| 08 May 2009
If you think about it, the NBA really is entertainment’s best spectacle.
In what other profession is someone that stands 6’3 considered to be too small, and guys that are 6’8 and 250 lbs., considered the norm?
Honestly, how many times have you even seen someone 6’8 just walking down the street? Once? It’s like Chris Rock once said about meeting Native American’s: “Yeh you met one, one time, then another one three years later.” Same with seven footers, you met one in 1999, and another last October. Yet in the NBA, they’re commonplace.
And when you factor in the ability of these giants to run and jump and dribble and pass with the coordination that they do, it becomes safe to say that the NBA is the world’s largest freak show.
In turn, I guess that makes the NBA playoffs the Grammy’s, Academy Awards and Emmy’s of the freak show: the world’s greatest athletes playing at their absolute highest level.
It is also what makes the NBA playoffs must watch television every spring.
Each year we become enamored, enthralled and enriched with the play on the court. Players and teams we don’t get to see much all year show us what we’ve been missing, and that when everyone’s healthy and interested (not always the case), NBA basketball really is the best reality show on television.
It seems like every year some team catches us off-guard, showing us something we never thought to expect. In 2007 it was the Golden State Warriors going on a run to remember, beating that year’s best team- the Dallas Mavericks- in a shocking six game series. That series opened our eyes to see that Baron Davis- when healthy and hungry- was still one of the best point guards in the NBA. Stuff like that happens ever year. It’s like the commercials say, The NBA: Where Amazing Happens.
What was great about watching that Warriors team was that even though we knew they couldn’t win a championship, they played a brand of basketball that made them impossible to switch off.
There were the high-flying fastbreaks and alley-oops, Davis’ deep threes and the utterly quirky, and completely unpredictable combination of Stephen Jackson, Matt Barnes and Jason Richardson. It was like watching one of those Steven Segal movies from the late ‘80s: you knew the ending was going to leave you terribly disappointed, but the action was impossible to turn off.
Fast-forward to this year, and I have the exact same sentiment about the Atlanta Hawks.
Now I’m a realist, and the writing on the wall is pretty clear. Through two games with the Cavaliers, the Hawks have done little to nothing to show they can even win a game in this series, let alone are ready to compete for a championship any time in the near future.
The holes are there, and when you’re playing without 2/3 of your frontcourt, and your best player just got hurt, bad things are going to happen. Especially when you’re playing the King on his court, where the Cavaliers are 43-2 so far this season.
But taking out those two games, the Hawks, when healthy, are the most fun up-and-coming team to watch. Sorry Blazers and Bulls fans, the guys in Atlanta have you outdone. Don’t let the last two games fool you; when it comes to the “I have no idea what they’re going to do next, but I better not pee until the next commercial department,” the Hawks are second to none.
In a column on Tuesday I compared the Hawks to a puppy off the leash for the first time, completely unpredictable. That analogy is a little weak though.
To me the Atlanta Hawks are more like your old, semi-delusional Uncle Ned, the one who talks about “‘Nam” all the time, and pines for the old days. Sure you love Uncle Ned, but you also don’t want him coming to your birthday parties either, too afraid he’ll make some anti-semitic remark. Or mention “off-hand,” how that one “bigger,” girl probably shouldn’t be going back for that second piece of cake.
Living with Uncle Ned is like watching the Atlanta Hawks on a nightly basis: absolutely anything is possible.
Will Joe Johnson shoot a 35-foot three-pointer with a hand in his face? Is Josh Smith going to try and dunk from the foul line? This is a team that played seven games in the first round with Miami, and every one of them were decided by double figure points! What? How does that even happen?
The Hawks are a wild and eclectic mix of new and old. Almost like a Real World cast thrown together at the last minute, Atlanta is a bizarre group that’s as mismatched as one of Avril Lavigne’s outfits. Yet somehow they work.
