Atlanta Hawks: Smith hosts children for holiday
Vivlamore reporting.
Josh Smith hosted 20 children from City of Refuge, a non-profit organization, Sunday for an afternoon of fun, food and gifts at Dave and Buster’s. The event was a surprise to the children who were picked up and taken to the restaurant to spend time with the Hawks forward.
According to the organization, City of Refuge is an organization “dedicated to community development efforts that lead to the stability and sustainability of the local community. Our community zip code is 30314. It is a community in crisis but also a community with hope and resilience. Despite overwhelming social challenges, numbers and need, City of Refuge finds hope everyday in this neighborhood. That is not only because we remain committed to our neighbors, but they are committed to us, offering themselves as both models of transformation and returning here to help others in need once their lives are restored to paths of health and independence.”
In other orders of business:
* I’m taking a few days off to spend with my family for the holiday. I will be back on Wednesday for the team’s shoot-around before the home game against the Pistons.
* After two weeks of reporting, interviews and writing, my story why Smith has never been an All-Star is ready. I will post it tomorrow and it is scheduled to appear in the print edition of the AJC on Wednesday.
* I will I wish you and yours much happiness and health this holiday season!
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75 comments Add your comment
Slimjr
December 24th, 2012
8:25 pm
“New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony has set his team goals high this season and says if the Knicks don’t advance to at least the conference finals, then that is unacceptable.
The Knicks are 20-7 going into their Christmas Day matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers. The Knicks haven’t advanced to the Eastern finals since the 1999-2000 season. Anthony is second in the league in scoring, averaging 28.3 points a game.
“Winning the division, getting out of the first round, getting to the Eastern Conference finals,” Anthony said on ESPN. “I don’t see anything less than that.”
He adds that anything less than a trip to the conference finals is unacceptable.
“I’ll sit here and tell you right now, it’s unacceptable. With the guys we have, with the team we have, with the roster that we have, it’s unacceptable,” he says. -SI-
Yes doc, you have been preaching the same message for a while now…
Amar’e may play tomorrow! Hope the Knicks do not embarrass themselves at the Staples Center?
paian
December 24th, 2012
8:50 pm
Tyger where are you from so I’ll make sure to never to go that area, cause if you are one specimen from that area lord knows what the others are like. Prob nutcases like yourself who knows, but i hope not. haha
BIG DOG
December 24th, 2012
9:03 pm
Tyger – Christmas day is not here so put don the egg noll buddy, I BE DAM
BIG DOG IN THE HOUSE
doc
December 24th, 2012
9:11 pm
slimj goad to see melonstrpping up. his experience in the olympics may parlay into biggr and better things for knick fans.
so, did you really miss the points i made to rod or were you a sycophant and pretend to?
Buddy Grizzard
December 24th, 2012
9:21 pm
“The only way I trade for Derrick is 1) if he can play a decent SF”
He can’t, he’s a power forward. But I’m not worried about it because Josh can guard multile positions. Minny’s problem is that they want to feature Kevin Love so nobody passes to Williams. With the Hawks he would have Josh and Al setting him up for oops. Plus he’s a way better outside shooter than Josh, so if he ends up with some open shots that’s a good thing.
Also, from Twitter:
Tzvi Twersky: FWIW: An NBA exec recently told me that he thinks Andrew Wiggins is a better prep player than LeBron was. Not as grown up, but more skilled. Twitter @TTwersky
Slimjr
December 24th, 2012
9:28 pm
” my agenda is not to say woody and jamal are not worthy people in the nba just in bad circumstances we all find ourselves in from time to time.”
I got it doc. Just pulling your leg.. heheheh
It was a well written piece if I may add my two cents..
In fact its nice to see two talented individuals bounce right back and kick the door down..I believe we all have been in that “place” where we wanted to give up but we persevere..
To [persevere] is to be Human..[Spock's Voice]
I’m rooting for them for sure!
Slimjr
December 24th, 2012
9:31 pm
JC1 drops 22 pts. off the bench as the Clippers roll to 13 consecutive wins! Impressive indeed..
doc
December 24th, 2012
9:35 pm
amen slimj
that it is
what this season is about
rebirth
doc
December 24th, 2012
9:41 pm
the passion of rebirth that is experienced in life and sport.
check out movie silver linings playbook
Buddy Grizzard
December 24th, 2012
9:46 pm
“Is he playing as well as other $8 million/year point guard (say, Mike Conley)? Right now, no. I think criticism of him is fair for that reason, much like how criticism of Marvin the last few years was fair more because of his contract than his draft position.”
Good points.
doc
December 24th, 2012
9:54 pm
najeh tell me what an 8 mil a yr player should do?
if anything lin takes too much responsibility for his efforts and is very hard on himself. with one game if 38 pts in one game before the knicks game he said he was playing terrible this year
true stand up guy who will prove his worth and more stand up than 90%. compare uim to a guyvwith same experience as horford in conley is folly and you know it for a point guard.
i look forward to a 38 point effort from teague
Buddy Grizzard
December 24th, 2012
10:07 pm
“KK is getting old, injury prone, slow defensively.”
But interestingly, he started at small forward and held Deng to 11 points. I recall that at least 3 of Deng’s baskets came while he was guarded by Anthony Tolliver, whom Deng lit up. Tolliver was a team-worst -12 for the game. That’s not to say Tolliver hasn’t done good things, as I’ve noted on my blog. But he did not look good in this game.
i_am_soulstar
December 24th, 2012
10:25 pm
I don’t give up anything of real value for Derrick Williams. A-Mo (because we’re deep at the 2) and a second rounder at best.
