee Ante Tomic. That center, now age 30, is probably never coming over the pond unless some Pero Antic-style action occurs. Other notable teammates include ex-Celtic Vitor Faverani, ex-Blazer Victor Claver, Mavs stashee Petteri Koponen, and Dwight's old Rocket teammate, Joey Dorsey. They finished 22-10 in ACB play and head into the playoffs as a 5-seed. Spanish League averages for Eriksson: 6.9 PPG, 1.6 RPG, 1.1 APG, 64.4% on twos, 42-for-94 on threes, and 17-for-19 on freebies in 29 games. I suspect the Spanish word for defense is "Ole!" just from peeking at ACB stats, but the shot percentages are still nice. I don't know if the "Machine Gun Swede" nickname ("La Metralleta Sueca") has stuck, but I suppose he's earning it. Barcelona didn't qualify for the playoffs in the Euroleague, 11th among 16 squads after going 12-18, and Eriksson wasn't of much help there. 9.8 minutes per game, 4-for-16 on twos, 12-for-34 on threes, 17-for-19 FTs. Ex-Grizzlie and longtime Barcelona star Juan Carlos Navarro has been out for a while after an appendectomy, causing Barca to rank last in Euroleague scoring. You'll also recall Marcus played briefly and hit an open 3 (thanks to Alex Abrines getting lost on D) in a preseason friendly against the OKC Thunder back in October. http://basketball.eurobasket.com/team/Spain/FC-Barcelona-Lassa/100?Page=3 http://www.eurobasket.com/Sweden/news/488909/Marcus-Eriksson-selected-the-top-Swedish-players-playing-abroad-in-last-week's-games http://www.acb.com/redaccion.php?id=126329 If all goes well, we could be looking at The Next Marvin Williams! ;-) ~lw3

Olympiakos (Greek for, "Where Have You Gone, Josh Childress?") is entering its tenth Euroleague Final Four. Agravanis is a sub power forward playing behinds starters/stashees Georgie Pretzels (Hawks once got his rights w/ Thabo, traded it for Tiago) and Kostas Pumpernickel (ex-Nugget), or something like that. Olympiakos haven't used him for Greek league play, where they and second-seed rival Panathinaikos are each 25-1 and awaiting the playoffs. In 22 Euroleague Games, Agravanis averaged 11 minutes per game, making 47.5% of his twos, 9-for-41 on 3s, and 18-for-22 on FTs. He has scored 3.8 PPG in those 11 minutes, averaged 2.3 RPG and doesn't get to pass the ball much (0.1 APG, 0.2 TOs per game). Probably one of his top games was scoring 16 points to top Red Star Belgrade (also known by their Wheel of Fortune nightmare name, Crvena Zvezda) by two points in OT in their house, helping the Red-Whites clinch homecourt advantage in Euroleague back in March. http://basketball.eurobasket.com/team/Greece/Olympiacos-SFP-Pireus/93?Page=3 http://www.ekathimerini.com/217101/article/ekathimerini/sports/reds-win-in-serbia-suits-panathinaikos-too ~lw3

We can't have anything nice. Thanks a lot, Blue Jays! #ATLSports ~lw3

Also on the Dennis front... (EDIT: ^Good to see "Odell" made the trip, too...) ~lw3

Is this a plausible scenario in... Al-abama? (I kid, you Yellowhammer State Squawkers, I kid! Don't at me, please!) ~lw3

Technically we're still two games under NBA-wise (2693-2695), since Tri-Cities was in one of two predecessor leagues (NBL, which would later merge with the BAA to form the NBA) from 1946 until the 1949-50 NBA season. We shoulda kept Red! The Celts don't even wear Red! http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nba/tri/tricities.html You'll recall a pregame thread back in mid-November where we crossed above .500 as an NBA franchise, right before the bottom fell out. I haven't checked but I don't know if we went back up above .500 again after that. We needed to go 44-38 (+6 in the win column) to end this season at .500 for NBA history, but 43-39 (+4) means we gotta wait 'til next year! ~lw3

