A few notes on a Wednesday...
We
have launched a pretty cool draft contest here on the Hawks website, the
11 Picks To Paradise Sweepstakes. It's a pretty fun contest, if you
don't mind my biased opine. Choose who you think the first 11 picks will be in
the upcoming NBA Draft, and you could win a trip to Paradisus Resort in the
Dominican Republic among other things.
For those who want to enter but don't really have a handle on which players
might go where, no worries - we've provided a link to
ESPN's Top 100 Prospects to give you a helping hand.
There is literally no reason you shouldn't enter this contest!
In other news, Hawks co-owner Ed Peskowitz is currently in Israel with Hawks
assistant coach Herb Brown for the
2nd Annual Friendship Games,
a weeklong basketball event designed to try to increase the peace in the Middle East
and around the world. The
games are the brainchild of Peskowitz, and feature 30 teams of college students
from 17 countries around the world.
Sufficed to say this is a terrific initiative, and an amazing experience for
all involved, and if you are interested in reading more about it,
check out their blog.
Thirdly, I will just throw this out there - we are still looking for a few
bloggers with intimate knowledge of some of the players the Hawks might look at
drafting to help with our little player previews (check out the ones we've done
so far on
Al Horford and
Spencer Hawes). Interested? Email the
hawks mailbag and let
me know if there are any players you followed closely and a link to your blog
and perhaps we will use your input.
Finally, the NBA Finals begin tomorrow, and I have to weigh in. The Spurs
will win it, and fairly handily I say. I am not swayed by the fact that
Cleveland swept the season series with San Antonio, nor am I swayed by the
notion that LeBron James can win this series on his own the way he did the
Eastern Finals.
San Antonio made relatively quick work of three teams in the West (Denver,
Phoenix, and Utah) that would all beat the Cavaliers in a series, and nothing
Cleveland did leading up to this point gives me confidence that they can make a
dent in the Spurs armor. The Spurs may not be the sexiest team, but they are the
most fundamentally sound, and are seemingly impervious to distractions or hype.
What LeBron did against the Pistons (especially in Game Five) was impressive,
but it says here his individual brilliance won't be enough to win the day - at
least not this time around.
Spurs in five is the call here.
