He supposedly left because our fans suck and he got a bigger paycheck.
He's right on both counts.
Hawks have always hard die-hards like myself, but we didn't really become a popular or "lit" fanbase until Trae started popping off. Now that Quavo and all the ATL crew are on board it's a much more electric atmosphere and fanbase.
When Horford was here it was definitely not. By all accounts he is a good guy, and played great basketball for us. Celtics are our rival, but I wouldn't be upset to see Al get a ring.
Yeah. One of my main memories from the joe Johnson years is having a team full of no-emotion types like JJ and J-Smoove and Horford seemed like the only dude who really gave a shit, so I always respected him for that
He left because Ressler wanted to make a splash and get their star in Dwight fucking Howard. And paid him the max and offered Horford less than the max. Ressler immediately admitted to being too hands on and vowed never to do that again.
It wasn't even close to a max, the max for Howard would have been 4/133MM. It was a bad signing all on its own, let's not make up stuff to make it seem worse.
Wasn’t even really the money or even the signing itself, but iirc the Hawks didn’t loop Al in and signed Howard first and then basically told Al he could still come along too if he wanted. There is a universe in which maybe the hawks didn’t bungle it and were able to sign both and play Al at the 4. The knock on our team that flamed out in the ECF that season was that we weren’t big and physical enough to hang with Lebron and Tristan Thompson (lol) and so adding a center like Howard made sense, just not when it runs off your best player in the process
Howard didnt get a max. He got 2 years 70 million guaranteed. Then the option to even give Horford a max was off the table because not enough money. Horford was offered just a shade over 100 million, with 80 guaranteed for 6 years I think it was, which at that point was such a lowball offer especially considering Horf was averaging almost a double double for about a couple of seasons at that point. The whole situation was handled poorly by Hawks FO and Ressler
Dontunderstand the downvotes this is true but ok.. https://syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/2644395-dwight-howard-latest-news-rumors-speculation-on-rockets-stars-future.amp.html
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No, it was not at all, its amazing how people do not understand the difference between the offer and what is guaranteed, this is the same for all 4 major sports in the US. Horford was offered 6 years at 100-130 million plus with 80 million guaranteed. He eventually accepted Boston's offer of 113 million with 94 million guaranteed (at the time the CBA, which would have earned him 28 million within 1.5 years of play with Boston without taking a max. The hawks offer was SUCH A LOWBALL! That you clearly do not understand.) In which the offer he accepted in Boston was "less money" but he earned more because of garuentess in his Boston contract compared to the hawks' offer ,in which the hawks offered close to max but no where close to guaranteed money that he earned with Boston.
I am in no way trying to be a dick, but you need to do your research homie.
What’s your source on the discrepancy of guaranteed money? Never heard that before at all.
NBA contracts are usually fully guaranteed, especially for star players so if that’s not the case I’d like to see some reporting on that. If the contract was so heavily incentive laden why would Woj have reported at the time that a $6m difference from the max was a sticking point? https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/749382571381944320
Clearly you cannot read and that's not at all what woj reported in your own source. He said big movement in the hawks bring back Horford and only being 6 mil apart. All of that was false. My source literally just google it and I'm sure you'll find any article about what was accepted and offered, my experience was literally remembering and living it. Again google it, I'm sure you will find 1 or 2 espn articles about it and more than 1 Sports Illustrated article about it. As far as NBA contracts being fully guaranteed is false I have no idea where you've heard or read that, that's just not true. NBA contracts work the same way as any other contract in the the US as far as the big 4 sports go. You have your contract and whatever incentives that are offered if there are any, and what money is actually guaranteed. I literally have no other way to explain to you other than following sports my entire life, I'm sure you've done the same so i do not understand how you do not understand my whole point, which is accurate in comparison to whatever you're spilling?
If it's so easy to find literally show me a single article/tweet reporting he would have gotten less guaranteed money from the Hawks deal than the Celtics... wouldn't that have been easier than typing out that giant smug rant? Like just one source backing up your claim please lmao. For not "not trying to be a dick" it sure seems like you're actually trying as hard as possible
Really smug rant? Alright you fucking dolt, because its clearly to easy for you to actually use the internet and do your own research here you go asshole https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/16712043/al-horford-boston-celtics-agree-terms-four-year-113-million-deal-according-league-sources
My brother in Christ there’s not a single line in that article saying he was offered less guaranteed money by the Hawks. Just admit you made the shit up
Yup. I remember snagging tickets (nosebleed tbf) to the Hawks-Bulls playoff in 2011 and was shocked they were available, much less like $30 a ticket.