A random Migos-flavored reaction from the Twittersphere... ~lw3

~lw3

Silver Linings Playbook: None of the Hawks division opponents (Charlotte, Orlando, Miami) got a bump. And the Magic don't get the Lakers' 2019 1st rounder. ~lw3 Celtics and Lakers! Two franchises that really needed the luck! ;-) ~lw3

Sorry Booker! We got Magic Johnson, Joel, and the Celts! ~lw3

LOL @ Embiid. ~lw3

"Sorry, Sparky!" ~lw3

It's that moment we Hawks fans never have to wait for! Who is everybody pulling for tonight? Of course, I'm always hoping for a screwjob for the Selltix and Flakers. My top three rooting interests... * Phoenix (#2) - The Suns never seem to catch a break at lottery time. They haven't moved up in the lottery since 1987, although for many years it was for the same reasons as our latter-day Hawks. Even before the lottery, they lost a coin flip in 1969 for the top pick to Milwaukee, settling for Neal Walk in the draft while the Bucks got Lew Alcindor and an eventual NBA title. Sitting at #2, there's no better time than the present to move up a notch. Guard-heavy picks at the top probably means Eric Bledsoe goes bye-bye. * Sacramento (#8, #10) - Not only because it's probable they'll screw it up somehow. Even if they don't... Lavar and Vlade? Please let this happen. Pick #8 is top-10 protected (Deng/Hickson 3-way trade nobody remembers) or else it goes back to Chicago, and we don't want that. The Kings keep #8 so long as three teams lower than them in the Lotto rankings don't jump up. They could also wind up swapping with Philly (Stauskas deal) if their pick finishes above the Sixers', and nobody wants to see that, either. Pick #10 goes back to New Orleans if it jumps up to Top 3. If the Kings manage to keep both picks, they may get cute with the wheeling and dealing come draft time. * Denver (#13) - The Nuggets, like the Suns, have never gotten a Lottery Bump. Even in 2003, they dropped from #2 and #3, and only the mercy of Joe Dumars saved them from settling for Darko Milicic, instead of Carmelo Anthony. Gary Harris will be there for the lottery draw tonight and is looking for a backcourt mate: is it possible to shove Emmanuel Mudiay any further down the depth chart? ~lw3

I like all these names, aside from Joe D, although I do hope they'll keep querying and don't just stop with this group. Despite having the stink of Phil's Knicks on him, Hughes likely had a big hand in helping make Linsanity become a brief reality. And he's a Michigan guy, so I'd imagine ex-Knick Timmy would approve. Rosas turned second-rounder Chandler Parsons into a Bazemore-quality value, and helped Houston acquire Harden and woo Dwight while still in their primes. And if you wanna hire Dumars without the embarrassment of actually hiring him, give Chauncey a shot and let him bend Joe's ear. Any coincidence the Hawks are currently checking out Canyon Barry at the Pro Basketball Combine? ~lw3

