Handing off . . .

Whenever I’m asked why I call my blog people “my blog people” I always think back to something I wrote when I started the Hawks beat for the AJC.

“I care that you care. It’s my job to give you your Hawks fix and I take that responsibility seriously, but I hope we can have some fun along the way. My aim is to be informative, entertaining, fair, interesting and, above all else, honest.”

Now that I’m (sort of) moving on my hope is that, on balance, I’ve met those goals more often than not.

I’ve moved to a new role as a general assignment sports reporter for the AJC. Chris Vivlamore is now the AJC’s Hawks beat writer. He’s a real pro and I’m sure he will do good work giving you your Hawks fix.

In my new role I will be covering all of the teams we follow at the AJC. That means you’ll still see my byline on Hawks stories and on the blog, but you’ll also see it lots of other places in the newspaper and at ajc.com.

I sincerely appreciate my blog people for giving me an audience for the past 900-odd blog posts and who-knows-how-many tweets. When fellow beat hacks disparage Atlanta fans for not supporting the Hawks, I often remind them that there is a smart and passionate group of fans who love the team and the game.

Hopefully, I’ve enhanced your ability to do both.

Michael Cunningham