I was supposed to be here tonight to live blog the Skills Competitions, but I'm
not gonna. One reason is my computer has been acting up for the last two hours,
so I am just now getting online. Another reason (and really, the more important
one) is that none of us in Hawksville care about these contests tonight (though
I must give some props to Jason Kapono, who just tied the all-time 3-point
contest record with 25 points in the final).Our focus is elsewhere, let's be
honest. We traded for Mike Bibby today. Mike Bibby! The dude is money, folks. I
loved watching his Kings' teams in the playoffs back in the early part of this
decade, and you knew if the ball was in his hands at the end of a game, Sacto
was winning.
I came over to the Arena tonight with Hawks PR man Jon Steinberg, and every
person we saw when we walked into the building stopped to congratulate us on the
trade. It seriously feels like we just had a son - I feel like we should be
passing out victory cigars.
Everyone loves this deal for Atlanta. Not only are people telling us
this in person, but taking a stroll around the interwebs I have found nothing
but rave reviews. Check out the columns for some of the various NBA writers out
there:
-
Sekou Smith's Blog
-
Jeff Schultz, AJC
-
Marc Stein, ESPN.com
-
John Hollinger, ESPN.com (Insider password required)
-
Marty Burns, SI.com
- Tony Mejia,
Sportsline.com
- Charley Rosen,
Foxsports.com
After the trade went down, I emailed Tom Ziller of Sactown Royalty for his
thoughts on Bibby. Here is what he had to say:
"Bibby's a great offensive player -- he can shoot with anyone, he
knows how to run a break, and he's a professional on the floor. Don't expect
much defense or any Nash-like 15-assist games. But he can give you 20 points
most nights and 30 every now and then. When the shot's not falling, you'll
beg for Acie. But when it's on, Joe will be loving it.
And in the playoffs, well... you know his reputation."
Obviously, we need to keep in mind that just making this move doesn't
technically qualify the Hawks for the playoffs, and with a very tough West Coast
trip coming up, the team certainly has it's work cut out for them. But for
tonight, I am going to enjoy all the good vibes this deal is generating.
Oh by the way - Dwight Howard is just killing this dunk contest. The event
hasn't been good since J-Smoove brought the house down in Denver, but Dwight
Howard has done two unbelievable dunks in the preliminary round that makes me
think that a big man may win this contest for the first time in forever.
