Snaggle

Why do you say CC is startin on the IR? I talked with his wife, Stacy, last Thursday and she said he was starting to run, do drills, and they checked the fluid in the knee (however in hell they do that) and everything looked really good. He definitely feels like he needs more conditioning. She didn't say anything about the IR. Just said they were going to bring him on slow. Watch for him to play limited minutes in regular season games.

Nope. CC will be an active player. If you know anything about Chris you know that he will not sit on the bench any longer than necessary. He may not get a lot of playing time in the beginning but he will not be on the IR as long as we have a healthy squad. There's good and bad in this. The good is that he pushes his body to the limit, the bad part is he doesn't know when to accept his body's limitations.

I hear that DIRECTV is at the end of their contract carrying the NBA games. I tried to add the NBA package to my account and I was told it was too early. I live in the north and many people have been billed the first installment of the NHL package but nothing for the NBA. I don't know the details. Can anyone help me understand what's going on? I live for Hawks games and get to see very few in Atlanta. It would really suck to not see the games. HELP!

Crawford says he will be ready when camp opens. If you know anything about Chris then you shouldn't doubt his determination to play.

CC probably won't be on the IR at the beginning of the season. He is working out daily and may not be 100 percent but will be ready to play.

We were a guest of one of the players 2 years ago. We were in the tunnel and got many autographs on a Hawks practice jersey. In Detroit also.

I found this in a Kalamazoo Michigan newspaper. It explains how he got to the bridge. » More From The Kalamazoo Gazette Top Stories Ionia buzzing with talk of Duckett incident Wednesday, July 31, 2002 BY RYAN MOLONEY KALAMAZOO GAZETTE IONIA -- Despite rumors circulating about the assault of Atlanta Falcons' first-round draft pick T.J. Duckett at the Ionia County Fairgrounds last week, Ionia County Sheriff Dwain Dennis is sticking to the facts his department uncovered in the days following the incident. As he was leaving a rap concert featuring Cornell "Nelly" Haynes Jr. at around 11:30 p.m. July 23, Duckett was attacked on the footbridge that links the fairgrounds to a parking lot in a large, tree-encapsulated field. Three intoxicated white men in their early 20s allegedly blocked Duckett's path on the bridge, used a racial slur and struck Duckett on the mouth with a bottle. Duckett fought off the men and called police. "This is our best information about what happened," Dennis said. Dennis and Ionia County Prosecutor Gail Benda met with Duckett on Tuesday in Kalamazoo -- where Duckett was a football star at Loy Norrix High School -- to get an official statement about the incident. Duckett's account matched the accounts of two other witnesses that the department interviewed in the days after the incident. Duckett has yet to make a public statement about the incident. Efforts to reach Duckett in Kalamazoo were unsuccessful. According to Dennis, all three suspects live in the city of Ionia. Dennis wouldn't say whether the men have records but did say "we're familiar with them." Last week, Duckett's aunt June Smith told the Gazette that one of the suspects yelled, "Let's throw the n----- from the bridge." Witnesses confirmed hearing the remark. "That comment is consistent with what we've heard," Dennis said. Smith also said that Duckett was struck from behind with a bottle. Dennis said the suspect who hit Duckett with the bottle attacked him from the front. A small city tucked away seven miles from I-96 and the halfway point between Grand Rapids and Lansing, Ionia doesn't receive much in the way of the media attention like that currently surrounding the incident. It is known for the correctional facilities that surround the downtown area. Whispers of what happened July 23 continue to course around the modest business facades and residential porches of the town's main street. Molly Montgomery, 25, didn't see the fight involving Duckett, but she said there was a lot of rowdy activity in the stands that night during the rap concert. "There were lots of fights, and cops were arresting people," Montgomery said, "Nelly came on about an hour-and-a-half late, and people were upset." Montgomery described the hostile situations at the concert as a trademark of a group of adults in their early 20s who live in the town. "The bars always have fights in this town," she said. "There are always a lot of fights." After separating from three of his friends to go find his parents, James Purkey, 13, found himself waiting to get on the footbridge to see whether they were looking for him in the parking lot across the water. Suddenly word of a fight spread through the crowd. "People were ... and running across the bridge to see it," James said. When he ran over the bridge to check out the scene, James said, there were almost 100 people standing around, some trying to get past the crowd to their cars, some watching a fight that had streamed into the field parking lot. "It was like a mosh pit," he said. "Everybody was fighting everybody." After what he estimates as "five or 10 minutes," James left the scene. "I didn't want to get hurt," James said, "people were pulling each other apart and trying to get at each other" in the lot. Cherie Van Houten, an employee at the liquor store down the street from the parking lot, said the concert itself attracted many unsavory elements to the area. "I heard there were a lot of drugs and marijuana brought into the concert," she said. One woman who declined to use her name said she knew the three suspects and that one had been arrested in connection with the fight. She also said two of three suspects are African-American. Dennis said that no arrests been made. A sheriff's deputy questioned one of the suspects in the days following the incident, but decided not to arrest him. "The deputy decided to confer with the prosecuting attorney," Dennis said. In response to the rumor about two of the suspects being African-American, Dennis said: "I don't know where that came from." At this point, no warrants have been issued to arrest the three suspects. Dennis said he is hoping to interview a few more witnesses and would like to make arrests by the end of the week. "We want to be thorough," Dennis said, adding that many assault cases take more than a week of investigation before an arrest is made. Duckett plans to press charges, according to his brother Tico. T.J. Duckett has assured Dennis that if and when he signs with the Falcons, he will schedule a way through the NFL to attend court hearings. Duckett and the Falcons have yet to settle on a contract. Meanwhile, as the town awaits to see three of its own handcuffed, the rumors persist. "When it first happened I heard that the fight had gone on for an hour," Dennis said, "I doubt even Muhammad Ali could have fought for an hour."

I posted that Leon hadn't shown up for practices. Coming from a players' mom I believe it to be true. In fact the way I heard it was that there were several occasions where this happened. They would bang and bang on his door. Either he didn't answer or he would walk out on his balcony and say something to the affect that "I'm sick, man." I believe she even went so far as to say that coaches had tried also.

I now live in the north and lived near where this player grew up. I get inside information every now and then. I have been to Phillips arena. I fact we went with this player so we parked in the player garage, through the players' entrance and hung out in the tunnel before and after the games. My kids got lots of autographs and my daughter was a High Five Kid before the game and sat on the bench next to Deke.

I heard it from one of the other Hawk player's mom. Can't tell you who it is or she would get pissed and never tell me anything again and I wouldn't be able to pass it on here.

Leon won't be on the roster this season. He doesn't show up for workouts even when someone goes to his apartment to haul his sorry butt out of bed. It's sad because the guy has potential.

I heard earlier this summer that Leon wasn't showing up for workouts that were setup for his development. I doubt that he'll be on the roster this year. He's got a lot of talent but his work ethic sucks! .