It starts with Johnson, who to me might be the most underrated player in all of the NBA. He is the quintessential hybrid scorer, who also leads him team in assists. One of those guys with a skill set that is all the rage these days in the NBA. But because he doesn’t run his mouth like Gilbert Arenas, and because his supporting cast isn’t abnormally weak where he needs to score 25 points a game (although he is capable of doing it, averaging that in 2006-2007), he doesn’t get the pub others do.
Simply put Johnson is a baller. Not a shoe-in for the All-Star game every year (although he’s been there three years running), more like a great artist whose work won’t truly be appreciated until after he’s long done with the game.
When you’re telling your grandchildren about the best players of this generation, Johnson’s name isn’t going to roll off your tongue. But in 20 years when you happen to catch a Hawks game on ESPN Classic, only then will he be fully appreciated. Since coming to the Atlanta in 2005, he’s averaged 22.1 points and 5.6 assists per game. The Hawks have also progressively won more games each season since Johnson joined the team.
In the backcourt with Johnson is Mike Bibby, one of those guys that probably wasn’t as good in his prime as we made him out to be, but also isn’t washed up in his 11th season either.
Bibby seems to be a prisoner of circumstance, best remembered for playing with those always exciting Sacramento Kings teams of the early part of this decade. They were immensely fun to watch, but also a team that only made the Western Conference finals once, and never could get by the Lakers and Spurs. The same looks to be true of the current group he plays with in Atlanta. It’s sad, but thats what Bibby’s ultimate legacy looks to be: a guy who played on a lot of really fun teams to watch, but none good enough to win it all.
What makes that statement strange, however, is that Bibby really is the perfect veteran for this team. Almost Wilson to the rest of the Hawks Tim Allen on the old show Home Improvement, Bibby has become effective at deferring to his stars, but still stepps in and makes big plays when needed. He’s no longer the guy, but seems to mesh in nicely standing behind the fence and dispensing wisdom and assists when needed.
In the frontcourt, I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about Al Horford. Horford hasn’t played much against the Cavs because of injuries, and may be the guy this team can least afford to lose.
Horford is one of my favorite players in the league because he does all the dirty stuff nobody else wants to: take elbows in the face, set picks, battle for offensive rebounds. He also seems to me like the first guy another Hawk would call if they needed to be bailed out of jail in the middle of the night without anyone knowing, in other words the consummate team player. And did I mention his dad’s name is Tito? How could you not love Al Horford.
Finally there’s Josh Smith, one of the leaders of this team, and a guy who really makes them the fun bunch we’ve grown to know and love.
On a minute-to-minute, play-to-play basis, there isn’t one player in the league not named LeBron that you have to play closer attention to. Seriously go to YouTube and type in Josh Smith. Go ahead. You get 7300 results! 7300! For a guy who’s only in his fourth year in the league, on a team no one really takes notice of.
When Smith is on the court, no alley-oop is thrown too wildly, no shot impossible to block. In Game 1 against the Heat, Smith had four of the best live action dunks I’ve ever seen. All in the same quarter!
Maybe more impressively, for a guy who came into the league with a label as an athlete without much basketball skill, Smith’s game has become surprisingly well-rounded. He can step out and hit three’s, and has also shown a knack for hitting shots in the clutch.
And of course no zany team would be complete with wacky guys off the bench. The Hawks two best reserves happen to be named Flip and Zaza, which I’m pretty sure also might be the pair of clowns that were at my cousin’s birthday party last weekend. I’ll have to check back with you on that one.
So now the question becomes what ultimate fate of this Hawks team?
With the injuries mounting and Cleveland bearing down, this season appears to be a wash. Bibby, Zaza (Pachulia) and Flip (Murray) can all walk this summer. Even with Johnson, Smith, Horford and Marvin Williams under contract for 2010, change in some form will come.
And with as few as two games left in the season, the Hawks as we know them might cease to exist by this time next week.
But rather than making this space about a premature obituary, it might be better to celebrate the Hawks for what they are: One of those infinitely entertaining teams that wasn’t good enough to win it all, but brought us off our couches and to our feet several times a game.
With this team, it never was about the finish line, but about the journey to get there.
And I know one person who enjoyed the entire ride.
