Sometimes you don't even know when that special article will come, you're reading through an insipid, but coherant piece, and then some weird sentence will strike you and you'll go "that's it, gotta write about this, make fun of it and temporarily lift my dangerously low self esteem albeit temporarily". But then there are times when from the very get go, you know the stupid is very much in the black, and it's only likely to go one way when you start from a ridiculous premise.
This is one such occasion, from Sergio Gonzalez.
A Giant Ray of Hope in Atlanta
I don't know why. Their ownership status has been the worst in American professional sport, making their ability to land free agents all but negligible. My God, they got outbid by a Greek team. The first significant, American born NBA player to leave for Europe. They are pioneering a whole new way to fail. Anyway, let's give Sergio a chance, he's off to a rocky start.
The 2007 New York Giants. The 2008 Tampa Bay Rays. The 2008 Atlanta Hawks. What do these three teams have in common?
Literally nothing, is the answer btw.
"I think that some of the similarities (in) are the chemistry," Hawks center Al Horford said before getting ready for a game in Phoenix last week, part of his second preseason in the NBA. The Hawks are looking to become the next team in a continuing trend of overachievers across the major sports.
I know it's always occupied a dubious place in sports analysis, but "chemistry" really has become the "maverick" of sports coverage. It's relevant, ok, I grant you, especially in basketball, but it wasn't some chemlab, secret formula voodoo that caused these teams to win. Tampa? Young, developing pitching. Giants? Luck and a great Superbowl matchup. I mean, these aren't comprehensive answers, I grant you, but they barely receive a mention, it's all about the steamy love affairs in the locker rooms apparently.
The Giants surprised everyone but themselves last February, winning a Super Bowl nobody picked them to come even close to winning in the preseason. They were given a 70-1 chance by Las Vegas last summer. The Rays were given 100-1 odds to win the World Series this spring. Vegas doesn't give teams longer odds than that in baseball. Five more wins and they would pull off the longest of long shots.
Banded together by an "us against the world" approach, the Giants surged through the playoffs and defeated an undefeated Patriots team that thought it would win simply by showing up. And the Rays, sporting mohawks, stylish spectacles and curious math skills (9=8???) are making their run through October look as easy as it used to be to beat up on, well, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
good argument alright, the Hawks will have a great season due to the performance of their obvious alter-ego's in football and baseball.
Horford says his Hawks...
oh yeah, the Hawks! That's right. That's what I was talking about.
seem to be building that kind of a bond. And don't discount him as being a naïve 22-year-old. He knows what he's talking about. He was a vital part of the Florida Gators team that made an unexpected run in the 2006 NCAA tournament with a young bunch that figured out a way to win, slightly ahead of schedule -- and then repeated in 2007.
so, in summary - New York Giants in 2007 - winners. Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2008 - winners. Florida Gators in 2006 - winners. I mean, if you don't think, based on this mountain of evidence, that the Hawks will be serious contenders in 2009? Well you're just delusional. Florida, by the way, were a third seed; furthermore they were a 4th seed in 2005, hardly a "come from nowhere" team.
"[If you] compare us to our [2006 championship] Gator team, as far as guys trying to be unselfish and sacrificing for the team to win, I think that's the way that we're looking right now and hopefully we'll keep it up," Horford said.
ugh...Gumby level stretch dude. Different players, different time, different coach, different administration, different opponents, different fucking league. At least it is the same sport, albeit with different rules. I think that counts as progress in this article.
That championship run for Florida featured five future NBA players -- Horford, Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer, Taurean Green and Chris Richard -- and none of them stood out individually.
and this has also been true at the NBA levell; key for success? No really good players, it'll kill you every time. Avoid the Tim Duncan's, the Kobe Bryant's, the Shaquille O'Neal's, the Kevin Garnett's, at all costs. When's the last time an MVP actually even went to the Finals? Only four of the last nine times, not even 50%! I can't think of a bigger handicap than great players on a team.
They sacrificed personal glory and statistical achievements for the ultimate goal of winning.
in all seriousness, this is so misleading. It's a ridiculous appropriation of the word "sacrifice". Statistical achievement is not the opposite of winning, OK? Admittedly, when it comes to scoring, and scoring alone, there is an element when deferring shots is advantageous, but in pretty much every other area, the more stats you can pile up, blocks, rebounds, steals, assists, the better your team will be. You'll hear "gambling" for steals a lot too but generally, the league leaders in steals (Kidd, Iverson, Bryant, Artest) are almost always on elite defensive teams - the point is very, very overplayed. Had Joakim Noah been a more capable offensive player, this would not have been a handicap for the Florida Gators - period.
