Long Time Coming...

THE HAWKS ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS!

Got damn ya'll don't know how happy I am right now. I pre-ordered my tickets two weeks ago as soon as they became available. Luckily my faith in the team payed off! Even though we kinda backed in, its still a victory for us.

Man, in case you didn't know, the Hawks had the longest post-season drought in the NBA (Warriors had it up until last year...I see you BP! Good luck this time around). Crazy thing is, I remember the last time we was in the playoffs.

It was 1999. We played and beat the Pistons (whaddup D!) in the first round. I actually went Game 2 with my cousins. We were playing in the Georgia Dome at the time and it was at this game that I was introduced to the pleasure of drinking beer at a professional sporting event. I wasn't old enough to buy alcohol yet, but the fam looked out for me! I remember all of us being pretty tipsy and heckling Grant Hill. I think we got caught on the jumbo screen once too. After seeing that we sat our asses down, it wasn't the best look. Especially with my underage drinking ass.

We came into that game with a 1-0 lead, won Game 2, lost both away games, and came back home and won the series. We went on to play the Knicks in the next round and got swept.

So, I guess I can be happy that my last in-person playoff memory of the Hawks was a win. Going into this years playoffs facing the Celtics seems like a lofty task, but the Celtics, like every other team in the NBA is beatable on any given night. We just played them this past weekend and stuck with them until the 4th quarter where old ass Sam Cassell just started bombing on our ass.

Hopefully, playing them again so soon will help us in making the proper adjustments. I'm also hoping, well praying, that we get some decent play from the bench. Coach Woody has done a good job in crushing our young bench player's spirits by having them ride the pine all season. So it would be foolish for me to expect a group of young cats who hardly played to all of a sudden come out and be super productive. But hey, the Warriors pulled off a miracle last year...maybe we can be this year's feel good story. But the bottom line is, in order to win in the playoffs you need to play defense and have a bench.

But later for that. I'll worry about that later, I want to bask in this joy for a couple days. I'll really be basking if we end the season winning our last two games.

Oh yeah, don't be too surprised if you see or hear about me on the news. Because straight up, if I end up sitting next to some punk-ass transplant rooting too too loud for the Celtics, I'M SWINGING! No questions asked...I'm taking whatever team paraphernalia they have on and launching that shit into the crowd. You've been warned. Hawks fans, we need to take our arena back! Like my homie Bem told me the other day...you wouldn't be able to set foot in one of these other arenas and behave like that. So I'm leading the charge. If I catch somebody with a little too much Celtic Pride...I'm slappin' & kickin'...Chris Rock style.