The Blue Workhorse

Skip told it like he saw it without the sugar coating or unnecessary fluff many of today’s announcers choose to use. He was unafraid to state his opinion, whatever it may have been, and had no remorse if you didn’t agree. He hated the Wave and when anyone called in on sports talk radio and asked about the Infield Fly Rule. He knew baseball and seemingly where every fan in the stands hailed from as he would announce the hometown of whomever was lucky enough to catch a foul ball.

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I know it’s a little bit late but I finally got around to putting up a couple of pics I took from Game 3 and Game 6 of the Atlanta Hawks/Boston Celtics NBA playoffs first round matchup. There are not too many because being the fan that I am, it makes it kind of difficult for me to take pictures instead of cheer on my team (especially when the games are as exciting as Game 3 and Game 6 were and your team is making its first playoff appearance in almost a decade).

In our latest article, 33 Observations from Celtics/Hawks Series, I commented on a number of things (everything from Mike Bibby’s comments to the KG/Zaza Pachulia altercation to the possibility of Atlanta having a “Big Three” in the future) that occurred during the exciting seven game first round series between the Boston Cs and the Atlanta Hawks.

After writing the article, I e-mailed our new-found oppositions in debate over at Sports of Boston — an interesting and well-written site that covers each of the Boston professional sports squads, who previously had responded with Why the Hawks Will Fly South this Series in refutation of Why Hawks Will Ruin Celtics Title Hopes but also wrote an apology after we came close to being absolutely genius due to the Game 4 altercation.

One of their Celtics’ writers, Geoff, countered our 33 observations with Reactions to a Hawks Fan’s View of Round 1.
In response to particular points made by us, Geoff wrote 8 points of his own. And I, of course, am now required to write a rebuttal to some of his statements:

I bought tickets for Game 3. I predicted the Hawks would make the playoffs before the season began, so I had to support my team regardless of how they had played in Games 1 & 2. I was able to observe a lot that I might have missed during the broadcast, so I started observing things throughout the remainder of the series.

Here are 33 of my observations from the Hawks/Celtics series (some obvious and some that might not have been):

Atlanta Hawks: Where Shock the World Happens - When attending Game 3, I saw a guy with a posterboard sign that simply read “Shock the World.” Last night for Game 6, everyone who attended was given a shirt with the same words branded across the front. Nearly every ‘expert’ predicted a series sweep, especially when Boston handily won the first two games, but the Hawks surprised many by winning Game 3. They then adopted the mantra wholeheartedly and startled many when they won …

After winning the Eastern Conference Atlantic Division and having the best record, not only in the Eastern Conference but in all of the NBA, during the regular season, the Boston Celtics entered the playoffs with aspirations of hoisting the golden trophy as NBA Champions this season.

However, it could be the lowly eighth-seeded below .500 Atlanta Hawks that ultimately lead to the all-powerful Celtics demise. How is that? How could a 37-45 squad bring down the dominant 66-16 team that beat them in five consecutive contests prior to Game 3 of the first round?

A lot of interesting stuff took place in Philips Arena on Saturday night as not only an NBA game took place but there was an NBA doubleheader: Pat Riley fell to 0-4 in doubleheaders, Shawn Marion technically played and lost for two different teams on the same day, and the Miami Heat are still really bad at basketball.

When all was said and done, the result of the replayed game was the same, Joe Johnson just scored three less points as no one scored in the replay, which lasted approximately two minutes. The Hawks were triumphant 114-111.

The Royal Court dancers, as the Kings’ dancers are named, got themselves into some hot water a couple of weeks ago and could possibly face disciplinary actions after some photos of the dancers were taken from PhotoBucket galleries and began making their rounds on blogs such as Don Chavez and WithLeather. Many of the photos are sexually suggestive and some have the dancers drinking in their uniforms. While all of the photos can be found here and here at WithLeather, below is one of the tame photos from those found: