The Starting Five

Young and talented

The Atlanta Hawks are in the playoffs for the first time in nine years! Nine freakin’ years! The last time they were in the playoffs I was a senior in high school and I hadn’t yet pledged my allegiance to them.

Since I lived in Alabama and we didn’t have a pro team, I was always more a fan of players as opposed just one team. Come to think of it, I always rooted for the Pistons because I had a crush on Zeke when I was a little girl. I also had a crush on Domonique Wilkins, Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton and Clyde Drexler.

Clyde was actually one of my favorite players growing up. I don’t know why, it’s probably just because of his nickname. I had a thing for guys with cool nicknames. The Reign Man, Clyde the Glide, the Glove. The Mailman and etc… Basketball was way more enjoyable for me back then because I didn’t really have any particular rooting interests one way or another. I also didn’t watch as much basketball when I was a young girl as I do now, but whatever.

Shortly after I moved to Atlanta (by shortly I mean about 2 years afterwards) I decided to let the Hawks be my favorite team and I’ve been a diehard fan ever since. I’m extremely happy they’ve finally decided to reward my devotion with a playoff series!

I forgive you Lon Kruger. I forgive Jason Terry and Shareef for the playoff guarantee. I kinda forgive Mike Woodson for the 13 win season. I’m lucky enough to have an autographed ball from that team. I cherish it, I really do. I forgive Billy Knight for drafting Marvin Williams instead of Chris Paul. Wait, I don’t think I’m over that one yet….. I can never forgive Billy for drafting Shelden Williams. Never!

Anyway, all that is in the past and now we move forward to take on the Boston Celtics. I know they are the best team (record wise) in the league, but my boys aren’t scared. To hell with the Red Sox! Oh, wait, that’s the Yankee fan in me talking. Sorry! I know most of ya’ll probably think the Hawks are going to get swept, but I don’t believe that. The fan in me will not allow me to think such a thing. The fan in me wants all of you to know that the Hawks are going to win this series in SIX games. Ha! That’s right; we are going to close the Celtics out at the Highlight Factory!

Yeah, we’re going to be outmatched in a few areas like coaching, bench play, coaching, depth, coaching, future Hall of Famers, fans and coaching, but we’re still going to pull off this massive upset! Yeah, I said it and I believe it!

In case you’re wondering, I’m not smoking or drinking anything at the moment. I’m not going to pop a bottle until after we win our first playoff game. I have to believe my boys can do the improbable and upset a 60+ win team. There’s no point in me being a fan of this team if I think they’re going to get swept. Being a fan allows you to throw logic and facts and statistics and history out the window. I’ve decided to disregard all the things that lead most people to believe we have no chance. I told ya’ll this was coming, so here we go.

I’ll tell 5 you reasons why we will win this series:

1) Joe Johnson. He can give you thirty of the quietest points on any given night. He doesn’t say much, but he’s cold as hell! He got Billy Knight to pay him $70 million dollars off of his playoff performances. I’m not saying Joe wasn’t a fine player prior to breaking his face in that playoff series against Dallas, but had it not been so obvious how important he was to Phoenix’s success he never would’ve gotten a max contract the following summer. He knows he has to step it up in big games and he will do so against Boston. They’ll probably try to double him, but now we have a player who can make teams pay when that happens and his name is:

2) Mike Bibby. I, like many Hawks fans feel so much more confident about this team when he’s on the floor. Even when he’s struggling (which he has been lately) we know he’s our best option at point guard and we don’t want anyone but him on the floor. He was there when the Lakers shot 27 free throws in the fourth quarter of game six in the Western Conference Finals in 2002. He had a chance to tie that game bloody nose and all. He will not be intimidated by the Celtics! I really hope he shaves his head for the playoffs! If he does, I’ll feel EVEN better about our chances!

3) Josh Smith. He’s playing for a contract and as we’ve seen recently when you come up big in the playoffs, you come up bigger in your bank account. The fact that he had very good numbers this season doesn’t even matter. GM’s will judge him off of how he performs in the playoffs. Hell if we’re being honest this is the first time GM’s will have a real opportunity to notice him. The Hawks haven’t had a nationally televised game in years! This is Josh’s big chance to be in the spotlight for something other than winning the Slam Dunk Contest.

4) Atlanta Nightlife! This is the wild card. Players from opposing teams LOOOOOOVE the nightlife in the “A” and I’m counting on the Compounds, Dream’s, Magic City’s and everyone in between to show the Celtics a really, really good time!

5) We’re playing with house money, so we’ve got nothing to lose. No one expects us to do anything other than give them a close game or two before ultimately getting swept. That means we can really leave it all on the floor unlike so many times when we claim to want to leave it all on the floor. I know I’m asking a lot of these young fellas, but I’m a fan and damnit I believe they can do it! I have to believe it!

There are a lot of people (especially those who live on the left coast) that don’t even think we deserve to be here. I know you guys are all pissed right now, but look at the bright side, this upcoming draft could be pretty deep! Your team might end up with Michael Beasley or Derrick Rose. Surely you can take solace in that.

Either way, the Hawks are in the playoffs and I could not be happier!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 11:05 am and is filed under 2008 NBA Playoffs, Atlanta Hawks, Blogroll, Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Mike Bibby, Shareef Abdur-Rahim. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.