Might the ATL finally earn themselves a championship of some kind this year? It could happen next month. A brief swerve... I tried to get in on the ground floor with the Atlanta Blaze, the Major League Lacrosse squad playing at Kennesaw State that was an expansion club in 2016, and their #1 overall pick Myles Jones out of Duke. But barely over a month into the season, Atlanta shipped the star midfielder out of Duke to Chesapeake. The trade was for MLL All-Star Matt Mackrides, who promptly injured his spine and was out for the 2016 season. And the Blaze coach got fired in mid-season. So, with so much instability from the jump, I've shifted my interests indoors for the time being. The Georgia Swarm finished 2017 with a 13-5 record, tops in the National Lacrosse League, the premier league for box (indoor) lacrosse (back in the day, it was known as the "Major Indoor Lacrosse League"). Inside Lacrosse does the "world" rankings that naturally has the Swarm at #1. After 11 seasons, the NLL franchise was relocated here from Minnesota in 2015. So, no, they're not intentionally stealing Georgia Tech's colors. The Swarm knocked off the Toronto Rock 11-8 on the road in Game 1 of their two-game Eastern Division Finals series, with Game 2 shifting to the ATL this Saturday. If Georgia wins in regulation, they move on to the NLL Champion's Cup Finals. Even if the Swarm don't win in regulation, their would be (at least one) ten-minute tiebreaker afterwards, where the tiebreaker winner moves on. A playoff series victory would be sweet for Swarm coach Ed Comeau, a longtime Toronto assistant who was canned by the Rock while an interim head coach in 2003. Playing out of Infinite Energy Arena in Duluth (the old Gwinnett Center arena), the Swarm have become sort of the Golden State Warriors of "boxla" along the way. They shattered the longstanding record for most goals scored in an NLL season, 266, with one game left to spare. Georgia also signed the top free agent in the 2016 NLL class, goaltender Mike Poulin, to mind the net on the other end. Poulin also got his pro start in the NLL with Toronto, so a win this weekend would hold extra meaning. It's quite a family affair whenever the Swarm play. NLL scoring title winner Lyle Thompson is joined by two siblings, fellow forwards Miles and Jerome "Hiana". The Thompson clan are Native American, from the Onondaga Nation in New York State, and that's of special significance since Native Americans established the roots of this sport back around 1100 A.D. Teammates at SUNY-Albany, Miles and Lyle were 2014 co-winners of college lacrosse's version of the Heisman Trophy. Lyle won the Tewaaraton Award again in 2015 while Miles was in his rookie season here. Georgia selected Miles third-overall in the 2014 NLL Entry Draft, then drafted Lyle (NCAA's all-time leading scorer) first overall in 2015. They traded to acquire Jerome from Buffalo in 2016. If the Swarm prove successful, there's a chance for a true family reunion during the Champion's Cup Finals, which begin in June. The favorite in the Western Division finals are the Saskatchewan Rush, featuring elder brother Jeremy Thompson, who also teams with Lyle at Chesapeake in the outdoor MLL. The four on the field together this past January set a Guinness World Record, as one might imagine, for most siblings in a pro lacrosse game. The "laxbros" don't get paid a ton as pros and are often pulling double-duty in indoor and outdoor leagues, if not also other side jobs. The 2016 NLL Rookie of the Year, Native American Canadian Randy Staats also plays as an attacker on the other end of I-285, with our Atlanta Blaze. Staats will rejoin the MLL club once his NLL campaign concludes. They're teaming up with 680 The Fan radio to promote Saturday's playoff contest as "#10KDay". No, they're not looking to get a quick race in before the game. But they do want to set an arena attendance record by selling out "The Hive" with five-digit ticket sales in advance of the game. If the talent isn't enough, the air conditioning and the free parking might be enough of a swing for ATL sports fans to help pack the house this weekend. (^I suspect that's a nice Photoshop job.) ~lw3

It won't be the Mother of All MLS Games, but Atlanta United hopes to get back on the good foot in Portland this afternoon, versus the Timbers (4:00 PM Eastern). After suffering the wrath of NYCFC star David Villa last week, United may catch a break if Timbers midfielder Darlington Nagbe (hamstring). He and Diego Valeri (hip flexor) missed last week's 3-0 shutout at the hands of the San Jose Earthquakes, and while Valeri is likely to return, Nagbe remains questionable. ATLUTD remains shorthanded without top scorer Josef Martinez, but winger Yamil Asad will return from his one-game suspension to help Atlanta wake up its dormant offense. Happy Mother's Day! Let's Go United! ~lw3

It didn’t have a fable, like Mrs. O’Leary’s cow, to capture the nation’s imagination. And it lacked the modern media scale, like Interstate 85 enjoys these days, to draw global attention. Yet Atlanta had itself a pretty big conflagration, one that wiped out a good chunk of the city 100 years ago this month. As city fires go, this blaze was pretty bad. And it could have been far worse. (via Atlanta magazine, February 2017) THE SPARK In the late morning of May 21, 1917, firefighters had already dispatched to put out fires in three separate parts of town. Shortly after noon, they reached a fourth blaze, a pile of mattresses aflame on the porch of a Grady Hospital storage facility, on Decatur Street not far from the Georgia Railroad east of downtown (across from the present-day King Memorial MARTA Station). Embers from one of the other fires, it is believed, were carried by strong winds across the tracks to this site. Unfortunately, the firemen’s horse-drawn truck malfunctioned and their resources were already spread thin. The ill-equipped fire crew had water to pump but lacked hoses, all distributed to help with the other active fires. Calling for help proved fruitless as well, as telephone and public fire alarm systems broke down from so many attempts by citizens to call the fire department and alert one another. THE SPREAD The windstorms that day blew the flickering flames north, toward densely packed wooden-shingled homes. Many of the modest wood-framed shanties and lean-to structures, in what would become known as the Sweet Auburn neighborhood, belonged to African-American and low-income citizens, and were no match for the flames as they spread from house to business to house in mere minutes. Among the churches wiped out by the fire was Ebenezer Baptist Church, led by early civil rights leader Rev. A.D. Williams (Martin Luther King, Jr.’s grandfather; Williams' son and grandson would later lead the church after its rebuilding). The not-yet-born King, Jr.’s birth home sat less than a block away from the eastern reaches of the fire along Auburn Avenue. The only freestanding Black church in the area that survived the fire, Big Bethel A.M.E. (if you’ve seen the blue “JESUS SAVES” sign on a steeple from the interstate, that’s the one), became the place of gathering for Black citizens’ public meetings in the years following the fire. The blaze continued spreading north, paralleling Jackson Street (personal note: my first residence in Atlanta in the 1990s was a 1930s-era apartment on this street... the most famous downtown skyline pictures you’ve seen are taken from an overpass here) and Boulevard Drive into the “Fourth Ward” area. This neighborhood served as a retreat for many Black citizens still recovering from the 1906 race riots downtown, and as an area of close commute for White citizens. On this warm, sunny, dry, windy spring afternoon, virtually all would find their homes squarely in the rolling inferno’s path. THE PANIC With despair growing by the minute, residents began dumping furniture and valuables outside of their houses and into the lawns and streets, in fading hopes their worldly possessions could be salvaged and transported elsewhere. Alas, those items, plus the huge shade trees that lined Jackson and Boulevard, generally served to fuel the fire’s spread down and across streets. Whether one lived in the fire’s path or not, it was not lost on citizens the growing significance of what was transpiring. Certainly, not after fires in Chicago (1870s), Boston (1872), Spokane (1889) and, more recently, Jacksonville (1901), Baltimore (1904), San Francisco (1906) had thoroughly decimated large swaths of those cities. A couple hours in, Fire Chief William Cody (no relation to “Buffalo Bill,” who died earlier that year) reached first-year Mayor Asa Candler (the Coca-Cola Company founder), and issued the following urgent plea: “Call every city in a 350-mile radius—yes, as far away as Chattanooga and Savannah—and ask if they can help. Forget about the three earlier fires of the day; this fourth one is going to destroy Atlanta.” Among the residents who scrambled from downtown to evacuate his family and salvage belongings, before his home burned out, was a law clerk named William Hartsfield (the future longtime Mayor, after whom the current airport, formerly “Candler” Field, is partially named). He later wrote to friends that, upon his arrival, he observed flames approaching up Jackson Street “as fast as a man could walk,” adding, “Confusion reigned supreme.” Collecting what belongings he could, Hartsfield and his family would flee to nearby woods on Ponce de Leon Avenue, below the Southern Railway (today’s popular BeltLine trail). In 1957, Mayor Hartsfield reflected on the chaos from 40 years prior. “…when trouble comes singly,” he said, “there are people and agencies to help us. But when calamity is wholesale, friends and neighbors are too occupied with their own troubles. It’s every