As I mentioned, a trip to Dallas isn't particularly meaningful for most Hawks players, except for Acie Law, who was born and raised there. Coming home is always special for him, and though the Hawks spent a only short time in the Metroplex, Law did his best to make it count.

Law's foundation (the aptly named Acie Law Foundation) hosted over a hundred kids from the neighborhood he grew up in at the game, each wearing red shirts (pictured right) that he purchased for them for the occasion. Before the game, Acie invited them all down to observe pre-game workouts and take pictures, and he took the time to deliver some words of encouragement to them.

"It's important to me to show these kids what you can accomplish if you work hard," Law told me after he was back in the locker room before the game. "I just wanted to show them a good time tonight - most of them have never had the opportunity to even see a pro basketball game before, so this was a special opportunity for them and for me."

Hosting the kids was only a part of the night's efforts for Law though, as he also purchased a suite for the game for many of his friends and family who came to cheer him on. I visited with his mother, Dolores Law, in the suite during halftime, and she talked about what an incredible thing it was to get to watch her son's dream play out right in front of her eyes.

"He just worked so hard to get to this point," she said. "It makes me so happy to see him accomplishing his goals. I don't even think it's all really sunk in yet for me. We used to come to see the Mavs play when Acie was little, he was always a big Mavericks and Cowboys fan, and to see him playing here now, it's just so special."

"It's so nice to have everyone here to root for him," she said. "He's got his grandmother here, aunts, uncles, his fiancee's family, it's been pretty crazy putting all this together - my phone has been blowing up all weekend. First it was people trying to get tickets, and then after he missed the game Friday night with the flu everyone was calling to find out if he was even going to play, and I was like 'Yeah, yeah, he's playing, he'll be fine, come on down'."

While the game didn't turn out quite as Law and his teammates would have liked, in situations like this sometimes the final score doesn't matter nearly as much as the fact that it happened in the first place.

Acie talks with his guests before the game

Acie poses with some of his biggest fans