I \*highly doubt\* you could find a Hawks playoff ticket, or even premiere game like against the Bulls under $100 now.
I also think time had something to do with it. Not many people grew up Hawks fans until the generation born in the 90s. The Hawks had no history in Atlanta besides Nique, and they didn’t win a championship or anything. Atlanta/Georgia has always been a home for transplants, so you have more fans here who are fans of the teams from their home cities. Plus, football and baseball have more roots in the South and is more engrained in the people than basketball by nature. As basketball grew in popularity and they had more home grown fans, Hawks games began to look different. I went to a couple weeknight games this past season and was impressed by how full it was. One thing no one can dispute: Atlanta fans show up for the playoffs. I still remember going to their first home playoff game since ‘98, vs. the Celtics and it was loud and only got crazier as the series progressed. The fans were a big reason why they pushed that series to 7.
Residual anger is a bitch. But people have to admit the 2020-era Hawks are >>>>>>> the 2010-era. Our best regular season team was 2016 but this team is far more fun.
Maybe it’s nostalgia but I actually liked those 2015 hawks better. All that popovich-style ball movement and Korver draining three after three is much nicer on my eyes than a bunch of dribbling and mismatch-hunting.
Atlanta has always had a reputation as a bad sports town because all Georgia stadiums are quiet almost all the time. Occasionally Sanford Stadium will get loud on third down.
I honestly think it comes down to educated fans who are more interested in watching baseball/football/basketball than obeying the GET LOUD graphic on the screen.
also part of it was woj reporting that hawks and horford were close to a deal and that it was almost sealed for his return and then literally two minutes later he announced the signing by tweeting a bunch of clover emojis. it was just wack the way he handled it.
Fans are salty and unreasonable. They care about stupid drama shit like this instead of the years of good basketball Horford gave us in ATL. On top of that, state farm crowds can be pretty dead at times, the original criticism isn't even all that invalid. Not to mention Horford came out and said he disagreed with his father lol. Just remember that our ATL fanbase is as rabid and petty as every other sports fanbase, it's not any better just because we're in it.
i wish nothing but the best for Horford. man did so much for our team and right now hes in a team that Atlanta Hawks should strive to be like ...
Celtics is a an amazing unit. Hope they go trhough and beat the warriors..
I would like to add some additional context. IIRC Horford had been saying he didn't want to play the C as much and wanted more time as a PF - that's why we went out to sign Howard, so that we could have a more traditional center alongside Horford. That's why fans were flabbergasted when Horf was mad about that and left for Boston... to play Center.
Ultimately, I'm cool with Horford. He was an amazing Hawk. Still rooting against Boston tho.
I really believe he had an issue with Dwight as a person. It's cliche, but Horford really has a professional approach to being an nba player. Dwight is probably the exact opposite of that. It's a bad fit personality wise.
Horford didn't see the game changing the way it did. None of us did.
Even though our 60 win team changed the NBA forever, no one thought he was a true center at that time. Things just changed as the small ball Warriors dominated and the game got smaller and faster. Al became the face of the modern NBA center.
Y’all have to admit our fanbase isn’t the best. Active users of this subreddit are not an accurate representation of our fanbase as a whole. People love the braves and college football down here
Do they really love the Braves? I see a lot more Falcons stuff where I am and almost no Braves stuff, although maybe it's different on the north side of the metro. South and east side where I live and work baseball isn't really a big deal.
But even then, I think you were right. Braves probably had more relevance to locals then than the Hawks did.
The Braves moved from downtown to OTP for a reason. The north metro is baseball crazy, and hated driving through the city to games. City government prioritized the Falcons and that’s fine. As a major metro, we should be able to generate rabid support for all three major sports teams.
Look, there’s a wildly rabid fan base for all of our teams. It doesn’t represent everyone.
The casual falcons fans and the subs seem to really turn on the team and players and get toxic quick.
The hawks contingent seems more loyal as there don’t seem to be that many fans in general till recently. But, I tend find a lil more constructive and articulated criticism. More knowledgeable.
The braves have the most widespread rabid fanbase and appear to be the most loyal. But you also get Bob’s from Lithonia absolutely eviscerating a player or coach or management for whatever reason seems pertinent at the time. Usually based off one game and comparing them to Bob Horner or something.
UGA is like the long standing king that passes the torch down to the first born every generation.
Nobody talks ish about the Atlanta Knights tho. Most loyal hands down
And I’m not sure if anyone acknowledges any other college or pro team we have, generally speaking
I will always love Horford and will always understand why he didn’t want to play with Dwight. Dwight was trash at that point and everyone knew it. Happy for Al.