Horford thinks that the Hawks are forging a similar culture in Atlanta. And much like in Tampa, the front office in Atlanta seems to finally be making a conscious effort to retain its talent after years of putting financial gains over trying to win.
well they only two months ago had an actual owner, so...not so surprised that this was an improvement, I wouldn't start ordering those Finals tickets just yet though Sergio.
"I think we've made some big strides as a team," Horford said. "I feel very confident about the decisions that our team made in the offseason, being able to get Josh Smith back and making some key additions. I feel that we are a better team than we were last year."
key additions...Maurice Evans, Ronald Murray, you are today's Joe the Plumber! Enjoy the ego boost my man!
The Hawks may be better than they were a year ago...
but almost certainly not, Josh Childress was one of the top five sixth men in the league last year. He scored 11.8ppg at a crazy 57.1%, added nearly five rebounds and a steal while playing 30 minutes a contest. Pretty flimsy case boys.
but they still head into this NBA season with 50-1 Vegas odds.
but the Rays were 70-1, so this is a GREAT thing right? What you don't want to be is 6-1, that just spells doom. I mean look at the Patriots last year! That happens EVERY time. The favourite has never won anything ever. This New York Giants thing threatens to be the "that's what Hitler did" of the sports world, brace yourselves people, every underdog for the next ten years will claim to be the Giants.
The team is considered to have up-and-coming young talent, but the belief is that while they have made the right moves to potentially be a force in the future...
who's belief? Not at all convinced this is correct. Classical journalism "it has been said", "it is widely argued" kind of thing.
they are still too raw to have a chance to win just yet. But isn't that what they said about the Giants? And the Rays? And Horford's Gators? Having been there before, Horford has much more confidence in his team than the oddsmakers do.
you forgot Buster Douglas and Appalachian State. On this argument, I could argue that Memphis, Oklahoma City, New Jersey and Indiana all simultaneously will win the 2008-2009 NBA Championship. Honestly, this is the argument - everyone thinks they will be bad, thus, they will probably be good. That's the extent of it, this is putrid stuff.
Last year, the Hawks were a surprising entry into the Eastern Conference playoffs.
again, debatable, let's not pretend the 8th seed in the East is some wonderful appointment. They did go 37-45. If I told you at the start of last year Atlanta would go 37-45 would you have been like "wow, I'm really surprised?". I suspect not. I suspect actually almost all of you would go "that sounds almost definately within +/-5 wins of correct".
A midseason trade to acquire Mike Bibby from the Sacramento Kings propelled them into the eighth and final playoff spot with a good run down the stretch. They finished the season with an uninspiring 37-45 record, but wound up pushing the eventual champion Boston Celtics to seven games. The next step, conceivably, would have Atlanta making a serious playoff run in the revitalized East.
probably said a lot more about Boston than Atlanta, and as Hollinger has pointed oout so many times his bald little head was about to explode, Boston were like +800 billion, give or take four or five, on point differential.
That is what the East has become now. Boston's spanking of the Lakers in the Finals in June and an influx of young talent around the conference (mainly brought about from years of dominating the lottery) means that the East no longer has to differ to the big, bad West as the clearly superior conference.
so your (very brief) argument that the East is vastly improved (which I broadly agree with), favours the Hawks making a run in the East? How does that make sense? If I'm in a race with 3rd graders, and do well, and then you put me next to Bolt and Powell, and you say "the next conceivable step is for you to win this race", how does that make sense? Admittedly this is a contrived and extreme analogy but you follow right...this guy here knows what I'm talking about.
Now there is LeBron James in Cleveland, Dwight Howard in Orlando, Chris Bosh in Toronto, Andre Iguodala in Philadelphia, Dwyane Wade and Michael Beasley in Miami and Derrick Rose in Chicago. And, of course, Horford, Smith, Marvin Williams and Joe Johnson are in Atlanta. Horford thinks his team can hold its own within that group.
what a bizarre list. James, Howard, Wade and possibly Bosh all belong in basically the same category (James probably the outlier there by himself), but Iguodala? Like, Elton Brand is way better. In fact, Iguodala had a pretty mediocre year last year, especially in the context of a suprise team. His numbers weren't that bad, but he was criticised from many corners, his rebounding and assist numbers falling and his FT% falling dramatically. Derrick Rose and Beasley are, of course, darlings of this years draft class, which looked to me (admittedly college hoops is not my forte) a relatively mediocre one, but have done nothing in the NBA. And of course the Marvin Williams shout out is just from outer space (14.8ppg@46.2% from a PF, 5.7rpg and less than half a block a game in serious minutes).
"Obviously, they are proven teams," said Horford. "We feel good about our team. I think we have to keep getting better and keep working. And as long as we do that I think we should have a good chance to compete with those other teams."
And that is what the Hawks are this season. A good young team with a chance, even if nobody knows it yet. If we only had the foresight to make that statement about the Rays back in March.
...check and mate?
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