Steve Holman and Bob Rathbun....Voice of the Hawks on radio and TV Broadcaster..the tales they tell!

[JayBirdHawk]

Q&A with the Athletlic's  Chris Kirschner.

It's a pay article, so the rules are you cannot post the entire article.  However, I was able to read it for free (I'm not a subscriber) so I guess it's OK to post some of it. 

 

Part 1: 

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Holman: To me, last season wasn’t really about the wins and losses so much. It was about the development of the young guys which made it a lot of fun. In my mind, and I don’t know what (Bob) thinks, I thought this past season was a lot more fun than the 60-win season. The 60-win season was great, but that was a group of veteran guys who’ve been together. This past year was something new, so it kept my interest every night because we got to see the development of those kids every night. It was just so much fun to watch, and it kind of rejuvenated me.

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Rathbun: My favorite one is when we won the clincher in Boston a few years ago. The Hawks had never done it before, whether they were in Atlanta or St. Louis. To win that Game 6 and see the look on Nique’s face like it finally happened. I think I said on the air, “Can we just put you in uniform for the last 20 seconds just to stand on the court and soak it in to watch these people go down in flames?” It was fantastic. But overall, in the time that I’ve done the games, nothing will top — unless we win it all — the winning streak of the 60-win season. To go unbeaten in the NBA in the month of January, which is something that was never done before and will never be done again, to win 19 straight games. It was unbelievable.

Holman: The crescendo built every night.

Rathbun: That Golden State game at home was as phenomenal as any regular-season game this town has ever seen.

Holman: The best part was how the city embraced it. The Hawks became “It.”

 

Part 2:

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when Adam Silver got on the screen and said, “The Atlanta Hawks are selecting Cam …” the place exploded. We haven’t had a crowd like that on draft night ever.
Holman: It goes back to this city is a see-and-be-seen town. That night was the place to see and be seen. Everyone in that building was rooting for the same things. They were so excited that we had these two picks.
Rathbun: For some reason, everyone wanted Cam (Reddish). They didn’t know what was going on with the trade for De’Andre (Hunter). They kind of knew that we were picking fourth, but they kind of didn’t because you had to really be paying attention to hear what was going on.
Holman: That’s why they have to change that rule.
Rathbun: So, he has the (Los Angeles) Lakers or (New Orleans) Pelicans hat on and not everyone knows if that’s really our guy, but we knew we had Cam at 10, so the place went crazy. My point is the buzz you’re talking about. The city is starting to embrace them, and I feel like they are all in, and it’s much more so than I thought they would be at this point.

 

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But you mentioned the All-Star break — I think I’ve mentioned this to Steve, and I know I’ve said it to Nique — when we lost to the (New York) Knicks the Thursday night before the All-Star break, it was awful. It was an awful game. It was an awful night. John (Collins) and Trae get on a plane to go to Charlotte. They do their thing on Friday and Saturday. When we come back, something with Trae changed. I don’t know if it was being around the stars or being in that environment, but something changed. I don’t know if that was the affirmation he needed where he could say, “I belong.” He was a different player.
Holman: I think he got the affirmation he needed from his colleagues around the league. He felt like he was one of them. That’s what he needed.

 

[JayBirdHawk]

This was OMG!

Quote

Holman: We’ve also had some crazy travel stories.
Like what? 
Holman: Well, we almost got killed in Orlando.
What? 
Rathbun: We were on one of those fancy, schmancy planes. We were playing a back-to-back. We were in Miami, and we were going to Orlando. It’s only a 30-minute flight, so it wasn’t a big deal. This is before the age of cellphones. So we’re driving on a bus at the Miami airport, and a storm comes through. It’s a pretty big one. We are noticing that there are some planes that are tipped over on their sides. There was a lot of chaos on the ground. The storm moved on — great. We get on the plane. It was one of those planes that had a couch in the back. You could strap in, but it wasn’t what it was now like we have with Delta.
Holman: You missed the part that when we were taxiing on the runway, you can look out and see the planes that are tipped over on the side of the runway. We were looking around at each other and saying, “This doesn’t look right.”
Rathbun: We had a real cowboy for a pilot. So up we go. Miami to Orlando. We can’t land. That storm has settled over central Florida. We cannot land. You look out the window, and you see other planes trying to land, but we’re all circling. The story goes — correct me if I’m wrong, Steve — they were asking the pilots, “Does anyone want to try this?” So our guy volunteers. The storm is hovering at around 10,000 feet. It’s nasty. The wind was so strong. We start coming down and are bouncing like a basketball. He’s trying to land this thing, and it’s not going well. Mookie runs to the back of the plane, and he says to the flight attendant, “Give me a beer!” She says, “I’m sorry but we don’t serve alcohol on this plane.” He says again, “Give me a beer!” So he takes a warm beer and downs it. (Dikembe) Mutombo is speaking in tongues at the front of the plane.
Holman: Cadillac Anderson was wearing his traditional red suit and standing in the middle of the aisle screaming, “Help us, Jesus.” I’m not sure if he was half-joking or half-serious. (Steve Smith) was yelling out other options that we should fly to. We try to land, and we almost crash.
Rathbun: I’m sitting in a window seat, and we are about 100 feet off the ground, and the wind just tips us, and I swear to God, we are looking directly at the ground out of the window.
Holman: This is not an exaggeration. This is not an exaggeration.
Rathbun: If we clip the wing, we are dead. He jerks it back and floors it. We go straight up into the air like if it was the Apollo launch.
Holman: You know how Lenny (Wilkens) has that combover, right? Well, his hair was standing straight up.
Rathbun: (Former GM) Pete Babcock is on the flight. Now we’re back up in the air and circling again. The pilot comes on the speaker and says, “I only put enough fuel in this thing to go to Orlando. We are running out of gas.” So, we were screaming out, “Can we go to Tampa? Can we go to Jacksonville? Can we go somewhere? Can we go back to Miami?” And he says, “Not really.” So, we have to land. By now, it’s 2 a.m. When we’re circling, it’s fine. It’s only when we go down that the rock and rolling starts. That sucker got that thing down somehow. We’re all so thrilled to be alive. We are kissing the tarmac. We want to tell everyone that we’re OK, but no one knows we’ve been in trouble. There’s no internet on the plane. There’s nothing. They just know we’re late.
Holman: It was the weirdest thing. We get to the hotel, and there wasn’t one word that was said amongst anybody. We get to the Downtown Marriott, and everyone got off the bus and got their bags, and no one said a word to anybody. 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

There's so much more .....

[AHF]

That story is fantastic.  Can totally see what a natural story teller he is

[Spud2nique]

Wow  

[hazer]

2 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

This was OMG!

 

Fantastic story. I’ve had a couple of those flights

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

And y'all wonder why B.A. Baracus hated to fly . .

 

[JayBirdHawk]

Isaiah Rider tales:

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Holman: We also have to tell you about Isaiah Rider.
Rathbun: Oh, Chris, he is one of the most notorious characters to ever play in the NBA.
Holman: He’s pretty much the reason why Lenny was driven out of coaching.
Rathbun: We’re building Philips Arena; 1996 was our last year in the Omni. We played two years at Georgia Tech and the Georgia Dome while they are building Philips. At the end of the time, (former president) Stan Kasten decided he wanted to make a trade, and he made a couple of trades.

Rathbun: Stan decides that we don’t want any Boy Scouts on our team. We want our own bad boy, but we got the wrong one. 

What did he do that was so bad? 
Holman: He would sit on the floor and wouldn’t practice with the team.
Rathbun: We trained in Chattanooga for a week. When Mr. Rider came to us, and we told him that it was time to report to training camp — it’s not like today where they’re all in. He’s there the day before. We say, “Mr. Rider, you have to come to Chattanooga.” He saw that he had to take a commuter flight to get there, and his quote was, “I ain’t getting on no crop duster.” Chattanooga is only like an hour and a half or two hours away by car.
Holman: He wasn’t driving either. It reached its peak when we were in Portland where he used to play, and he sat in practice. He just wouldn’t practice. He would sit on the floor by the benches. He wouldn’t participate at all. The game that night — he wouldn’t shoot. Every time he got the ball, he would pass immediately.
Rathbun: This is a guy who averaged 20 a game.
Holman: So at halftime, Lenny wants to talk to him, and he’s in the hallway on the pay phone talking to someone else.
Rathbun: It was crazy. We had a game at Philips, and Lenny basically benched him for insubordination. We used to have rolling signage that would display different ads. We had one by our bench, and he sat in front of it and leaned against it the entire game so they couldn’t rotate the ads through. I think the next day we cut him.
Holman: We were at the hotel in Portland waiting to go to shootaround, and he was talking to Lenny and Pete Babcock in the lobby trying to get him to come to practice. We were on the bus, and Dikembe is on the back of the bus screaming, “What in the hell is going on here? Let’s go. We need to go.” So the guys were like, “OK, Dikembe and Nique, go get him.” So Dikembe gets off the bus. The hotel had a revolving door, and he goes through the revolving door and comes right out on the other side and didn’t say a word.

Rathbun: I asked him one night before we got back to Portland, which is where he played, and said, “Well, what are you gonna do?” He said, “Well, the first thing I am gonna do is my girlfriend is gonna lick me from head to toe.” If that gives you some indication of what we were dealing with.
Holman: Speakerphones had just become a thing. So he was on speakerphone on the bus and saying, “Hey, baby, I’m gonna lick you.”
Rathbun: We started calling the bus the “Hey, Baby, Express.”
 

 

[bleachkit]

Mike Bell's impression of Bob Rathbun is absolutely hilarious. 

[hazer]

4 hours ago, bleachkit said:

Mike Bell's impression of Bob Rathbun is absolutely hilarious. 