man for himself.” Patrolling Hartsfield’s street and many others were a couple thousand troops who marched north from Fort McPherson, helping the city establish order while convening bucket brigades to dampen homes during the fire. “Fort Mac” was already at heightened activity, with the United States entering into The Great War just over one month before. Within about four hours of the initial response to the fire, the City of Atlanta declared martial law. Fire crews summoned from as far as Macon, Augusta, and Knoxville were on their way to help an overwhelmed Atlanta deal with the blaze. The decimation of numerous shanty homes, shotgun dwellings, and warehouses were one thing, but now, Mayor Candler and Fire Chief Cody were facing the prospect of even more conspicuous destruction. Picturesque Victorian mansions and estates lined North Avenue and Ponce de Leon Avenue near Jackson and Boulevard. Containing the blazes along the north-south thoroughfares limited the risk of the fire moving laterally outward, especially west toward downtown’s business district. But the northward spread of this fire not only threatened the homes of wealthier, prominent citizens, but could soon encroach the doorstep of Piedmont Park, the city’s expanding young jewel of urban greenspace in Midtown. THE PLAN Chief Cody devised a plan to establish a huge firebreak gulch, along Ponce de Leon Avenue and points south. But that scheme meant dynamiting some of the stateliest residences in the city. Mayor Candler (pictured above) did not simply concur. Without hesitation, the mayor personally traveled to DuPont Powder company on the west side of town to order the retrieval of explosives. Onlookers stood by as experts rushed to set up TNT in the mansions’ foyers, then gasped as affluent citizens’ houses were blown skyward, one by one, the aftershocks strong enough to shatter nearby windows. Hose operators scrambled to douse the remains of the leveled homes. Cody’s grand plan worked, to an extent. But a more significant role in ebbing the fire came by way of Mother Nature. Nearing sundown, the steady northward winds shifted south, moving the blaze back from Ponce toward the already smoldering Fourth Ward. The fire crept just a block beyond Ponce, about three blocks south of Piedmont Park, before slowing down. With help from arriving out-of-town units, crews were finally able to contain the Great Fire, ten hours after it began. Over 22 million gallons of water were expended to stem the blaze. THE AFTERMATH Ultimately, the Great Fire of Atlanta destroyed almost 2,000 buildings on 73 city blocks, over an expanse of 300 acres. The geographic scale is considered larger than the damage to the city more famously committed by Sherman’s Union army back in 1864, the damage to property comparable. Beyond the commercial impacts, the fire left over 10,000 of its citizens homeless, roughly a tenth of the city population. Standing like soldier trees, only brick chimneys remained where houses once sat. Fortunately, while many “Great Fires” of America’s past were very deadly, Atlanta’s 1917 disaster claimed just one reported human fatality. A lady residing on North Boulevard, it was reported, died from “shock” while witnessing the fire engulfing her home. The New York Times reported that just 60 citizens were treated at area hospitals with fire-related injuries. Evacuees camped out at Piedmont and other city parks, among those who could not find shelter with friends in other neighborhoods. Scattered family members turned to newspaper bulletins to search for lost loved ones. Volunteers throughout the Atlanta region descended upon downtown to assist in relief efforts, including a teenaged Margaret Mitchell, whose prior childhood home in Jackson Hill was destroyed by the Great Fire. Mitchell’s 1917 experiences likely shaped passages about refugees fleeing the Yankees in her classic novel, “Gone with the Wind.” THE LONG ROAD TO RECOVERY While the brutal fire did not intentionally discriminate among citizens, local leaders took pains to continue doing so during the aftermath. At the massive downtown Armory, according to Atlanta magazine, Black ministers were asked by the Red Cross to voluntarily vouch for African-American citizens requesting aid, as an attempt to verify their need, while no justification procedure was in place for others. Black citizens were eventually shuffled into the Armory through a side deliveries entrance, after complaints prompted the closure of the front entrance to only White citizens. A Blacks-only Red Cross station and dormitory for cots was convened at the Odd Fellows fraternity hall near Big Bethel on Auburn. Atlanta police, ostensibly citing a desire to curb looting, restricted access by “junk dealers and Negroes” to the scorched neighborhoods without a written permit. Demand for a municipal farmer’s market for produce and goods led to the establishment of a site in 1918 along Edgewood Avenue, at the time