The Hawks game I saw - Nique and Rathbun

[Drom John]

Paraphrases the Hawks announcers:

The coach of the Hawks is "Mike Woodson" with one noticed forced "Woody."
The coach of the Spurs is "Pop." Not just Nique but Rathbun seems more comfortable talking about Pop than Woodson.

They showed highlights of the last time the Hawks won in San Antonio. Laetner and Blaylock were the winning stars. Nique was on the losing team. "We were hurt, and I was too old even for the Spurs."

Nique was very familiar with George Hill because Woodson had been following Hill closely since they went to the same H.S. Nique likes Hill. The Hawks didn't have a 2008 draft pick.

The sponsor for the Hawks tv is the Georgia Lottery, which says quite a bit about the economy.

Georgia Lottery trivia question. Which player born in France has scored the most points in an NBA game?*

Half time analyst Mike "The Stinger" Glenn: Duncan is a great power forward but the best ever was The Mailman. Malone could power through to the basket.

Nique, early third quarter: Duncan is the best power forward ever, he does most everthing right.
Rathbun: What doesn't Duncan do right?
Nique: Free throws.

This was the best game of the year, and maybe the career of Acie Law.

Rathbun: The Spurs may sneak up on the West this year. Nobody notices them because they aren't exciting.
Nique: Not exciting? The Spurs are the most exciting team because they always play the game right and no player is more exciting than Ginobli. They may sneak up on the fans, but not the NBA.

Nique: The Spurs are the toughest team to guard because
they have so many options and they know where the open man is.

Nique after Duncan misses a close shot, gets the rebound and is fouled: Did you see that? Duncan missed that shot on purpose because he had rebound position for a better shot. He does that all the time.

Their nickname for Ginobli: "Plastic Man" because he can squeeze through any opening.

Nique was very mad at the double technical foul. "Horford was stupid. Good, Mike Woodson is bringing him over to say just that."

Inbounds play late in the game-
Rathbun: Duncan doesn't pass to the first open guy; he's not Manu. Not the second; not Manu. Third guy; you're Manu.

Nique: Ginobli is a true superstar. He's they guy you want at the end of a close game.


*Nique scored 57 points in a game. Jacques Dominque Wilkins a military brat was born in Paris.

[exstatic]

Half time analyst Mike "The Stinger" Glenn: Duncan is a great power forward but the best ever was The Mailman. Malone could power through to the basket.
Duncan owned Malone from his second season on, and it's not like Malone was in decline at that point. Back then (98-99) it was heresy to think of anyone but Barkley, Malone and company for MVP, but Tim should have won it his second year. There was some shit about the ballots had to be in by Wednesday of the week before the season ended the following Tuesday. Tim proceeded to lead the Spurs on road B2B wins against WC powers Portland and Utah on Friday and Saturday, and then they won the final game against GS to wrap up the #1 seed. None of that was considered by voters.

[Lebowski Brickowski]

Did you see that? Duncan missed that shot on purpose because he had rebound position for a better shot. He does that all the time. :lmao

[SenorSpur]

Yeah, I got a big kick out of listening to the Hawks broadcasters. I was a bit surprised to see Nique doing the color broadcast. He replaced former Hawks and Spurs guard, Steve Smith, who moved over to NBATV this year. Rathbun, claiming to having watched every game of Duncan's college career at Wake Forest, outwardly gushed about him and admitted, "if this weren't a Hawks broadcast, I'd gush ever more."

Getting back to Nique, he did an admirable job. He was no nonsense, wasn't overly biased for the Hawks and was honest in his assessments, both ways.

In fact, both he and Rathbun were so complimentary of the Spurs, especially Duncan and Ginobili, that if one didn't know any better, one would've thought they were the Spurs broadcasters.

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

Ah the joys of League Pass. I'll still take Bill Land and Sean Elliott over anyone in the league but the Hawks crew was pretty good overall. I missed parts of the second and third quarter but from what I saw they even managed to avoiding calling SA "San-an-tone", which just makes me bristle when announcers say it about forty times a game.

[I Love Me Some Me]

The highlight of that miserable 1997 season was watching Nique throw down a nice jam just about every game.

[Biggems]

IMHO, Laettner should have never been on the Dream Team over Wilkins.....Also, Isiah should have been there as well, but I don't know who you bump off to get him on, maybe Mullin.

[BG_Spurs_Fan]

The highlight of that miserable 1997 season was watching Nique throw down a nice jam just about every game.

True that! I remember us losing to the Bulls by some 50 points and watching Carl freaking Herrera trying to score in the post thinking we'd never actually achieve anything.Things just couldn't have been better since then.

[Vito Corleone]

nique not being considered one of the top 50 players of all time was idiotic at best.

[zepn]

Duncan doesn't pass to the first open guy; he's not Manu. Not the second; not Manu. Third guy; you're Manu.
:toast

[jrmp317]

97 season was actually quite entertaining. Sure the team was terrible, but you just knew better days would come once we got healthy. Then Tim showed up, and well...

