I'm Told G-LEAGUE!

[BigDog90]

8 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

I speculated on the possible landing spots a few months back, and the Georgia International Convention Center (not to be confused with the Georgia World Congress Center across the street from Philips downtown) just felt like it made more and more sense.

NBA teams have been increasingly keeping their D-League franchises really close to home (Salt Lake City Stars, Windy City Bulls, Long Island Nets, NAZ Suns, Raptors 905), so having D-League teams able to get in-and-out of the World's Busiest Airport (they don't like that name no more, but they are) is a big plus. Loads of hotel space, although the food scene could use another renaissance. Also, having our own players able to stay in the ATL metro and have close access to player development staff and the new Brookhaven facility is key.

I hope they'll name the facility/floor after longtime College Park resident Walt Bellamy. The former Hawks center retired here and has a Veteran's Memorial Park project named in his honor.

Southside represent!

I never heard of GICC but that's definitely great to be close to the airport. I thought for sure they'd be in Gwinnett or even Columbus for the D League team.

[sturt]

Kinda juiced about this announcement.... isn't it getting late in the day to announce a press conference? Or is that the plan... maybe they're only intending to put out a press release?

[Resslemania]

I've never heard of a NBDL team being quite so close, although I haven't checked in a while.  Makes it easier for players to get called up though!

[Dnice]

Live video on  Hawks facebook page.

[Dejay]

29 minutes ago, Resslemania said:

I've never heard of a NBDL team being quite so close, although I haven't checked in a while.  Makes it easier for players to get called up though!

Ressler can just give a guy a Breeze card to get there and back. Gotta save a few pennies somewhere...

[macdaddy]

14 minutes ago, Dejay said:

Ressler can just give a guy a Breeze card to get there and back. Gotta save a few pennies somewhere...

How about the College Park Breeze?

[sturt]

It's 2016.

I'm honestly a little dumbfounded that this franchise is going to wait 3 years to have their own team.

When has any team waited 3 years? It's routinely been accomplished in half that time, if not even quicker.

I get it that they're building a physical structure, but what's to keep the team from establishing a D-league team playing somewhere else in the meantime(?). That's a long wait.

I'm a little pissed. Can you tell?

[Dnice]

I think folks get expansion teams ready to go, quicker.. lol

[lethalweapon3]

42 minutes ago, Dejay said:

Ressler can just give a guy a Breeze card to get there and back. Gotta save a few pennies somewhere...

The D-Leaguers can even have my Breeze Card. If these Kaufman Tire discounts (110+ points) keep up 30+ times a year, it's making driving harder to pass up!

Heck, if they get hungry, I could even throw in a Papa John's pizza or two (50+ halftime points) for good measure...

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

A little CPK trivia.

There are NO colleges in College Park... anymore, and there haven't been any in quite some time. Shortly after Cox College and Conservatory (a women's educational institution) moved from LaGrange to Manchester, Georgia in 1895, the town renamed itself College Park. A few years after that, all-male Georgia Military Academy (college-prep school) opened up around the corner.

After a few stops and starts, Cox College closed for good in 1934. (IIRC, the current City Hall is on the site of the demolished main campus building). GMA went co-ed in the 1960s and renamed themselves Woodward Academy (they used to boast about being the nation's largest private prep school, but I haven't heard that in awhile; they're still huge w/ lots of famous alums).

The east-west residential streets in the historic areas are named after mostly fancy colleges (Harvard, Cambridge, Princeton, Oxford, Columbia, Yale and whatnot; I lived on Temple for awhile, so that must've been what passed for the 'hood back in the early 20th century).

Football legend Bill Curry (Packers, Colts, Georgia Tech, Georgia State) was born and raised here. I read somewhere that he still lives here.

Unlike Curry, your favorite rappers, singers, quarterbacks, and hoop stars who rep College Park likely didn't come of age in that "downtown" area. The city's expansion and population growth coincided with the Airport development (and the need for cheap housing for airport/airline-related employees nearby) between the 1950s and 1980s.