wildly successful due to its central location for shoppers from around the city. The Municipal Market expanded into a fireproof structure in 1924, but segregation rules permitted Black citizens to shop only along the curbside, not inside the market. The present-day name of the Sweet Auburn Curb Market, now fully indoors for everyone, reflects upon this era. (If you’ve seen the buddy-cop action film Ride Along, the scene where wannabe-cop Kevin Hart gets comically beat up by a deranged drunkard is inside the Curb Market). African-American residents were disproportionately harmed by the fire, not only due to the blaze itself, but from the vast denial of insurance coverage to help them rebuild. Alonzo Herndon’s Atlanta Mutual (later Atlanta Life Insurance Company, Black-owned) would grow to help local citizens fill in the void. Herndon and other black business leaders would help establish Auburn Avenue, as noted in Fortune magazine, as “the richest Negro street in the world,” and put “Sweet Auburn” on the map in the 1950s. Following years of experience with urban blazes, back in 1909 the National Board of Fire Underwriters had declared Atlanta as a “high conflagration hazard.” This, due to the high density of homes with wood frames and roofing shingles. It took a subsequent report in 1914 before the city took policy action. A 1916 city code was passed to mandate fire-resistant roofing materials (asbestos, or asphalt tiles) and replace all wooden shingles. The local lumber industry pressed the city leaders, and the January 1917 enactment of the code was deferred to July of that year. The underwriters also advised the city to upgrade its increasingly outdated fire safety equipment, particularly hydrants with fittings incompatible with modern fire hoses. With the underwriters’ warnings coming to fruition, a hastily-convened City Council voted to begin enforcing the housing ordinance by the end of May 1917, ten days after the Great Fire. It was also the beginning of the end for horse-drawn fire trucks, the once-begrudging city becoming fully motorized within a year of the Great Fire. While residences were slow to rebuild, commercial enterprises began to take shape in the decades following the fire. Notably, Atlanta’s Scripto company (mechanical pencils, pens, lighters) constructed its first factory along Jackson Street. Relocating from downtown, Georgia Baptist Hospital (today’s Atlanta Medical Center) built a new campus between Boulevard and Jackson, just north of the Scripto plant. Where the woods and an amusement park along Ponce de Leon once lay, atop natural springs that inspired the street’s name, Sears Roebuck constructed the largest standing brick structure in the Southeast U.S. for its retail store and warehouse, just across the railway from the new Ford Motor Company “Model T” assembly plant. The mansions (and their resident owners) never returned. The large fire-scoured properties became more valuable as retail and apartment dwellings, many federally-subsidized to house much of the city’s ballooning population, particularly after the Great War, the Depression, and World War II. Great effort by city leaders went into enforcing residential and educational segregation in the slowly rebuilding area. Large plots of land remained undeveloped for generations, a factor which served the city’s federally-backed urban redevelopment plans well in the postwar periods. THE LATER YEARS The Downtown Connector, merging Interstates 75 and 85, sliced through the heart of Sweet Auburn, hastening the once-prospering Black community’s economic decline from the 1960s onward. Later, efforts to construct an I-485 freeway from downtown to DeKalb County could not be thwarted by more well-heeled citizens before GDOT acquired and cleared more residential properties, destabilizing the Fourth Ward community further. The lower-scaled Freedom Parkway and the Carter Presidential Library stands in I-485’s place. The Fourth Ward area suffered from not only White flight, as citizens with the means to move flocked to booming suburbs near and beyond the I-285 perimeter roadway, but Black flight, as its segregated middle-class moved into new single-family homes designed for them on the west side of town, beginning in the 1950s. The neighborhood population dwindled by two-thirds in the next three decades. Those who remained lived largely amid poverty and high drug-fueled crime through the 2000s. The stories of rough Fourth Ward upbringings would eventually inspire the lyrical talents of prominent Atlanta trap-era rappers, most notably Young Jeezy, Pill, 21 Savage, Reese, and Dae Dae. Urban redevelopment clearance helped the city establish new civic projects on the east side of downtown, displacing residents in what had become the segregated Buttermilk Bottom slum of northeast Fourth Ward (Mayor Hartsfield pictured in the 1959 LIFE magazine pic above, before a soon-to-be-displaced apartment). Projects in the city-renamed “Bedford-Pine” neighborhood included the Atlanta Civic Center, headquarters for Georgia Power Company, and the colorful but quickly-failed open-air Rio Mall. In the decades that followed MLK Jr.’s 1968 assassination, a national historic district was established in the area around the rebuilt Ebenezer Baptist and his birth home. Coretta Scott King and family would expand the Center for Nonviolent Social Change within the historic site that, today, features Dr. and Mrs. King’s tomb on Auburn Avenue. The area struggled with environmental neglect as well, particularly flooding of excess runoff from Atlanta’s long-outmoded combined sewers (stormwater, domestic sanitary sewage, and industrial wastewater altogether, overflowing into the area during heavy rains). After many years of lawsuits, a federal court-mandated decree resulted in the city constructing a detention pond that now serves as the centerpiece to Historic Fourth Ward Park. A popular site for intown festivals, the park sits across from the old Sears Roebuck building, and is just one showpiece in what is today a vastly gentrifying area. Sears vacated its premises back in the 1980s, but the hulking building is the site of new offices, residences, and Ponce City Market, an upscale food hall with retail shops that opened in 2014. The old Southern Railway adjacent to the Sears building is now the BeltLine eastside trail. Meanwhile, the Ford assembly plant across the trail from Sears became a military storage depot during WWII, and residential lofts in the 1980s. The BeltLine connects bicyclists, pedestrians and joggers not only north from there to Piedmont Park, but south alongside the Fourth Ward to another wildly popular food hall, the recently renovated Krog Street Market. Redevelopment is slower in the areas where the fire first began to spread, but the Edgewood Avenue corridor has become a mecca for urban nightlife in the ATL, while Georgia State University has established its student residential areas squarely within both Edgewood (near the Curb Market) and the adjacent Sweet Auburn district. THE SIGNIFICANCE Risky but swift thinking and action from Atlanta’s leaders may have kept the Great Fire of 1917 from becoming a calamity of far more disastrous proportions. Without additional assistance from the military and fire units converging from across the Southeast, the city still rebuilding from the Civil War might have suffered an economic blow from which it would never recover. Further, the life trajectories of some of Atlanta’s most famous citizens might have been altered significantly. Improvements to American building safety codes, and enhancements to firefighting equipment and infrastructure, were incremental and often contested, but undoubtedly effective in the long run. Atlanta would later be the site of the nation’s deadliest-ever hotel fire, downtown’s so-called “fireproof” Winecoff Hotel, in 1946, ushering in even greater urgency for public policy action. But it would not be until the Oakland Hills brush fires of 1991 in California before the United States would experience non-explosive urban fire damage of a geographic magnitude like Atlanta’s 1917 fire. The area’s continuing evolution is a product of the city’s convoluted, haphazard, but familiar resurgence from major disasters, and a reflection of decades of shifts in American urban development policy. THE COMMEMORATION Voted the city’s “Best New Festival” by Atlanta magazine in 2015, “Fire in the 4th” will be convened by the Old 4th Ward Business Association for the third consecutive year on Saturday, May 20, from 3 pm to 11 pm. Free attendance for all ages, the “FIT4” festival features fire installations (they had me at “Fire Skeeball”), fire theatre, historic presentations, food trucks, local craft brews and spirits, and live art and music performances along Auburn and Edgewood Avenues. Also on Saturday beginning at 1:30 pm, there will be a two-hour “bike tour” benefit for the “O4W” business association, visiting sites throughout the area impacted by the Great Fire and subsequent revitalization. Links: “Fire in the 4th” festival by the Old 4th Ward Business Association… http://www.fireinthe4th.com Recent Atlanta magazine articles on the Great Fire… http://www.atlantamagazine.com/great-reads/second-burning-atlanta/ http://www.atlantamagazine.com/history/this-week-in-atlanta-history-the-great-fire-o/ http://www.creativeloafing.com/news/article/13047196/unhappy-anniversary-great-atlanta-fire-of-1917 Sweet Auburn Curb Market History… http://thecurbmarket.com/about/yesterday/ Historic Fourth Ward Park… http://www.atlantawatershed.org/projects/historic-old-fourth-ward-detention-pond/ http://www.h4wpc.com/faq.htm Frank B. Davenport photography and other photos from the 1917 fire and aftermath (via Atlanta History Center)… http://album.atlantahistorycenter.com/cdm/landingpage/collection/davenport http://album.atlantahistorycenter.com/cdm/ref/collection/athpc/id/2135 ~lw3