Also great to be able to attend over 20 games that season since nobody was going to the games.

[SenorSpur]

The highlight of that miserable 1997 season was watching Nique throw down a nice jam just about every game.

Lost in that dreadful season was the fact that Nique WAS the Spurs best player that season. I believe he averaged around 18-19 ppg. As horrible was the Spurs were, with all the injuries, think who bad it would've been without Nique's contributions.

Funny note: During the sequence where they showed the highlights of the dreadful 1996 Spurs game versus the Hawks. Nique admitted that, by that time, he was definitely on the backside of his career. He stated "I was older than most all the guys on this court are now". :lol

[bigfan]

Re Malone, that big bastard could outplay damn near every PF today Ill bet. Except for one dirty hit on DR, I always liked the guy.

[Whisky Dog]

When I first fired up the Spurs game on DVR at about 11pm last night my first thoughts were "Damn, another opponents homer broadcast", but it wasn't bad at all. I enjoyed the broadcast for the most part. Much better than the Mavs one the night before.

[doldrums]

I am one to call out homer announces(see Phoenix, Boston and denver) but the Hawks announcers are 1st rate and join the Nets, clippers and knicks announcers as being the most objective.

[Doug Collins]

I was watching on League Pass Broadband and I had the Spurs announcers last night. Guess they mix it up. On a side note, there were only about 3 games not blacked out last night which is total bullshit.

[romsho]

The Hawk announcers were better than most. That being said, The ratio of league pass games that have the Spurs announcers, home or road, vs. the opponents broadcast team is absolutely comical. I have emailed about the problem, with no response, and finally called the league office and left a voice mail to which they did call back. They say there is no issue with the Spurs production- but they realize there is a problem and will soon be offering two feeds per game so fans can follow their home team. Did not say when this would happen, just that they are working on it.

[Doug Collins]

The Hawk announcers were better than most. That being said, The ratio of league pass games that have the Spurs announcers, home or road, vs. the opponents broadcast team is absolutely comical. I have emailed about the problem, with no response, and finally called the league office and left a voice mail to which they did call back. They say there is no issue with the Spurs production- but they realize there is a problem and will soon be offering two feeds per game so fans can follow their home team. Did not say when this would happen, just that they are working on it.

I've noticed the past couple of games, minus the mavs game, they've had the Spurs broadcast on LP broadband. It would be great if they gave the option to chose, but I bet it takes them quite sometime to implement it.

[SenorSpur]

The Hawk announcers were better than most. That being said, The ratio of league pass games that have the Spurs announcers, home or road, vs. the opponents broadcast team is absolutely comical. I have emailed about the problem, with no response, and finally called the league office and left a voice mail to which they did call back. They say there is no issue with the Spurs production- but they realize there is a problem and will soon be offering two feeds per game so fans can follow their home team. Did not say when this would happen, just that they are working on it.

Thanks for the update. I tried emailing them too, with no response.

[BlackBellamy]

Re Malone, that big bastard could outplay damn near every PF today Ill bet. Except for one dirty hit on DR, I always liked the guy.

One dirty hit? He drove with his knee out at every advantage. I'm shocked that every opposing PF/C in that era wasn't rendered sterile by how many nut shots Malone dished out. Wonderful player in his prime. Let us not forget however that in his prime he had possibly the best pure point guard to play the game serving him up some sweets. Make no mistake, I consider the Mailman one of the game's all time greats (I still wear his L.A. gear lights). Tim at his best could ball over Malone in his prime I'm convinced, in my opinion.

[superbigtime]

Malone was a fucking beast. And he was a pretty damn good FT shooter. I liked him because he played his heart out and wasn't a punk.

[exstatic]

Re Malone, that big bastard could outplay damn near every PF today Ill bet. Except for one dirty hit on DR, I always liked the guy.

DRob - hospital overnight: head trauma

Donyell Marshall - hospital: broken ribs

Isaiah Thomas - hospital: 40+ stitches on his scalp for daring to light up Malone's butt buddy Stockton to the turn of 40 points after Zeke wasn't selected for the Dream Team.

MUCH more than one incident, more like a pattern of assault on the court.

[duncan228]

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x282/duncan228/trouble/maloneelbow.jpg

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x282/duncan228/trouble/malonekick.jpg

[The Truth #6]

I'm so glad Malone never ended up on the Spurs.

If I remember correctly it was seriously being considered. Luckily, the FO quickly retired Ninja's jersey and Malone never came.

I'm not saying that was the cause/effect but thankfully the moment never came where Malone wore #32 or any other number here, though they could have given him #10, which would have been funny.

[BG_Spurs_Fan]

Malone, as good as he was, was the only player I've truly despised. I'm glad he never got a ring.

[raspsa]

Funny with all the malone hate but DRob obviously didn't hold a grudge and even hoped that the Spurs would sign him but instead he chose to go to LA.