Rev in Tampa
December 24th, 2012
10:26 pm
I completely agree with Ken’s assement of Ferry’s silence regarding LD. Although the Hawks have far surpassed my expectations, I have watched LD construct his line-ups IN REACTION to the other team rather than set the agenda with his line-up. His substitution patterns make little sense. And I cannot understand why Ivan gets so little time after games when he makes great contributions.
But at the same time I will give him credit for the nice record so far. We will see how they do with a more difficult schedule.
Slimjr
December 24th, 2012
11:10 pm
“After two weeks of reporting, interviews and writing, my story why Smith has never been an All-Star is ready. I will post it tomorrow and it is scheduled to appear in the print edition of the AJC on Wednesday.” -C-Viv-
Look forward to this story! This is going to be a good one!
Also in the future Chris, you should do a story on Ivan. He is sought of an enigma [a riddle] amongst Hawks fans.. We scratch our heads sometimes as to why this very talented Big does not receive more playing time. Heck sometimes he does not receive any.. He maybe the most skilled Big we have? Hmmm
Whats the deal between Ivan, Larry Drew and as a matter of fact Danny Ferry? Is there an under lying story that we never hear about that Larry uses to put the brakes on this guy potentially flourishing as an NBA Basketball player? Or is he trying to go slow with Ivan to allow him to grow and mature as a basketball player?
What gives?
doc, thanks for the movie selection.
O'brien
December 25th, 2012
12:07 am
Ken S,
The Knicks are the #1 seed in the East, and I have not seen their ownership or management say anything publicly about the job Woody is doing. Same thing with the top teams out West. This early in the season, ownership and GM will probably be quiet, while fans and media talk about who is doing a good job so far.
Plus what purpose would it serve for ferry to say publicly that LD is doing a great job? Don’t you think he would say it to him in private? And what If ferry comes out and says LD is doing a great job, and then the Hawks go on a 5 game losing streak? Would ferry come back out again to say LD is doing terrible?
I wouldn’t expect to hear anything from Ferry until we get closer to the all star break.
Hawks Blog Legend Worldwide Clyde
December 25th, 2012
12:53 am
FIRE LD
Buddy Grizzard
December 25th, 2012
1:20 am
Was going to say LD’s record looks good against a weak schedule but the Hawks actually have played the 11th toughest schedule in the league thus far:
http://espn.go.com/nba/stats/rpi/_/sort/SOS
Buddy Grizzard
December 25th, 2012
1:24 am
According to this site, the Hawks are tied for the 3th-easiest remaining strength of schedule. This is the table for the Eastern Conference, showing the Hawks’ remaining opponents have an aggregate winning percentage of 48%. All of the teams in the Western Conference have a remaining opponents’ winning percentage of 50% or higher. Thus, only the Heat and Nets have a softer remaining schedule than the Hawks:
http://www.playoffstatus.com/nba/easternsosrg.html
Buddy Grizzard
December 25th, 2012
1:25 am
haha 3rd-easiest… corrected from 4th
Honesty
December 25th, 2012
2:18 am
Atlanta Hawks New Years Resolution: 2nd seed
We need to get that second seed if possible in order to ensure a NYK-MIA second round series’. We will pick off whichever wounded team is left standing in the conference finals.
vava74
December 25th, 2012
5:21 am
Buddy,
I prefer to look at strength of schedule from my own perspective:
We have not played the Spurs, the Lakers, the Knicks, the Celts, the Nets, only played the Sixers, the Bulls and the Pacers once.
Still have to play MIA twice.
That’s about 20 something tough games still to be played.
Of our wins, we already had multiple wins against CHA and WIZ which clearly inflates our record.
Heck, we only had just over a handful of meaningful wins: MEM, LAC, DEN, OKC, IND and CHI and of these…
OKC was still getting their line up aligned, ditto for IND, we caught MEM a bit off guard and just before they went into a 5 game funk (which could indicate that they were too confident), the LAC have talent but have a fool on the bench who could not get past our zone D, CHI were exhausted and emotionally drained and Denver is not a particularly impressive team to start with.
Give me some wins against MIA, BOS, NYK, CHI (rested and with Rose) and IND (now that they seem to have adjusted to the new line up and when Granger is back) and even PHI.
If we win 50% of those matches, I will be impressed. Until then, I still think we are bound for a 38-42 win season and a couple of 6 or 7 games losing streaks are lurking.
vava74
December 25th, 2012
5:24 am
And…
… Merry Christmas everyone!
vava74
December 25th, 2012
5:40 am
As for the people around here who are looking into bringing Derrick Williams whilst thinking that it would cost us only a bit player like Morrow, I think you are banking too much on Khan’s idiocy.
It’s not impossible that Minny’s GM is that stupid, but I think there might be 50 better offers in the league for a player like Derrick whose potential is significant and that could still go either way: bust or star (but no longer superstar).
Ken Strickland
December 25th, 2012
9:26 am
OBRIEN-The Knicks didn’t turn over 60% of their roster, plus trade away 2 starters as well as their best player and leading scorer. Their expectations were entirely different and a lot higher than the Hawks. They were not in rebuilding mode like the Hawks.
With Melo, Chandler, Amare, and Felton as their starters, they expected to have a winning playoff caliber team, although I do believe they’ve exceeded everyone’s expectations to this point. Neither their HC or GM is new to the team.
When Ferry made his moves this off season, I don’t think he had any idea this team would be the 3rd best team in the East at this or any other point in the season. To be honest, I believe the Hawks are the NBA’s biggest surprise team.