Hawks Still Flying for That Magic Word

ATLANTA -- Either Dr. Phil or Charles Barkley once said, if you wish to advance in life, you must start with the image in the mirror. So the Atlanta Hawks will continue to scare people the rest of this NBA season. That's because they know exactly what they are, and they know exactly what they are not.

Here's what the Hawks are: Pretty good.

Actually, the Hawks are better than that. I'll explain more in a moment, but let's start with what the Hawks aren't: Elite.

"We're in the conversation for sure, but we're not satisfied with what we've done so far, because we still have a ways to go," said Hawks guard Jamal Crawford, telling the truth about his suddenly potent team that has surged into a three-way tie with the Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns for the NBA's best record at 11-3.

The Magic and the Suns have been vibrant for a while. They've also made a couple of trips to the NBA Finals since the Hawks last did so 51 years ago on the way to a world championship. They were in St. Louis back then. In 1968, they moved to Atlanta , where they've been just an occasional tease. There was that Mike Fratello stretch in the 1980s with Dominique Wilkins, Doc Rivers and Spud Webb. There also was the Lenny Wilkens era when Mookie Blaylock, Dikembe Mutombo and Steve Smith produced 50-victory seasons. In between, there was a lot of nothingness, but now the Hawks have a chance to challenge or surpass their good old days.

I think it was Confucius -- or perhaps it was Earl "The Pearl" Monroe -- who opined, when you realize you have an opportunity to reach that next level in something, then you should take advantage of it. The Hawks realize they have one of those opportunities on Thanksgiving night at Philips Arena, where they will play hosts to their Orlando bogeymen of recent years.

For instance: While racing to the NBA Finals last season, the Magic took three of four games from the Hawks. And the Magic got accomplished Hawks killer Vince Carter during the offseason. Plus, the Magic ended the preseason for both teams by whipping the Hawks by 37 points with that man again (Carter) leading the way.

So this is more than just another early-season game for the Hawks.

"Well, it's huge," said Mike Woodson, in his sixth season with the Hawks, doing the unusual for a coach or a manager in this situation by refusing to deny the obvious -- and the obvious is that Thursday night's game really is huge for the Hawks.

Woodson added from behind his desk at Philips Arena, "Orlando has dominated our division the last few years, and we're trying to get to where they've been. They were in the Finals last year when nobody picked them to go to the Finals. I think their team is as good this year as it was last year. They've got a lot of weapons, and they're semi-young, and they've got that big man in the middle [Dwight Howard]. So I look at this game as a game that will tell us where we stand. From a coaching standpoint, I need to see where we are as a basketball team."

The Hawks have a core of athletically gifted players who suddenly realize basketball goes beyond running, jumping and slamming.
Everybody will see as much. In fact, at the end of this nationally televised game, the Hawks will be viewed as one of two entities: (1) The same guys who began the season as nothing more than the fourth-best team in the conference behind the Boston Celtics, Orlando and the Cleveland Cavaliers; (2) The different guys who flashed signs against the Magic of surging past the frequently vulnerable Celtics and of upsetting the Magic or the Cavaliers down the stretch.

The Hawks have a core of athletically gifted players who suddenly realize basketball goes beyond running, jumping and slamming. They have enough veterans to keep anybody who hints of becoming a knucklehead from dribbling that way. They have the league's most under-appreciated coach in Woodson, whose top three points of emphasis each moment are defense, defense and defense. They have a significant bench for the first time in more than two decades.

They have a clue, too. As a result, the Hawks' most telling game during the early season wasn't the one that many would say. In other words, it wasn't that game against the Celtics' Big Three on November 13, when the Hawks won in Boston for only the fifth time in 18 tries since the turn of the century.

It was that game against the Bobcats a week earlier when the Hawks were hammered by 20 points in Charlotte . It was that game, because there was no shrugging in the aftermath by the Hawks -- you know, who could have used a few alibis since they traveled to Charlotte after a West Coast swing that featured Kobe's boys, a loaded bunch of Portland Trailblazers and the improving Sacramento Kings.

Instead, the Hawks were fuming at themselves. They said such a loss was unacceptable. They even did something about it by winning seven in a row.

"That really showed our growth, right?" said Crawford, in his ninth NBA season, but his first with a Hawks team that he joined after a trade this summer with the Golden State Warriors. Crawford, right, already has excelled at the two roles that Hawks management had envisioned for him. First, courtesy of averaging 17 points during his 30 minutes per game, he is a prolific scorer off the bench when the impressive backcourt of Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby takes a breather. Second, as a prince of philanthropies, he is a quality person in the locker room.

Added Crawford, "This is a family here. On some teams, when a guy takes a shot and misses, guys put their heads down and say, 'He should have passed it.' We don't have that here at all. Everybody is really, really close. We all look out for each other."

Yeah, but can they do more than that?

Can they win? Not games, but championships?

That's what the elite do.

Terence Moore is a national columnist and commentator for FanHouse. He is a frequent panelist on "Rome Is Burning," an ESPN show hosted by Jim Rome, that is seen Monday through Friday at 4:30 PM ET. Moore spent more than three decades working for major newspapers, including 26 years as an award-winning sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He resides in Atlanta.