And as the wise ATL prophet Ludacris once said, "You disagree, take the Tyson approach and bite me!"
Joe and I started off on the wrong foot. I liked the Spurs teams that he insisted on torturing while with the Suns and nowadays the lasting image of Joe in my mind is his video game self hitting contested 3 after contested 3 over me in a playoff series against my buddy CJ.
Because of this I had a biased opinion of Joe Johnson and the Atlanta Hawks, but in fairness to my free agency fandom I needed to give the Hawks a shot (a contested, over multiple defenders, long Joe Johnson shot.)
CJ is a recently baptized Hawks fan who found the Hawks after he was wowed by a half-filled Phillips Arena a few nights ago. I'm a little weary of his sudden fandom because it's the 4th different team CJ has said he's a fan of this season following the Knicks, Wizards and Pacers. So, needless to say, I'm a little weary to accept his opinions.
But when CJ extended the Joe Johnson olive branch a few nights ago, I had to give him a chance. I made the stipulation the JoJohn had to go for 30 tonight against the Celtics or the Hawks were gone for good. CJ agreed that this was fair.
So, that made tonight the first of what will hopefully be many elimination style games. Hawks vs. Celtics on ESPN with my fandom resting firmly in Joe Johnson's hands.
My thinking behind this? I need a star player I can count on. The Celtics were a big game for the Hawks and if I couldn't count on Joe getting 30 for me tonight, then I could never count on him.
What did Joe do tonight?
He choked. Straight up choked with the fate of one potential fan in the balance. 5-16 for 12 points in a Hawks victory.
But let's be honest, I don't just hate the Hawks because of their star player. There were many other things keeping me away.
Mike Bibby, maybe the biggest reason that the greatest KU team of all time didn't make it past the Sweet 16. Joe Smith. Cost my T-Wolves multiple 1st round picks. Marvin Williams. Don't go there.
I liked the old Hawks, the Dominique Wilkins Era, the Dikembe Mutumbo Era, heck they even traded for Danny Manning from the Clippers one time. But then the Hawks made one big mistake.
Yep, they got rid of the Pacman logo. I'm a huge fan of Pacman. As far as I know, I still own the all-time high score at The Wheel. I've been called the Emmitt Smith of Pacman, nothing flashy, just slowly matriculating points until I own the record.
Growing up I always thought the Hawks were using Pacman as their logo. I swear to you, today was the first time in my life that I actually saw the Hawk silhouette in that logo. It was like this picture where you either see an old lady or a young lady depending how you look at it. I refused to see the Hawk in that picture. I only saw Pacman.
Well then the Hawks decided to change their logo to an actual picture of a Hawk. That started their downfall and ultimately started sealing their fandom fate. Until Joe Johnson officially sealed it tonight.
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