Tag: Atlanta Hawks

Fresh off his successful mediation of the Snoop Dogg and Iggy Azalea Twitter feud, Atlanta’s own T.I. looks to strengthen his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize by helping the beleaguered hometown Hawks ease tensions with their fan base.

Mayor Kasim Reed is batting .333 when it comes to keeping major sports teams in the city limits. Today he held a press conference to reassure the public that his average won’t drop.

When an NBA team owner issues a mea culpa at the same time he’s hanging a “For Sale” sign on his share of the franchise, we know we have entered a new era in sports.

Learning that the team suddenly is for sale got us thinking about possible suitors.

When the Atlanta Hawks host the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday, March 21, game attendees of drinking age are in for a perk. Hawktoberfest, the basketball brand’s take on a Philips Arena craft beer competition, starts at 6 p.m. and goes through the third quarter. For the second year in a row, Hawktoberfest offers fans of professional sports and local craft beer what so often seems like a red herring—the chance to drink the kind of beer you buy for yourself at home, at a major sports venue. And the church said, Amen.

When Pero Antić steps onto the court on October 30 for the Hawks’ season opener, he’ll become the first Macedonian to play in the NBA. It’s an overdue feat, both for Antić and hoops-mad Macedonia, but sooner or later a big man from this tiny Balkan country was destined to make the leap. Macedonian, after all, comes from the ancient Greek word Makedones—“the tall ones.”

I managed to live in Indiana for more than six years and never touch a basketball. That’s not a boast, just evidence of how scarred I still am from wasting all those Friday nights on the bench watching the other six members of the St. Elizabeth Junior High team rotate in and out of the game.

Yet to those who root for pro sports (and, I hope, those who play them) the night felt unmistakably like a consolation prize. We were told repeatedly how lucky we are to be here in this world-class sports town. We were reminded that the New York media was against us. We were so showered with love and self-serving praise that you almost expected, say, a Boston sports fan to leave behind his seven titles in the last twelve years so he could come down and buy season tickets to half-empty Turner Field.