Tito Horford: "There wasn’t as much motivation for him when he saw all the empty seats when they were winning"

[BootlegBenny]

I know that is his son but boy is Tito delusional.  A huge huge loss? Get real. A huge loss was when Lebron left Cleveland or when the Spurs loss David Robinson which resulted in them landing Tim Duncan in 97.  Losing Alfred is not going to result in this team becoming the Nets or the 76ers of the last few years.  While I am not a big fan of Dwight he is still in his current state a better rebounder than Alfred was, is or will ever be.  

[nitte]

Last time a FA (Josh Smith) leaving our team trashed the fan base and the organization, it didn't end up well for him.

[buzzerbeater4three]

Look, AL told his father the lack of fan support was the reason for his decision because that's all he could think of to soften the blow.  I can only speak for myself with this news. I can not make it to the games so I support the Hawks from my couch watching the Television .  Whoever puts on that Hawks Uniform gets my support....Horf is getting a big boo from me and I hope he feels uncomfortable when he comes to Philips Arena.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

4 hours ago, Bonkers said:

And once again Bonkers was RIGHT!!!!!!!!

 

I told everyone we don't need his soft ass. For those that wanted him here u feel like a moron huh lmao

LOL . . .  this dude.    Pops up out of nowhere.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

2 hours ago, Lurker said:

Al Horford is an elite glue guy.

Elite player? Not a chance. 

We're about to see if my dad's right again in sports, this time in one he's not had a lot of experience in watching (he's had enough though, and he understands the game). I'm not going to say what he's said, but he likely thinks subtracting Horford makes very little difference from what I've heard from him, and Teague makes a big difference (in his opinion).

And he's gotten thing completely right before, although football is what he's an expert in. He said that Gurley was special in his first collegiate game and Ryan is a very overrated pro QB.

Your dad will be partially right.

We can survive without Horford, because we replaced him with another competent big man on his level ( albeit with different skill sets )

He'll be wrong about Teague, because Dennis will take his game to the next level, just like Teague did when he finally got his shot.

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

I can agree with this.

But look at this from the player's perspective.  They're playing their butts off on most night.  Yet, whenever we're playing a popular team, Philips Arena gets taken over by the opposing team's fans.  It's nothing to see 30% of the crowd cheering for their favorite non-Hawk team or superstar.   The star players around the league see and know this about Atlanta.  So when it's time to come here, they think . . . "well if they'll cheer for the opponent, they may not cheer for me",

That's part of the reason why they don't come here.

The Hawks need a Blake Griffin type of player.  Someone who can excite the crowd with dazzling play, while also winning game.  You just can't be good in Atlanta.  You have to be good, with some flash or swag to you.  

Dennis is the hope of the franchise, because he plays that way.   And if he turns into the leader of the team, fans in Atlanta will latch onto him.  Personality wise, he's the anti-Teague and to some extent, the anti-Horford.  Even Millsap to most Hawk fans, is "boring".

I agree with this, but the fans have the power in this situation cause we're the ones that shell out the bucks on tickets and apparel. I appreciate work ethic and playing hard to win games, but we've been doing that for 30 years. Nique era to the Mookie/Smitty/Deke era to the Smoove/Horford/Joe era. At some point it has to translate into a trip to the Finals... but it hasn't. Sometimes, you have to give 120% like LeBron and Durant did in these past playoffs... Not get brutalized in the paint by Tristian Thompson.

I'm cautiously optimistic with Dennis. He still holds onto the ball too much and can't shoot. He is great around the hoop, but we'll see how clogged that lane becomes now that we have Dwight instead of Al. D12 does nothing for spacing.

GET US AN SF BUDCOX!

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[MaceCase]

33 minutes ago, PSSSHHHRRR87 said:

I agree with this, but the fans have the power in this situation cause we're the ones that shell out the bucks on tickets and apparel. I appreciate work ethic and playing hard to win games, but we've been doing that for 30 years. Nique era to the Mookie/Smitty/Deke era to the Smoove/Horford/Joe era. At some point it has to translate into a trip to the Finals... but it hasn't. Sometimes, you have to give 120% like LeBron and Durant did in these past playoffs... Not get brutalized in the paint by Tristian Thompson.

I'm cautiously optimistic with Dennis. He still holds onto the ball too much and can't shoot. He is great around the hoop, but we'll see how clogged that lane becomes now that we have Dwight instead of Al. D12 does nothing for spacing.

GET US AN SF BUDCOX!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well I'll say this, are you rotating off Dwight to contest a Dennis drive?  Because that's a put back jam if not a lob waiting to happen.  So spacing is nerfed a bit but now there's an elite rebounder and finisher that you absolutely have to account for rolling to the basket whereas with Al you could play the percentages and say a kick out long two is going to hurt you a lot less while giving you favorable rebounding position.

I think Dwight is the perfect guy for Dennis, gives him a lot of leeway to make mistakes particularly on defense.  Dennis can run his presses knowing there's a guy back there to cover for him and Bud will no longer have to run his "sag on everything" defense that leaves shooters open on penetration *coughClevelandcough*.

