LongTimeFan

I've been a non-profit fundraising professional for more than 30 years (Children's Healthcare in Atlanta, Boys & Girls Clubs of Atlanta, and Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Reinhardt University, etc.). When someone makes a donation, they can get a income tax reduction equal to their tax bracket. For example, someone like Trae, who will be in the highest tax bracket, if he donates $10,000, that will only "cost" him about $6,500. He still made a donation of $6,500 any way you cut it. There are other conditions (you can only use charitable deductions up to 50% of your gross income, etc.), but people who donate money, even if part of the motivation is a tax "write-off," are still paying out of their pocket for most of the donation, except in rare, complex situations.

Getting a CPAP in a couple weeks after years of being too lazy and too macho to bother. Should have considered my wife's feelings sooner ...and my life.

Being at the game last night, here are a few observations my son and I have ... Len was unconvincing as a starting caliber center. Hands of stone, no ability to get above the rim (which caused missed rebounds, despite the dozen or so he got which were mainly his own misses it seemed), no feel around the rim causing many missed easy shots, seemingly lost on defense. Jones and Bruno were really no better. How Bruno could be so ineffective on defense was confusing. Lots of quickness and energy, but just scattered around the court without a clue. He may just be raw and needs a LOT more time than I thought. Jones was just a hulking presence who did little to impress. Goodwin has lots of energy and speed as the backup point guard. Unfortunately, despite getting a bunch of garbage points very late in the game, he was not an offensive presence at all. Almost no assists because he picks up his dribble almost as soon as he crosses midcourt and hands the ball off to someone by the three point line. He eventually started to penetrate into the lane more and looked good doing it. Needed to establish that earlier so he may be a keeper. He was, honestly, one of the better performers of the night. Bembry reminded me of prime Bazemore last night. Tons of energy, excellent defensive efforts, talking on defense to his teammates constantly (as does Vince!), but the mania of activity didn't translate well into actual help in some ways, especially offensively. Trae was a joy to watch. Gets everyone involved, talks professionally to the refs when appropriate, motivates his teammates on the floor to be ever alert for a pass (or a rebound!), and was effective defensively in many ways. He is gonna' get the crap beat out of him this year, however, as there were two defenders on him the whole night before he even got to the half-court line each possession. Poor guy is in for some beatings. Hunter is smooth, strong as hell, much better offensively than I had projected, and very aware of all around him defensively. A real asset as the team continues the rebuild. Siebert looked smooth, shot well, active defensively. Don't know if there is room for him on the roster, but he should be in the league for sure. Jabari was a beast inside. Pretty much unstoppable. He will fill it up on the second unit each night. Nice acquisition. Evan Turner was a non-entity. Did nothing to showcase his point guard abilities. Slow dribble up the court and hand it off to the first guy he sees. Offensively he was not engaged much. Seemed to have good veteran awareness on defense. That's all I got. Fun night. P.S. Gray Mule ... was thinking of you all night as we missed one free throw after another. Especially when, toward the end of the game, a local hot dog place had a promotion that if the next Hawks player missed two free throws in a row, everyone got a free hot dog. Lo and behold, Len steps to the line and clunks two in a row off the rim. I was a bit happy. Sorry fellow oldie!!

Travis Schlenck is at the game. Talked with him a minute and thanked him for his efforts thus far. Told him about Hawksquawk and he said they are aware of it and appreciate it.

Good seats! Let the rowdy fun begin. (Don't worry...I'll be classy for the ATL). 😁

I kinda' figured this would be a game where LP played the second string guys to see who he wanted to give minutes to during the season, so I knew it wouldn't be the starters. And the tickets are more reasonable during preseason ($150 each versus $300 each!) during the season.

I'll be at the game tonight, along with my son. We have seats near the Hawks bench. Wearing our Hawks gear. Should be fun getting heckled by the Bulls fans!!!

Back running like normal again.

Forgot about insurance. Thanks.

So ... several thoughts ... 1. If KD opts in to his GSW contract (reasonable assumption) 2. And surmising that he almost certainly won't play next season (small gamble that he might be able to return in March or April) and thus then becomes an unrestricted free agent after the season 3. Should we trade for him (since we can absorb his salary by giving back someone like Plumlee or Bazemore), in exchange for an asset? 4. He could stay with the GSW team rehab folks if he wants to and then resign with GSW or whomever he wants. 5. GSW gets quite a bit of monetary relief through this deal, because of their repeater tax penalties. 6. We can actually agree to waive KD so he can play for whomever he wants to if he is healthy enough prior to the end of next season.

It's how I found out the Squawk was back too. Thanks for the mention of it.

I used to be very good friends with the owner of Atlanta Coca-Cola Bottling and also with some the major players at Coke through my work raising funds for non-profit organizations in Atlanta (Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Children's Healthcare, Reinhardt University, etc.). We also found it difficult to get money from Coke because their answer was always "We don't want to be perceived as a 'local' company by sponsoring local organizations. We want to be seen as a national and international company, so we try to sponsor things that are bigger than just supporting Atlanta teams or organizations."

It's undoubtedly the Russians ...

At the game in Chicago with my two sons. One son moved here from Atlanta recently, as I did ten years ago. Other son is in town from D.C. We're on the center line, five rows back. Literally hundreds of Atlanta fans are here. Brad Guzan is from Chicago. Go Five Stripes (we're all wearing our jerseys)!!

I grew up in Chicago and had a brother who worked at Loyola. Always helps to pick a few potential upsets, so I just went with the heart on this one. Longtimefan.