Dukes & Bell is my favorite show  

[hazer]

4 hours ago, bleachkit said:

Mike Bell's impression of Bob Rathbun is absolutely hilarious. 

 

Just now, hazer said:

Dukes & Bell is my favorite show  

Buck can be pretty damn funny when he gets “itchy” too

[hazer]

Just now, hazer said:

 

Buck can be pretty damn funny when he gets “itchy” too

I loathe Kincaid though. Chuck pretty much too

[JayBirdHawk]

Snippet of Part 3:

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This franchise has undergone so many changes that you have touched on already. How do you think this current plan compares to the previous one where the Hawks were in the playoffs every year? 

Rathbun: We’ll definitely be back. I’m not worried about that. We’ll be back sooner rather than later. We’ve never been in a better place than what we are now.

Holman: There’s a true plan in place.

When you say they have never been in a better place, what do you exactly mean by that? 

Rathbun: Well, the management, ownership, the coaches. Everything on the basketball side. We have one of the greatest CEOs in marketing and administration ever in (Steve) Koonin. He’s worked for Coca-Cola, Turner. He’s got the background.

Holman: If he wasn’t a lifelong Hawks fan from Atlanta, he probably wouldn’t be doing this.

Rathbun: We’ve got a state-of-the-art practice facility and arena now. We have an unbelievable training staff. Look at what’s going on with Golden State since Chelsea (Lane) left them. We have all of that.

Holman: We have people who know what they are doing in every phase of our operations now.

Rathbun: I’m not saying this just because I’m a part of the organization. I swear to God, we have never been in a better place. Everything that you want, we have. The way we travel is different. The hotels that Tony puts us up in are beautiful. The team meals — who knows what that costs.

Holman: This has all changed since Tony (Ressler) has taken over. These team dinner things are a brand new phenomenon for us.

Rathbun: The thing with Tony, if Travis (Schlenk) and Lloyd (Pierce) think it’s important for us to have something, there are no questions asked. It’s not like they are fighting over a few dollars here and there.

Holman: He’ll even ask Zac (Walsh) when we go to restaurants on the road, “Are you sure there isn’t a better place than that?” He wants the best of everything.

Rathbun: There’s nothing that we don’t lack. The last piece of the puzzle is just getting these guys coached up to play on a championship level.

Holman: Not that it means anything to the basketball side of things, but they have also included us in things now. We’re now back in the family again, and they don’t have to. They all look at us as one big family, so to speak.

Rathbun: The one thing that I tried to get across to the previous head coach with not much success was everybody who is on the plane — the core group who travels — has a job that is instrumental to the success of the franchise. It would behoove the leadership to know who the hell each of the people are on the plane. That was never the case. It’s the case now. Lloyd knows who everyone is. You’re on that plane for a reason. It’s not just for a joy ride. You have something specific that you have to do to help this team.

 

[bleachkit]

On 9/5/2019 at 10:53 PM, hazer said:

Dukes & Bell is my favorite show  

Yea, Mike Bell is really smart and really funny. He actually has a natural wit. Unlike most on the radio, who are either angry shock jock hater types or boring as hell. 

Edited September 7, 2019 by bleachkit

[Thomas]

On 9/5/2019 at 10:55 PM, hazer said:

I loathe Kincaid though

Only cares about anything Philly. In particular the Eagles.

[bleachkit]

On 9/5/2019 at 10:55 PM, hazer said:

I loathe Kincaid though. Chuck pretty much too

Kincade is the worst. I truly dislike him. Self-righteous jerk, not nearly as smart or as clever as he thinks he is. He also knows nothing about the Hawks or basketball. When the NBA comes up, it's always glorifying the days of Magic and Bird, and condemning today's players, then quickly transitioning back to college football.

[Spud2nique]

1 hour ago, Thomas said:

Only cares about anything Philly. In particular the Eagles.

We call him Mace!  

 

[hazer]

16 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Snippet of Part 3:

 

This right here!

And not the first time I’ve heard Bawb disparage Pudenholzer, probably won’t be the last. Seems to have a deep disdain for the fella, which is a red flag. I have a fairly keen radar for reading people too, I hear ya Bawb. I hear ya

Edited September 7, 2019 by hazer

[hazer]

2 hours ago, bleachkit said:

Yea, Mike Bell is really smart and really funny. He actually has a natural wit. Unlike most on the radio, who are either angry shock jock hater types or boring as hell. 

He reminds me of my FIL, even looks a bit like him

[Spud2nique]

5 minutes ago, hazer said:

This right here!

And not the first time I’ve heard Bawb disparage Pudenholzer, probably won’t be the last. Seems to have a deep disdain for the fella, which is a red flag. I have a keen radar for reading people too, I hear ya Bawb. I hear ya

Admit it Haze, you miss Belkin.  

Its so refreshing to hear that money isn’t an issue with Tony...or as his close friends call him,

UNCLE STONEY... Ya he gets like a candle 🕯!!!  

Hes a baby boomer whaddya want??