Sunday, June 03, 2007
Sports

No laughing matter

Hawks not out of the woods yet

By Adam Krohn

It’s the morning after the draft lottery, and Hawks General Manager Billy Knight is sitting at a press conference looking rough. He’s unshaven, wearing a sports jacket, shirt open at the collar, with no tie. He’s wearing dress shoes—but no socks. Judging by the five or so breath mints he’s got shoved in his mouth, it’s a safe bet he hasn’t yet brushed his teeth, either.

He looks as if he rolled out of bed and stumbled into the conference room just to say “na-na-na-na-na.” And that’s all right: His Hawks just pulled off one of the most improbable feats in franchise history.

Heading into the lottery, they had a 13 percent chance of capitalizing on the opportunity to land two first-round lottery picks in the draft—and they still pulled it off. They got the Pacers first-round pick to complete last summer’s Al Harrington trade because the Pacers didn’t get a top-10 pick (they got the 11th) and they got to keep their first-round pick from the Suns to avoid completing the Joe Johnson trade of two summers ago because they got a lottery-protected top-three pick (next year’s pick is unprotected).

Had the Hawks slid past the number-three pick, perhaps this press conference would have never occurred. In fact, the only reason Knight is holding the conference to begin with is because he was absent from the draft lottery in New Jersey the night before. Why? He likely didn’t want to have to face the media to explain why the Hawks didn’t have a first-round pick in one of the deepest drafts this millennium. But the morning after the lottery, Knight sits with a smile on his face, having survived the hot seat (for now) to live another day.

He’s even cracking jokes. When asked where he was when he heard the news, he claims he was “walking my German Sheppard” and begins talk of how he trains his dog when Channel 2’s Bill Hartman interrupts by saying, “We better not get into that,” an obvious reference to Vick’s dog-fighting ring. But Knight keeps it going: “I have no other German Sheppards. I have one dog. That’s all I got—is one.” The room erupts in laughter.

But, joking aside, did the Hawks truly win by beating out the lottery’s worst-case scenario? No. After all, if you take out Atlanta’s possibility of losing its first-round pick due to a questionable trade, the significance that they landed the third pick is minimal. They lost out on Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. And who gets drafted between picks three and six depends on who you ask, meaning there is a big drop-off from the first two picks. In reality, Atlanta’s not too much better off than the Celtics, owners of last season’s worst record, who hold the fifth pick.

Then again, the third pick does carry some leverage since it’s the first pick of the rest. And some college athletes are starting to realize this, such as Georgetown’s 7-foot-2-inch center, Roy Hibbert, who removed his name from the draft and returned to college upon learning the lottery results. Regardless of which players enter the draft or stay in school, the third pick is probably better off trading for veteran leadership, and Knight knows this well.

“We’re going to have a lot of conversations,” Knight tells The Sunday Paper. “I can’t say with whom because it’s too early to even get into that, but there will be a lot of conversations. We know the players that we want, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to get them or that the other team is going to give them up. There are lots of players we want and we have those in mind. We’ll see how it goes.”

Bottom line? Because of ping-pong balls, Knight has been given a second lease on life as an NBA executive. Hopefully, he’ll do the right thing and get veteran leadership with the third pick by trading for a star. Then again, there are a plethora of 6-foot-9-inch forwards available in the draft who just might prove to be too tempting for him. SP

Talk to Adam at adamkrohn@sundaypaper.com