Do you want Al Harrington back??

[Lascar78]

Who have you been working for covering the hawks for 2 years? Surely dub magazine doesn't have a hawks correspondent. Also, where was your last published article?

[Johnnybravo4]

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Who have you been working for covering the hawks for 2 years? Surely dub magazine doesn't have a hawks correspondent. Also, where was your last published article?

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Maybe it's Rashan Ali. Being the official Sideline Ho for the Hawks TV doesn't make you a beat writer..LMAO

[ATLBob]

The locker room talk is truly fascinating and all, but can we cut the crap. Everyone knows that women use both sides of their brain, so Princess' mere presence on here prolly makes us all smarter. Let's not chase her away just yet ...

Princess, no one is trying to dehumanizine Al on this forum. Our main interest lies in how Al continues to fit on our team from a strictly basketball perspective. Most of us, I believe, are truly grateful for his contributions and continue to cheer for him.

Also, while many of us may act like we know more than we do at times, we wouldn't be on this forum unless we were interested in gathering alternate opinions and synthesizing them en route to becoming more informed fans. So, on that note, thanks for sharing your info on Al.

[Lascar78]

that chick has crazy hair though!

[Lascar78]

well at first I was fine with her and assumed she was for real, but the more she keeps gloating about locker room access and talking to the guys, the more I think she's either lying or somebody who got access once or twice. People who follow teams usually get over it pretty fast. Did you ever see jaywalker acting like it was a huge deal that he talked to people? Of course not because they're just regular people. This girl seems to be idolizing Al and super excited / show offish about talking to the players, which seems more like a fan that got a chance or two to talk to the players.

But either way I'm certainly not trying to chase her off, just trying to see what's going on here. She certainly could be for real, or could be a bored hotlanta.

[ATLBob]

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Al is the most expendable of our forwards.

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Why? Because his offense is developed and he's not 19? Any of our other forwards would wish that they could have just 1/2 of the offensive ability that Al has. Hopefully you mean that his contract makes him "expendable" but that's not really something that we can judge because we don't know how the negotiations will go... but if you're talking from strickly a basketball perspecitive, Al is the one Forward that we can't afford to lose.

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Yeah, you assume correctly Diesel. Al is WAY ahead of our other forwards at the moment, especially offensively.

His contract, though, is over. He's 26. This is prolly his only realistic chance for a big payday, unless he decides to sign a short-term contract in an attempt to increase his value/wait for a more profitable off-season. He will command a large salary.

In addition, as I'm sure clearly surfaces in my few posts to this point, I'm very committed to our three young forwards, (Smooth, Marvin, and Chill) all of whom I like, and all of whom can and do play somewhat interchangeably. (Damn, I'm starting to sound like BK).

Also, on a personal note, after watching him this past season, I feel (intangibly, I can't really cite specifics) that he may have reached a bit of a ceiling as far as his development goes, and I never really thought he bought into his role on this team. I just never saw the commitment night in and night out, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Does he truly want to be great, and more importantly, does he truly want the Hawks to play for and win a championship? If we resign him, he will continue to be one of the most productive parts of this team. Thus, if we don't keep him, I don't want to lose him for nothing. That's our dilemna.

Ideally, I would love to resign Al, and eventually (ie, not this year) ease him back into a sixth man role with a large chunk of PT. That plan doesn't appeal to him, I'm fairly sure. Plus, his salary demands will make such a plan financially imprudent.

So I guess the long and short of it is that I'm still torn ...

[gsuteke]

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Again dude I've covered the Hawks for 2 years. Locker room access, dude.

That's why a lot of these athlete's don't fool with the media now, and they think the media aint

S@#!

becuase they're un-human. I give the info on the human side of the athlete, the reality. If you guys really knew basketball you would know that it's more than being a good player. It's so many more layers than that.

Yes, I am a fan. I'm a fan of basketball period. I gre up round it. If we were talking bout Zach Randolph, I'd give the same passion. If were were talking bout Tim Thomas, Bell (charlie, raja, Memphis State, LSU I'd give the same passion. You gotta be a fan 1st to cover any sport in the industry. Don't judge my passion because Al was the only topic that I've been addresses with. I just tried to give yall insight on the man and yall want to be know it all's.

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i think this may be KayBee's alter ego. perhaps he/she was the person that supposedly knew that person KayBee got caught lying about.

[Diesel]

Bob,

While you are committed to our young forwards, you have to also realize that you should be willing to hold them to the same standard that you hold Al to...

Namely:

I Does he truly want to be great, and more importantly, does he truly want the Hawks to play for and win a championship?

I think that if you really watch Al, he does whatever is neccessary for the Hawks. A lot has been made of his defense.. His defense is not stellar but at the same time, i totally disagree with those who say he has no desire to play defense. Who was it who was matched up with Vince Carter on the last play of the NJ game that we won? Who was it that defended JO in the Indy game? We can go on a while.. but the point is that to question his desire is totally off the mark.

About his offense, none of our forwards can match it nor do they have the desire seemingly to learn to play in the post.

