"Fire Sale!"

[Gray Mule]

"Visions of sugar plums danced in their head."

Remember that line from, "The night before Christmas?"

When a business has a fire, often they will have a "Fire

Sale" and dispose of everything that was in the building.

Some may have slight damage by smoke or water, but

it is all for sale --- CHEAP.

Since Hawks have not had a very good season, so far,

there seems to be much thought that there will be a

"Fire Sale" of all their players and other teams will

be able to gobble them up at below wholesale prices.

The "Sugar Plum" mindset of some opponents seem to be,

"We can dump anything on Atlanta and get the player

or players from them that we need."

Some of the post we read around the net indicate that

the Hawks would trade their players for just about

anything we would offer. Our high priced, long contract

players that we don't want or need can be dumped on

the Hawks. Throw in a draft pick or two which will be

available five/ten years down the road and they will

jump on it.

NEWS FLASH! It ain't happening!

The real problem with this Hawks team? It all goes back to

the sale of the Hawks. Yep. And we're still hurting

because we can't get it approved and closed out.

While the rest of the league was preparing for the upcoming

season last summer, everything was at a standstill for

Atlanta. No coach or G.M. "Interm" meaning, you sit

here until we find someone to sit here. You just keep

the seat warm.

Finally, the Interm label was removed. The season was

at hand. You guys can pick up the scraps. "New" owners

may or may not wish to replace you when they are

approved. They set the closing date, then moved it up,

again and again ----and, still, we wait.

Turmoil -- Unhappy players. Unhappy fans. No team

at all. Just a bunch of individuals, doing their own thing.

Finally, we see a team emerge from all this. They become

more like family. They care for each other and the team.

They begin to play together. They begin to listen and

pay attention to the coaches.

Terry Stotts. Through all this, somehow, he has managed

to keep his sanity. I don't know how. What ever he did,

it didn't work. When he talked, apparently no one would

really listen. "Lame duck" was putting it nicely, yet he

hung in there, survived, at least, so far.

All season these Hawks have yet to experience winning

back to back games. Their season is set up so that

the hardest stretch of the year comes first. They have

the most road games of any N.B.A. team to open the

year. Not just this year but every year.

With all this, Atlanta is still only 5 or 6 games out of the

playoff picture! The schedule gets better. A team has

emerged from the ashes. Defense has become the

password for these Hawks. They actually listen to

Terry Stotts and his staff.

Now they must defend their home court. They must

begin to make a noise. They must improve on their

one game winning streak!

Fire sale? No! Just watch out, here comes the Hawk

TEAM!! No more pussyfooting around. We've come

to play ball!!!!!

GO HAWKS!!!!!!!!

[Packfill]

I hope you are right. I am still optimistic but if they tank on this homestand then I wouldn't argue with anyone that suggests a fire sale is necessary.