Michael Dean Woodson's exit process begins

[GameTime]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2009030630

Things are falling apart for the Hawks.

Atlanta got off to a horrible start, then played the entire second half without power forward Josh Smith, who got into a heated exchange with coach Mike Woodson at halftime that could be heard in the hallway outside the locker room.

Smith, who had 13 points at halftime, spent the second half sitting in the middle of the bench with a towel draped over his back.

“I don’t want to talk about that right now,” Smith said when asked about the benching.

Woodson, too, was tightlipped and wouldn’t say if the team’s third-leading scorer would play Saturday against Detroit.

“We’ll determine that tomorrow,” he said.

What happened to Sekou by the way? Sad Yahoo has more info on this than our own paper.

Edited March 7, 2009 by GameTime

[DrReality]

I'm glad it blew up. Maybe something will happen with one or both of them. He cannot manage his players.

[PureGreatness]

this aint nothing but 2 married couple arguing. but why was they arguing?

hope smith plays vs detroit.

Edited March 7, 2009 by hoodstar

[thecampster]

this aint nothing but 2 married couple arguing. but why was they arguing?

Ok 2 things. First I found this http://www.hawksquawk.net/community/index....=333673&hl=

It's from the beginning of the year. If you are posting on this, read your comments you made 5 months ago and see if you still feel the same way.

Second, here is the most telling comment I found that exposes what I think is the real issue. This is Woodson's comment from the Yahoo recap. “Guys aren’t serious about what’s at hand. And what’s at hand is us winning this fourth spot and holding it down,” Woodson said. “So we’ve got to go home now and see what we’re made of.”

Translation: Woody called Josh out after the first half and Josh didn't take it, he retaliated verbally. Now we don't know if Woodson called anyone else out and we also don't know if this is his habit to call people out or if he's been targeting just Smith. But from this comment, he said "guys"...not our team, not we, not our guys (as a whole). He said "guys" meaning he has specific people he is laying blame on. This tells me that at least Smith and my guess is Acie and maybe a few others are his whipping boys and you just don't treat grown men that way. Maybe once, maybe twice but if it's a pattern it blows up. I wonder if this is why Johnson has looked so tired, Childress left and free agents don't consider coming here.

Think about this. Have you ever loved your job but hated your boss? That's the vibe I get right now from probably 5 or 6 different Hawks. It's just most evident with Josh Smith because he's emotional and young. Once again, this is why players should go through their maturing phase in college.