Explaining to common fans that Dallas selecting first-rounder Evelyn Akhator was not a reach, Connecticut Sun coach Curt Miller wryly noted after the WNBA Draft that coaches valued the center, “a lot differently than people sitting in their basement on the web.” Having rankled more than a few WNBA fans with that comment, Miller added a dash of pressure upon his own shoulders to get Connecticut, hosts for the Atlanta Dream in today's WNBA season opener (7 PM Eastern, WNBA League Pass only), out of the basement themselves. After going 25-9 and sitting on top of the East back in 2012, the Sun dumped coach Mike Thibault (now comfortably running the show in Washington) and later traded former league MVP Tina Charles. Connecticut finished last in the WNBA East in 2013, 2014, and 2015. In Miller’s first season as coach, the Sun finished just one game ahead of the Mystics. While her sister Nneka would become the reigning MVP, Chiney Ogwumike has struggled to stay healthy. She played under a minutes restriction in 2016, but her recovery from an overseas Achilles tear has her out for all of 2017, as was the case in 2015. This roster, however, is better equipped to handle Chiney’s absence. A hot name for a star breakout is forward-center Jonquel Jones, who finished last season first in O-Reb% (an ideal opening challenge for Atlanta’s Elizabeth Williams and Sancho Lyttle) while also finishing second in block percentage, as a rookie. Miller will be turning to Jones (56.6 eFG% in 2016, 10th in WNBA) for much more than the 14.1 minutes per game she received last season. Atlanta can get their road record off to a good start if they can find a way to keep former Dream guards Alex Bentley (team-high 12.9 PPG last year) and Jasmine Thomas (team-high 5.1 APG, 2nd in WNBA) offensively benign. Minimizing dribble penetration and open shots by this duo puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the Sun cast to create their own offense. Connecticut finished 9th out of 12 teams in assists even with Jasz on board. Bria Holmes will be challenged to keep the ball out of the hands of forward Alyssa Thomas at the ends of the shot clock. Connecticut shot the ball poorly from outside in 2016, so they’ll look for more perimeter help from backups like second-year guard Rachel Banham, third-year forward Jordan Hooper (who teamed with Atlanta’s Brianna Kiesel off the bench in Dallas), and veteran stretch-big Danielle Adams to catch up. Having Adams and former Fever pivot Lynetta Kizer (career-high 9.8 PPG in 2016; 9th in WNBA with 55.8 2FG%) in the fold takes pressure off rookie Brionna Jones from needing to be an impact player from the jump. With the ball frequently in the hands of Layshia Clarendon and Tiffany Hayes, the Dream have to put the Sun guards to work defensively, and avoid sloppy turnovers by forcing plays that aren’t there to make. When these teams last met in August, Angel McCoughtry (19 points) got adequate support from Clarendon (19, 6 rebounds), Hayes (17 points, 7 boards, 3 steals), and Williams (16 points, 9 boards) in the Dream’s 87-73 home win. They prevailed without Lyttle, whose last double-digit scoring effort came against the Sun (17 points, season-high 14 rebounds, incl. 7 O-Rebs) in a 67-63 July road victory, before struggling the rest of the way with injury. Without Angel, but with Sancho, a similarly balanced effort on both ends of the floor could get the orange-and-white ball rolling smoothly for Atlanta. Let’s Go Dream! ~lw3

Not a huge fan of "Free" "Trials" that you sign-up for, but for those interested, the first five days of WNBA Tip-Off week will be free to access on WNBA League Pass. That trial includes the season-opener against the Sun, not the one against the Sky next Friday (May 19). For those paying for the service, WNBA League Pass will be available for every WNBA game that isn't nationally televised (i.e., games not on ESPN/NBATV) and isn't livestreamed via Twitter. ~lw3

Final cuts are due by 5 pm Eastern today. While teams are allowed to field just 11 players, Coach Coop seems satisfied he's got his Dreamy Dozen in place, ahead of Saturday's game up in the Nutmeg State: ~lw3

Okay, it seems as if the WNBA GMs can vote for their own teams, perhaps? ("8%" is one voter) If that ain't it, then there's gotta be some quid pro quo going on: "Hey, I'll vote for your gal/guy/team if you vote for mine!" Anyway, there's more GM love for Tip Hayes, Damiris Dantas, and Elizabeth Williams here: http://www.wnba.com/news/2017-gm-survey-best-players-coaches/ ~lw3