I'm not sure this article got posted

[Guest]

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/c...cker/index.html

David McDavid is excited about a phone call he got recently.

"Nellie called the other day and said out of the blue, 'I love your team,' " McDavid says, Nellie being Dallas Mavericks coach and general manager Don Nelson, and the team being the Hawks, still AOL's but apparently soon to be McDavid's.

"Nellie said, 'You're one player away, maybe two, from really being something,' " McDavid goes on. "That was an unsolicited thing that made me feel good, because Nellie is critical. He doesn't have a reputation for calling you up and saying something just to make you feel good."

Now, I know what you're thinking: The one or two players Nellie had in mind must have been Tim Duncan and/or Jason Kidd.

But Nelson's scouting report isn't really the point.

The point is . . . McDavid sounds excited and rarin' to go.

His eight-month effort to acquire the Hawks, Thrashers and Philips Arena operating rights from AOL Time Warner is close to completion, according to both him and AOL, and McDavid seems increasingly eager to make the transition from buyer to owner.

"We think it's going to be an awful lot of fun," he says. But he also knows there is an awful lot of work to do, particularly with the Hawks, and he knows he'll be behind from the moment he takes over.

The Hawks have openings for a coach and a general manager, and while their ownership has been in limbo, other teams have been filling such positions. McDavid isn't new to the business of hiring NBA coaches and GMs -- as a minority owner of the Mavericks, he was instrumental in hiring Nelson as GM in 1997 -- but he declines to discuss the Hawks' openings because, well, he's not the owner yet.

YOUR TURN

Which rotation would you prefer for the Braves?

Current: Maddux, Hampton, Ortiz, Ramirez, Reynolds 63% 389

Ex-Braves: Millwood, Glavine, Moss, Schmidt, Perez 37% 225

Total Votes 614

Seems obvious, though, that the sale has dragged out so long that the window is closing, if not shut, on a new owner being able to make dramatic, high-profile hires of a GM and coach before the 2003-2004 season.

"I'm afraid to go there," McDavid says, "but I think that's probably an accurate statement."

He reiterates what he said as far back as May 1, the day after he signed a letter of intent to buy the teams: "We're not ruling out the people who are there," meaning interim coach Terry Stotts and director of basketball operations Billy Knight, among others.

McDavid had a recent conversation with Stotts, although McDavid says: "I just happened to talk to him accidentally, briefly, not really about anything."

This is an awkward point in the process, a point at which the would-be owner can talk more freely about the Hawks with Nelson than with Stotts.

We'll be brief . . .

OK, for those keeping score, here are the remaining major steps in the sale of the teams: 1. Lawyers for AOL and McDavid must complete negotiations on a definitive final agreement, which McDavid said late last week could happen "as early as the first of July, or . . . mid-July, but I think . . . very quickly." 2. The NBA and NHL must approve the sale. 3. The closing. (After step 2, McDavid or his representatives can become involved in the teams' operation.)

McDavid posed this question recently: "How hard do you think it'll be to get the fans back?" Coincidentally, someone asked roughly the same question of Hawks president Stan Kasten at a pre-draft news conference Monday. "If we've learned nothing else from the Braves and Falcons," Kasten answered, "what we've learned is how fast things can turn around [in Atlanta]. Whatever you perceive the image of the [Hawks] franchise to be, it's not lower than the Braves in the late '80s and the Falcons until very recently."

Here's Knight on the player who will be drafted 20 spots ahead of the Hawks' pick at No. 21: "LeBron [James] is a fantastic talent. . . . You never know if a guy is going to be all those things that are predicted on Netscape and the highlight shows . . . but he's got a lot of positives and a lot of intangibles to go along with his athleticism." Knight likes James' "competitive spirit."

Former Hawks star Lou Hudson, the franchise's first-round draft choice in 1966, was at Philips Arena on Monday. "Brought him here," Kasten said, "to show that some of our No. 1 picks worked out."

"Everybody I know in the NHL," McDavid said, "thinks the world of those three," referring to the Thrashers' Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk and coach Bob Hartley.

FYI: In the 20 years of the college all-sports standings, the only schools to finish in the top 10 every year are . . . Florida and UCLA.

And finally, a couple of interesting points in an e-mail from Braves fan Wade Malone: "Have you noticed Robert Fick has as many RBIs (41) as Chipper Jones, but in 58 fewer ABs? . . . Pretty good rotation of ex-Braves: Kevin Millwood, Tom Glavine, Damian Moss, Jason Schmidt and Odalis Perez.""

The funny thing is that it says Terry and McDavid spoke...

Then Stotts shows up in a interview for the Philly job...

hmm.....Doesn't sound like Stotts is the longterm plan

to me.

[TheDude]

good post...

you make a good point...hope they at least keep billy knight...

at first i liked what nellie said then i thought, "what team ISN'T one or two players from being good?"

please let the sell go thru soon..please