[pimp]

4 hours ago, Hotlanta1981 said:

Not by me. 

I never had an overly negative opinion of Al until he started playing soft a few years ago. Yeah, I never thought he was a superstar, but I wasn't a big hater before. I thought he was a hard working and loyal player. Then he started to play soft and it became clear that he had been looking out for himself over the last few years.

The Hawks went as far as they could go with Al as one of the two or three best players on the team. It wasn't going to get better. 

 

Really?  hmm i could have sworn that i have seen you call him "Al Crapford"or somethimg similar, a few hundred times over the years .

Edited July 3, 2016 by pimp

[AUhawksfan]

8 hours ago, Hotlanta1981 said:

I told you guys that he was sandbagging it. I f***ing knew it!

I was onto this too but thought better because of Al's "character."

Good job, you didn't hustle and kept yourself injury free so you could get a fat contract.  Proving what my initial hunch was.

[Thomas]

It will be interesting to see where Al plays on the floor for Boston. They are convinced he will boost their post scoring. That would require some contact. We'll see if Al is willing to go down in there..

[AUhawksfan]

So I'm guessing we're at a consensus on whether or not to boo Al?

[IheartVolt]

So Alice and Titty Whoreford decided it was not enough to just ditch the Hawks and spit on the club , but had to try to do as much damage as possible in the process. FCK the Whorefords

[Thomas]

1 hour ago, AUhawksfan said:

So I'm guessing we're at a consensus on whether or not to boo Al?

A curious note on Al's wife operating her business in Miami and Al will be playing in Boston. Extreme tale of two cities. Believe thats about fifteen hundred miles difference. How much time does that allow to be a normal couple? His decision seems questionable on the personal level as well. 

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

So I'm guessing we're at a consensus on whether or not to boo Al?

Oh he'll get booed. Especially after making it out like it's our fault he left. Only thing that keeps me from burning my Horford jersey is my penny-pinching Jewish heritage. lol

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[Guest]

Whoreford - still funny this morning.

[mtnbayou]

10 hours ago, swanlee said:

Yea screw him, he played like a marshmellow for two years in order to remain healthy for a big pay day and disappeared when it mattered. ATL fans are SICK of teams melting in the spotlight and his attitude and soft play style is exactly why we get fed up with this crap.

We will certainly support a team that at least acts like it tries and plays with heart but for Al that hasn't happened in years so he can screw off trying to blame us for his failures.

Absolutely true about Al.

But Atlanta's fan base is certainly not up there with the best.

[Dejay]

18 minutes ago, mtnbayou said:

Absolutely true about Al.

But Atlanta's fan base is certainly not up there with the best.

And who is the best fanbase? Chicago, who sells out Wrigley but never shows up for White Sox games? Boston, who had as many empties as the Hawks did before Ray Allen and Garnett joined Pierce? Cleveland, who couldn't locate their arena without GPS before drafting Lebron? St. Louis, who lost not one but TWO NFL teams, and stopped showing up years before Kronke turned heel on them? 

A strong case can be made that any city with multiple sports teams have its share of bandwagon fans when things are good and ducking for cover when they know that the pain's coming. National media folks, who never have to pull out their debit cards to pay $$$ for tickets or parking and have a hot buffet waiting for them on press row DO NOT GET THIS AND NEVER WILL. That's why they have such a white-hot hatred for Atlanta and show it every time something like this comes up. Because our city has a keen ability to discern the real McCoy from a fraud, we are WAY quicker to jump ship than other places. The national folks love sports towns who have lemmings who sell out for mediocre teams so that when they have to cover such a team, the crowd makes their event look bigger than it actually is. 

Don't let marks like Tito and the national folks shame you into buying in on a bad product. It's up to the company to create a product worth supporting, not the other way around...

Edited July 3, 2016 by Dejay

[hazer]

33 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Whoreford - still funny this morning.

Alice Whoreford, the lil' bitch...

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

And who is the best fanbase? Chicago, who sells out Wrigley but never shows up for White Sox games? Boston, who had as many empties as the Hawks did before Ray Allen and Garnett joined Pierce? Cleveland, who couldn't locate their arena without GPS before drafting Lebron? St. Louis, who lost not one but TWO NFL teams, and stopped showing up years before Kronke turned heel on them? 

A strong case can be made that any city with multiple sports teams have its share of bandwagon fans when things are good and ducking for cover when they know that the pain's coming. National media folks, who never have to pull out their debit cards to pay $$$ for tickets or parking and have a hot buffet waiting for them on press row DO NOT GET THIS AND NEVER WILL. That's why they have such a white-hot hatred for Atlanta and show it every time something like this comes up. Because our city has a keen ability to discern the real McCoy from a fraud, we are WAY quicker to jump ship than other places. The national folks love sports towns who have lemmings who sell out for mediocre teams so that when they have to cover such a team, the crowd makes their event look bigger than it actually is. 

Don't let marks like Tito and the national folks shame you into buying in on a bad product. It's up to the company to create a product worth supporting, not the other way around...

Boom.

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[AUhawksfan]

47 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Whoreford - still funny this morning.

Al "Money" Whoreford