Demise of Atlanta(with small Dallas cameo)

[Nash13]

Hopeless Hawks now NBA's biggest lost cause

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By Peter May
Special to ESPN.com


On the night of May 22, there was an understated sense of excitement in the offices of the Atlanta Hawks. They were one of 13 teams in the lottery and they were hoping for the best, even if the odds were almost overwhelming. Still, there was a chance that the right combination could pop up, giving the Hawks the first pick.

Hawks boss Stan Kasten had extra operators ready to handle what he anticipated would be a flood of phone calls. The promotions people were ready. The marketing and advertising people were ready. Then came the lottery and, once again, Atlanta's basketball fortunes settled into that now familiar state, somewhere between ennui and apathy.

Kasten, who knows the Atlanta sports scene as well as anyone, believes that the Hawks would have been deluged with calls had they ended up with LeBron James. He points to the excitement that Michael Vick generated when the Falcons acquired him. He says the city will support a winner, or at least a team bent on winning and seemingly headed in the right direction.


Believe it or not, Jason Terry wants to stay and play in Atlanta.
The Hawks, as of now, provide none of that. Zero. You could make a pretty convincing case that Atlanta is now, officially, the Team Without Hope in the NBA. There is no other team, not even the still-in-the-womb Bobcats, which offers less hope for the few fans who still care. The Nuggets are awful, but they have Carmelo Anthony and a lot of money. The Clippers have finally arrived into the 21st Century. The Warriors at least have some tradeable assets. As we sit at the end of July 2003, there quite possibly is no worse situation in the NBA than the one in Atlanta. And we are led to believe that there is actually someone out there who wants to buy this thing?

You can make a case that Atlanta and Cleveland were 1-2 or 2-1 in the "Who cares?" department on May 21. They played among the fewest fans in the NBA last season; dish people surfing NBA TV got accustomed to seeing the empty black seats in Philips Arena and the empty blue seats in Gund Arena. And now? The Hawks are promoting James' first visit to Atlanta. How twisted and ironic is that?

The Hawks thought they had turned the proverbial corner last summer, acquiring Glenn Robinson from Milwaukee. Soon-to-be-ex-head coach Lon Kruger promised the playoffs -- or rebates to season-ticket holders. The season-ticket holders won that one. The Big Dog proved true to his nickname, despite his usual, flossy numbers. The Hawks had a better winning percentage when he was out of the lineup (9-4 vs. 26-43) and shipped him to Philadelphia in the recent, four-team megatrade.

And who did they get back? Terrell Brandon, who will never play again and whose big contract comes off the books a few months into the season, and Randy Holcomb. The Hawks gave up their leading scorer, third-leading rebounder and second-leading assist guy and got an expiring contract in return? Second-leading scorer Shareef Abdur-Rahim wondered to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "We give up 20 points a game for a guy who's going to retire? Something else is coming behind."

Yes, and that someone, we are told, is David McDavid, who must really, really, really have a lot of money and who must really, really, really want to be an NBA owner. This is the same guy who has a business called the "David McDavid Collision Center" which has a prominent place on the road into Dallas from DFW Airport. Is that where the Hawks deals are being made?

(Then again, predecessor Ted Turner once gave up Jane Fonda and kept John Rocker, so maybe this will be an upgrade.)

McDavid still hasn't officially taken over yet, so the Hawks are in limbo. But payroll-slicing deals like the Robinson trade always look good to the incoming boss. Meanwhile, the Hawks are essentially rudderless in the front office, although mainstay Kasten is still around and soon will be able to devote his attention to the Braves. Billy Knight is on board now as the general manager, but he has the dreaded "I" word permanently attached to his title: interim. There is no head coach, unless you want to count Terry Stotts, the guy who mopped up last season. He, too, has been an interim fellow.

The Hawks not only gave away Robinson. In acquiring him from Milwaukee, they also gave up their first-round pick from the 2003 NBA draft (although it was protected at the top.) That meant that instead of getting the eighth pick, Atlanta had to give it to the Bucks, who swooped in and got T.J. Ford, a point guard who would have fit quite well into the Hawks' point guard-challenged lineup.

The Hawks have yet to re-sign Jason Terry, whose agent is trying to shake the Hawks into doing something by offering up non-existent offer sheets from other teams (Utah.) Terry has nowhere to go and has said he actually wants to stay in Atlanta, where he has played reasonably well. After the Robinson trade, he told the Journal-Constitution, "They said they wanted to free up space to sign free agents. I know one free agent that would like to get signed. We'll see what happens." He has been given a qualifying offer for next season.

The Hawks are saying they will match any offer to Terry, who is a restricted free agent. They probably will follow through on that; they pretty much have to unless they want to consider joining the ACC next season.


The Hawks are saying they will match any offer to Terry, who is a restricted free agent. They probably will follow through on that; they pretty much have to unless they want to consider joining the ACC next season. But they allowed Dion Glover, the No. 4 scorer from last year, to become an unrestricted free agent. Ira Newble, who started 45 games last year, went to Cleveland.

As of now, there are nine players on the Atlanta roster. Two of them are draft picks. One of them will never play again (Brandon) and two others (Nazr Mohammed and Chris Crawford) missed a bulk of last year with injuries. Among those left standing are Abdur-Rahim, who has played more games than any active NBA player (533) without so much as getting a sniff at the postseason. And unless he gets traded, this time next year he could be 82 games closer to Tom Van Arsdale, who played 929 games and never cashed a playoff check. Theo Ratliff, Alan Henderson, and, we have to believe, Terry should also be back.

That's not much. It'll be even less if Dallas can pry Ratliff away. The Hawks are clearly looking ahead -- two years from now, they might actually have some cap room. But you've still got to play the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons.

Those picky Atlanta fans at least have the Braves and, soon, the Falcons will be up and running again. Even the NHL Thrashers managed to re-sign Slava Kozlov. The Thrashers may have to pass for winter sports entertainment at Philips Arena this coming season. The only other options are the NBA teams which, by rules, must pass through.

Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.



If McDavid operates out of Dallas, it would be easier for the Hawks to contact the Mavs. Which makes the 3way trade a little more credible.

[Mavs Rule]

McDavid knows Cuban well, and they have a history of doing basketball business together:

McDavid thought he'd reached that goal once before, when he bought the Mavericks along with Ross Perot Jr. in 1996. But after butting business heads with Perot and enduring a personality conflict with interim general manager Frank Zaccanelli, he voluntarily diminished his role and finally sold his 12 percent share to Mark Cuban in 2000.

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