Josh 1 Is Gone

Ridiculous. The sweet passing, the off-the-ball runs, the beautiful 'fro... gone forever. Josh Childress is going to play professional basketball in Greece for Olympiakos.

Sekou has the coverage.

Hoopinion weighs in.

I can only hope that Josh Childress shares his opinions on the Atlanta Hawks in a brutally honest fashion. We can't possibly expect good answers from the people involved with the franchise.

This is one of the most damning actions of a franchise in the history of the NBA. If you think this isn't an indictment of the coach, GM and ownership then you are fooling yourself. It is clear that the only way out of this mess is for someone to come in and buy the team from the Atlanta Spirit, for they are fools. They will say that they offered Childress a better deal than he could have hoped for in the NBA, but can you blame the guy for not wanting to play for a coach that can barely construct sentences, much less a real NBA offense?

Josh Childress, you will be missed.

I invite everyone to join me in buying a Josh Childress Olympiakos jersey and wearing it on opening night.

Knight is Gone, What Next?

[You might have noticed the disgusting green background on the site for the last week. Say what you will about this blog, but I don't welch on bets. -Matt]

Billy Knight has resigned, effective July 1. Amazingly he leaves on a high note, having put together a pretty good 2007 about which I have no complaints. He had a great draft (picking the guys I wanted), made a smart trade for Bibby, and tried to fire Mike Woodson several times. All around, pretty good. With all the weirdness surrounding the ownership, I can't really blame Knight for not signing Josh Smith before the season started.

The most horrible of rumors has appeared in several places- Hollinger mentioned it online and Sekou talked about it in the AJC: Billy King might be the front runner for the GM position and Woodson might not be losing his job. Needless to say, that is probably the worst thing that could happen to this franchise. Wasn't Billy King FIRED for being a REALLY BAD GM? Didn't the Hawks only win 37 games with a roster that was able to take Boston the distance? I have no choice. I am going to have to track down Michael Gearon, Jr. and talk some sense into him.

Stay tuned, dear readers...

The most one-sided 7 game series ever

Is it possible for an underdog 8 seed to take a world class team to 7 games and be embarrassed? Yes we can! On the plus side, it's much easier to fire Woodson when the team took a dump like that in the final game. Guess what- when your only offense is generated in transition because your team is very young and athletic, but you have no half court offense and you can't stop great teams with your defense (even though your coach is a "defensive specialist", then you are not a good coach. Perhaps the NBA is not for you. At the very least, the Atlanta Hawks are not for you.

I would like to take a few moments to celebrate this Hawks team, however. This series was unexpected, to say the least. They deserve all the credit in the world for making the playoffs in a *cough cough* stacked Eastern Conference, but then to deliver this kind of entertainment to their fans... I'm not going to name names, because every player on the team busted their butts to try and win. I have nothing but respect for the players. Coach Woodson cares and he really did do his best, so he deserves some respect for that, too. Steve Belkin only deserves a pie in the face (along with the 2008 first round draft pick from Atlanta).

There's nothing I can say about the Celtics that Jeff at CelticsBlog hasn't said already. When they put their minds to it, they are an amazing team. Kevin Garnett does not deserve the rap that he gets- the man is an unbelievable player and the Hawks could not stop him. He could have scored 100 points a game if Doc Rivers had been smart enough to let him. Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are not the players they once were, but what they are is still freaking good. Good luck to them- they may not lose another game until the finals, since Cleveland, Detroit and Orlando don't gt to play in Atlanta.

Hawks fans can do something they haven't been able to do in a long time- hold their head up high. If anyone says something about putting up the worst shooting percentage in a game 7 in the shot clock era, just mumble something about the coach and then start talking about Joe Johnson's performance in game 4.

Decent Win

The Celtics put up a good game, but the ending was what we all expected. Joe Johnson had a typical game, scoring 42 consecutive times in the 4th quarter on his way to 200 points. Josh Smith blocked a dozen 3 pointers, and decapitated Rajon Rondo at least twice by my count. The classic Hotlanta crowd was in attendance, cheering their butts off for the best team in the NBA.

You think Josh Smith cares that the Celtics are the best team in the NBA? Josh Smith doesn't give a rat's ass. He's at home right now eating ice cream and watching Judge Judy.

You think Al Horford cares about the Celtics? He's doing pushups right now, thinking about grabbing his own rebound and stuffing it in Paul Pierce's face.

You think Joe Johnson cares about the Celtics? He's hustling at a pool hall right now, sipping on bourbon while wearing a smoking jacket and talking to your mom on his cell phone.

You think Mike Woodson cares about the Celtics? He doesn't even know what team the Hawks are playing next. He can't believe the "let Joe Johnson dribble past everybody and score by himself" play worked 10 times in a row.

Above all else, last night was a really good game. I haven't had that much fun watching a Hawks game in years. The fact that they won was just bonus. I was a little embarrassed by the streamers coming down at the end of the game- I was hoping that the rules had changed, and that the underdog only needs to win 2 games in order to win the best-of-7 series, but apparently somebody still needs to win 2 more games. I'd like to see the Hawks hold their own again in game 6, but as always, we will see.

No matter what happens, the shine and swagger are gone from the Celtics. They may be the best team in the league, but they are going to have to earn the championship.

CelticsBlog.com Pays Up

Read 300 words about the glory that is the Atlanta Hawks

I'm not holding my breath for another 300 words, but here's hoping. No draft picks this year, so there is literally nothing to lose.

300

Jeff- to paraphrase Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon (caught it on TCM last night), if you don't got my 300 words, then get 'em.

Ridiculous game last night from Josh Smith and the Hawks. The team was fired up and could do no wrong, it seemed. The Celtics were terrible on offense and the Hawks finally made some shots- although I think every shot that didn't go in was either an air ball or clanged off the side of the rim. Seriously, shots were either fantastic or horrendous.

Does anybody else get a weird vibe from the Joe Johnson - Mike Bibby relationship? It looks like Joe didn't want to give it up to Bibby, and didn't want him taking the ball up the court, either. Consequently, Bibby ended up having to force some shots to try and stay in the rhythm- it was weird.

Let's be honest- Josh Smith isn't going to play like that every night. And every Hawks fan out there knows he's going to keep hoisting those shots, though.

I thought the biggest key to last night was the Hawks best 5 guys playing for a long stretch in the third quarter, and they finished with the most number of minutes- Joe Johnson, Al Horford, Josh Smith, Josh Childress and Mike Bibby (they were each over +13). Bring in Marvin (-9) to rest any player on that squad, with the occasional Pachulia or Law sighting, and you've got a decent team that can compete.

Hoopinion must have been happy to see Solomon Jones get on the court at the end of the 3rd quarter to give up an easy bucket at the buzzer. You can take the Woodson out of the something or other, but you can't take the something or other out of the Woodson.

BREAKING NEWS

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2008/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=mavshorntetsgame2_080422

There is a rumor going around that the Celtics have a new strategy centered around containing Marvin Williams- on defense they will single-team him and let him shoot 22-foot fadeaway jumpers, and offense they will post up and dunk on him. Clever!