When you wait long enough a bad situation finally turns good. Coal turns to diamonds. Catepillars turn to butterflies. Sweater vests are popular again. But for long suffering Atlanta Hawks fans, Billy Knight FINALLY did something right.
After years of enduring poor draft pick after poor draft pick, and Speedy Claxton-like signings after Lorenzen Wright-like signings, the team’s GM aka self-proclaimed basketball expert made a trade over All-Star weekend, sending spare parts to Sacramento for former All-Star point guard Mike Bibby. The Hawks FINALLY have the point guard they have been lacking. Plus, this is a guy that OTHER teams wanted too. Atlanta beat out Cleveland and the Lakers for this guy. He nearly took the Kings to the title back in 2002, had it not been for a miracle shot from the Lakers to sink Sacramento. Bibby took the Kings to the playoffs five straight seasons and he is money with the ball. For his career Bibby has averaged 16.7 ppg with 6.2 assists.
I just wish the Hawks could have pulled this off a few years back. Bibby has had some injury problems the last few seasons and this year he missed the first 36 games while he rehabbed from thumb surgery to repair a torn ligament. But Bibby has started 12 games this year and has averaged 13.5 points with 5 assists and nearly 4 rebounds per contest. The injury history may be the reason Bibby was available, but hat doesn’t mean Bibby is done. He can still add to a team, put a certain team over the top. That’s why Cleveland was after him. LeBron wanted this guy. Maybe if Bibby was on the floor with the Cavs last June, the team isn’t swept by the Spurs. Bibby is the type of player that rises when the stakes are highest. I want the ball in his hands with the score tied and 8 seconds left in the game. He is a big game player and a proven winner. He took Arizona to the NCAA championship and upset powerhouse Kentucky in the process.
And that is what he will do for the Hawks. He will find J-Smooth in the first half, he will feed Joe Johnson in the third, and he will make sure Marvin is involved from the start. But once crunch time descends upon Philips Arena, it will AND SHOULD be Bibby-Time. HE should be the one firing threes as time is winding down.
Bibby will be the one to break the Hawks playoff drought. He MAY be the one that finally puts the Hawks into the promised land. Billy Knight FINALLY did something right and he may have FINALLY finished his 90 year rebuilding plan. Thank goodness. I am excited now for Hawks basketball, that is unless Billy Knight returns to being Billy Knight.
I remember he once traded for Rasheed Wallace, let him play for one game, before sending him to help the Detroit Pistons win the NBA title. I certainly hope BK isn’t doing the same thing this year by keeping Bibby for one game then trading him to Cleveland for Larry Hughes and a bunch of other trash. Knight finally pulled off the right move. Another thing that Knight did with this trade was prevent himself from making two more mistakes this August. He realized that those expiring contracts that he sent to Sacramento got him something, instead of just another Speedy Claxton signing. No major free agents have come to take Atlanta’s money in recent offseasons. Instead of signing Keynon Martins and Kobe Bryants, the Hawks have settled for Claxtons and Wrights. Well not this off-season. Free agents might want to come play with Johnson, Bibby, Williams and Smith. We had better be careful, Knight is starting to make sense. I think I read somewhere that when Billy Knight starts making intelligent decisions, frogs start to fall from the sky. This could be bad, but in the meantime, I’ll take the Hawks in the playoffs.
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