Airport expansion phases and noise impacts ate away at the population, but the economic slide arrived in earnest once Eastern Airlines liquidated and Delta Airlines slimmed down in the post-deregulation period (late 80s-early 00s). The rougher-and-tumbler areas filled in around the expanding airport and highway network. Much like "Decatur", a lot of the apartment complexes were built in unincorporated areas of Clayton and Fulton counties, and residents simply took up the namesake of the nearby city proper for convenience.

There were two segregated rec centers the city built in the 1950s. During desegregation, the Brady Gym for black citizens (west of the city center) grew to become a hub for youth basketball, drawing in kids from throughout the south metro. Today, the Brady Gym manager doubles as the sports director for Georgia AAU basketball. (I assume those were some of the kids at the press conference today?)

Just south (about a half-mile) of their city center, College Park's Gateway Center developments are adjacent to the GICC, and the arena is going to be placed on one of these sites, connected to Hartsfield-Jackson via the airport's SkyTrain rail line.

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

 

Quote

 

[CEO Steve] Koonin noted that the development league facility will be located just eight miles from Philips Arena, the second-closest distance between an NBA team and its affiliate. In Oklahoma City, the Thunder play across the street from the Blue. College Park was a location the Hawks considered for the practice facility, which will be built in Brookhaven in partnership with Emory.

[Prez and coach Mike] Budenholzer said the Hawks will be able to manage their young developing players much closer now. A player could practice with the affiliate in the morning and play for the Hawks that evening.

“It’s huge,” Budenholzer said of the proximity. “I feel like we’ve flown guys to the moon to get them to a D-League game. To have a team in College Park and that kind of proximity, it’s hard to put into words, but it really is a big, big difference for us in how we can use it and take full advantage of a D-League.”

 

 

~lw3

[nathan2331]

I wish Edy would have been alive to see this.

Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

[capstone21]

14 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

 

 

~lw3

Thunder DLeague team use to be in Tulsa but nobody went to the games so they moved it to OkieCity

[Resslemania]

GICC makes sense for a D-League team, but I guess the team wants control over its own building.  Maybe we'll see Summer League games here like Orlando had earlier this year.

In other news, it's amusing that they're saying the practice facility is in Brookhaven.  That's Merry Hills.  Reminds me of when they said the Best Buy at Edgewood Retail was the "Midtown" branch 

C'mon, developers, these areas have names: use them!

[hazer]

3 hours ago, Resslemania said:

GICC makes sense for a D-League team, but I guess the team wants control over its own building.  Maybe we'll see Summer League games here like Orlando had earlier this year.

In other news, it's amusing that they're saying the practice facility is in Brookhaven.  That's Merry Hills.  Reminds me of when they said the Best Buy at Edgewood Retail was the "Midtown" branch 

C'mon, developers, these areas have names: use them!

Technically Merry Hills ends at Briarcliff Rd and Brookhaven ends at I-85. So it's actually sandwiched between the 2 and borders/is closer to Brookhaven than Merry Hills a few more blocks to the SE. But yeah, being on the SE side of 85, it's a bit of a stretch. Then again "Brookhaven" is a new hotbed, Mery Hills not so much. Coat-tailing 

[mrhonline]

19 hours ago, nathan2331 said:

I wish Edy would have been alive to see this.

Okay, I laughed.

[lethalweapon3]

Speaking of Edy, here's hoping Bebe (who's finally in the Raps' rotation, btw) can help him find a good big-man shop up in Mississauga!

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

On 11/9/2016 at 5:12 PM, Dnice said:

About every other week something is popping off with the Atlanta Hawks.

Yes, yes, y'all... and ya don't stop...

 

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

That big announcement du jour wasn't TOO big of a deal.

Big Tigger and V-103 announce that the "Trap God"... no, not Thabo... Gucci Mane will be the entertainment when the Pelicans visit here on the 22nd.

First Game Out Tha Feds!

~lw3

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

That big announcement du jour wasn't TOO big of a deal.

Big Tigger and V-103 announce that the "Trap God"... no, not Thabo... Gucci Mane will be the entertainment when the Pelicans visit here on the 22nd.

First Game Out Tha Feds!

~lw3

Booooooooooo...had me really excited.