[ATLBob]

Point taken. I'm giving them more leeway b/c they are much younger and inexperienced, and thus more apt to be less mature with less developmental time. This MAY not be a fair, or even productive approach. Then again, it may. My entire argument rests on these two youngsters being better in 3-4 yrs than Al is now. They may never achieve that. I happen to think that they will. All continue to show steady improvement. Feel free to disagree. (I removed Chill b/c, why he can play SF, he should not play any PF. The other three are all SFs that can either play some PF now (Al, to a much lesser extent JS, or have to the frame and work ethic to develop some PF skills (JS and MW).

Of course Al was guarding the opponents best wing options last year. He was the closest thing to a veteran leader we had (Apart from Lue or Delk. I'm glad they weren't guarding J.O.). I think it's clear that I like Al. Of course he's better right now. He's been in the league since HS, and he's 26. He's a bigger, stronger, and more experienced man. But if I could only commit to a 2-3 forwards long term for the health of the franchise and in pursuit of a championship, Al unfortunately would be my odd man out, because while we all want to win more next year, which we will, the caliber team I hope to build will not surface for several years. I'd like for Al to be around, but not if that entails losing Smooth or Marvin. Again, feel free to disagree.

[BBallPrincess]

I've already answered that question in my past posts. If you weren't so busy being upset that you are not the only one with info you would have realized that!

[BBallPrincess]

I agree with the hopes that our youngins will prove to be better that Al, but in order for that to happen we would have to bring in a veteran to teach these young forwards how to be a dominating force.

Also in INDY all was never that 1-2 go to guy, he was behind O'Neal's shadow. It was O'Neal's team. When Al came here he had the chance to be that guy, but didn't have the nucleus to prove successful.

Don't forget that we have to build a team that can contend with the beast's in the east. we have to get bigger and more powerful

[Lascar78]

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I've already answered that question in my past posts. If you weren't so busy being upset that you are not the only one with info you would have realized that!

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This pretty much tells me that you're a gimmick. Probably Johnny Bravo, maybe KB or hotlanta or Diesel. Where's Chillz?

If you're really a reporter, it shouldn't be a problem for you to say who you've worked for for the past 2 years, or where your last published article is.

So I'll assume you're just lying unless you can answer

[BBallPrincess]

Thats fine, I don't have any problems with that. You don't make me or break me, baby. If your a season ticket holder I'm sure we will bump heads one day. Ask the Hawks beat writer bout me.

[Lascar78]

hahaha, an established reporter would not continually dodge the question of who you work for while bragging about being a reporter. First you say you've already said who you work for, now you dodge the question.

Ok

[drzachary]

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hahaha, an established reporter would not continually dodge the question of who you work for while bragging about being a reporter. First you say you've already said who you work for, now you dodge the question.

Ok

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Maybe you just can't handle the truth, Lascar. Maybe Diesel is really a woman, really a reporter, and that's how he gets the info for all his incredibly accurate trade scenarios?

[Blunt91]

Lascar why are you & Dolfan being so rude? If you don't believe what she is saying then ignore her, but don't keep bashing her when she is trying to give some insight to the people that do want to know. Another question if she was one of the girls off of the dance team who was telling us info about the Hawks would you call her a liar then? No one is going to tell you everything about their job and what they do.

[DrReality]

My hnch was its Diesel? Go figure.

[BBallPrincess]

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hahaha, an established reporter would not continually dodge the question of who you work for while bragging about being a reporter. First you say you've already said who you work for, now you dodge the question.

Ok

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Who's bragging? You and others are the ones who keeps badgering me about it. I don't have to brag sweetie. It is what it is. Do you and I'll do me. Just don't reply to anything I say, or read any of my post. It's all good luv. Besides a princess doesn't deal with peasants anyway!

To be honest I really said to much. This is not the only forum I deal with. I will be giving out info that a regular reporter or a beat writer wouldn't give out. When folks on here have questions that they are not getting the answer's to cuz the ajc beatwriter can't give, I'll be the one during the season that will go seek out the answers.

So I call it, being politicaly bound to continue having access. If I fall into your antics, other folks on this forum who actually appreciate someone who has insider info would suffer.

Stay blessed!

[gsuteke]

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hahaha, an established reporter would not continually dodge the question of who you work for while bragging about being a reporter. First you say you've already said who you work for, now you dodge the question.

Ok

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don't feed the trolls Lascar

[mudderfudder77]

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Who's bragging? You and others are the ones who keeps badgering me about it. I don't have to brag sweetie. It is what it is. Do you and I'll do me. Just don't reply to anything I say, or read any of my post. It's all good luv. Besides a princess doesn't deal with peasants anyway!

To be honest I really said to much. This is not the only forum I deal with. I will be giving out info that a regular reporter or a beat writer wouldn't give out. When folks on here have questions that they are not getting the answer's to cuz the ajc beatwriter can't give, I'll be the one during the season that will go seek out the answers.

So I call it, being politicaly bound to continue having access. If I fall into your antics, other folks on this forum who actually appreciate someone who has insider info would suffer.

Stay blessed!

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This is classic - how many reporters you know that go onto message boards, loudly announce who they are and what they do, and then tease with promises of "exclusive access".

I've got a few guys I talk with from SI who are on the Real GM board pretty regularly, and I couldn't imagine them coming onto a board and acting the way you do. You sound more like some sort of admin assistant who got to write a couple of fluff pieces as a favor from your editor boss.