Perhaps it was a tad early to go ahead and pencil in the Orlando Magic into the second round of the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs. The Atlanta Hawks dominated the Magic in game one down in Orlando after pretty much EVERYONE gave the Hawks little chance of winning the series. Shoot, I will admit that possibly I was wrong. I thought the series would be won by the Magic in three (Yes, I realize that it is a best-of-seven series. It was a joke, get it?) Last week in the out on a limb section, I predicted the Magic in five games. I though the Hawks would win game three before losing games four and five to bow out of the playoffs. Was I wrong? Will Atlanta ultimately win the series against what is clearly a flawed Orlando team? Maybe. I just want on the record that I admitted I was wrong about the Hawks not having a realistic chance in the series. My bad. But then again, I was joined by a lot of other folks that were give the Hawks zero chance in the series. In a poll conducted on our website, the Magic were the pick before game one, but even after the game one win, 48% of folks still believed the Magic would take the series.
The Sporting News reported that several Hawks were “irked” by “what amounted to a playoff guarantee” by Jameer Nelson after his Orlando team, playing without Dwight Howard, was edged by the Bulls late in the regular season. Nelson is heard saying during a Derrick Rose interview, “Catch you in the second round.”
Said Josh Smith from The Sporting News piece, “A lot of their players are already claiming they are already going to make the second round, so that gives us a little added motivation, too. If that doesn’t get you geared up, I don’t know what does.” The Sporting News used a quote from the AJC for the story.
680 The Fan’s The Rude Awakening took two opposing stances on the statement and Smith’s reaction. Christopher Rude seemed to love the passion from Smith and wanted Joe Johnson to seize a hold of the disrespect card and use it to beat Orlando. Perry Laurentino meanwhile was a bit more levelheaded, saying that the Nelson comment was more along the lines of what a just-defeated athlete would say to an opponent in order to seek payback. I would agree with the latter. Nelson’s comment wasn’t so much directed as Atlanta as much as it was directed towards Chicago. Nelson wasn’t trying to mock the Hawks, a team that beat Orlando in the regular season 3-1 including the last three in a row. Nelson was challenging Rose should the two meet up in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. And if Josh Smith really needed those comments to get him fired up to play well in the PLAYOFFS, then I don’t know what to tell him. “Bulletin Board Material” is something that is effective in high school and a bit in college. You would hope however that by the time you are a professional, maybe that eight-digit paycheck would be motivation enough for you to go out and try really hard DURING THE PLAYOFFS.
Long-time “Voice of the Tar Heels” Woody Durham announced his retirement after spending forty years with the University of North Carolina. Why is this important? His son Wes Durham is the Voice of the Yellow Jackets as well as the Atlanta Falcons. You would think that UNC may place a call to gauge the interest of the younger Durham in replacing his old man in Chapel Hill. If Wes were to leave it would be a huge loss not just to Yellow Jacket fans, but to the city of Atlanta. Wes is THE voice of Atlanta sports these days and his work with 790 The Zone has been high quality as well. If he were to depart, the sports radio airwaves in the city would miss him no doubt.
I am getting a tad tired of the “Loserville” talk too that I hear on the radio, especially from Mel. Could someone please enlighten me as to how a city like Atlanta is Loserville? In the last twelve months Atlanta has had an NBA team in the second round of the playoffs (they are back in the playoffs again this year), a baseball team win the wild card, a football team clinch home field advantage in the NFC, a local college basketball team make the NCAA tournament, and a WNBA team (well no one paid attention to that). Cleveland is Loserville with the Indians, Cavaliers and Browns stinking up the joint. I don’t get how teams in various tournaments competing for national and world championships mean this city is Loserville. Wake up and be glad you don’t live in Detroit or Cleveland.
The relationship between the Atlanta Braves and Tom Glavine has officially been mended and Braves fans are reaping the rewards of the two sides coming together last year and hashing out ill feelings. Glavine has been a huge addition to the Braves radio coverage and to the Braves television broadcasts. He is as smooth in the booth as he was on the mound and even though he was a Hall of Fame pitcher, he doesn’t flaunt his abilities like other former players sometimes do in the booth. I would imagine that the Braves might try to explore bringing Smoltz on full-time and eventually pairing the two together, perhaps after a year or two to get a sense of play-by-play and not simply analysis.
Can You Believe He Said That
“The World needs ditchdiggers too!”
That was from 790 The Zone’s Mike Bell in regards to a high-profile Carver defensive back being charged with stealing from the Georgia locker room on a visit to Athens. Sadly though Mike, the recruiting world won’t forget about this talented young man. Instead Georgia will cross him off their list and he’ll end up at an SEC rival and continue to haunt the Dawgs. That is the nature of college football.
No comments:
Post a Comment