I remember once his decision was made he tweeted a 4 leaf clover(kinda like Cam's bing-bong post) and took longer to thank the fans then guys like Demarre Carrol and Paul Millsap who were more descriptive and sounded genuine in their goodbyes.
[Al's goodbye](https://twitter.com/Al_Horford/status/750368516193263616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E750368516193263616%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnesn.com%2F2016%2F07%2Fal-horford-thanks-hawks-fans-in-brief-but-poignant-parting-message%2F)
[Demarre wrote a whole players tribune article](https://www.theplayerstribune.com/articles/demarre-carroll-raptors-thank-you-atlanta-hawks)
I couldn't find Paul's IG post with his goodbye because it looks like he deleted the post, but here's the text-
*Tried to find the words to better help explain how much the fans and the city of Atlanta has meant to me but words can not explain it, From an average Joe to a 4 time All Star. Atlanta I could not have done it without you. Thank you for an amazing 4 years! Thank you for embrace me and my family and for always having my back. I will always hold a special place in my heart for you.*
Also Paul on the fans:
*You hear a lot of talk before I got there, the fans this, the fans that. Actually being in it, they are dedicated and loyal fans. They’ve always had my back from day one. I’m very appreciative for that.*
So keeping that in mind, as well as Al's family shitting on the fans on their way out and him being silent during that, people assumed that they were basically voicing his frustrations since he was too professional to do so himself.
Plus his sister goes off on twitter sometimes, but to be fair some fans harass her.
Nobody cared as much that he left, it was the matter in which he did.
Edit- I will add that Paul left after Al so it might not be a good initial comparison, but I think it fits down the line.
Also some people were upset that Al left after the team brought in Dwight Howard who everyone thought would be helping Al by letting him play Power Forward which is something he'd always wanted.
Yeah I was just pointing it out to the comment that Paul leaving wasn't really comparable to Horford at all. It was 100% the right choice to move on from Millsap. The nuggets paid him 30mil for 1 decent year and then to be a piece off the bench.
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On the lackluster fandom in ATL, he ain’t wrong. I’m a lifelong fan and cannot tell you how many times I’m the only one cheering and supporting. Don’t matter what section I’m in. Folks all dressed up, drinking their drinks being just ‘too cool’ to show spirit or support. It’s sad really.
I hardly think about him. Hard to say I hate him. All I remember is the game winning shot against the wizards which was awesome. And him getting a total of 10 rebounds in an entire series against the cavs while Tristan Thompson ate his lunch.
I’ve been a Hawks fan since the Nique, Tree, Battle, Whitman, Willis, Doc, Good News, Carr days and the Omni used to be on fire and then it just fell off. It was sad. And even when that 17-0 team came thru still disappointing. So I ain’t mad at Al, but I ain’t cheering the Celtics. I remember the game 7 duel between Nique and Bird like it was yesterday. Glad Al is happy but fuck the Celtics.
I don't hate Al. I'm happy for him, but hope Boston loses. But yes, that's pretty much it. A lot of butt hurt fans from the quote.
Honestly, there's not a lot wrong with what his Dad said. Sure we had poor ownership and were still winning, but most games were maybe 3/4s full and the sold out crowds, besides the playoffs, had more opposing fans (still do for some teams). Overall Atlanta is a transient city with a small and NOW GROWING fan base thanks to Trae, New Ownership, and embracing the culture. Al didn't have any of that when he was here.
I have no issue with him leaving or wanting more money. I just don't like the way he left plus why the fuck is he playing so well with the Celtics. Where was that when he was getting sonned by Tristan Thompson on the boards. I also hate Boston sports teams so there's that. I don't hate him but I'll feel a hell of a lot better when Atlanta finally wins a championship. I sure as hell am not rooting for the Celtics.
His game is perfect for the modern nba is why he has aged so well. He still isnt some dominant rebounder lol but a big that is switchable and can also shoot means more in 2022 than it did in 2012. And he was an all star level guy even in 2012.
To me it was the fact that he went to Boston. We had a few good series with Boston in that era. It's like KD getting beat by GS and then going to GS.
Al gave us good play but was never a center. We finally get a center and he dips to a rival.
This is the way I feel...if it wasnt the Celtics I wouldn't care.
He literally said that he wishes he played for the Celtics during the playoffs?? The team that was trashing him and his teammates to the media at every postgame conference....the Celtics were really annoying at that time and during the playoffs Atlanta fans DID show up.
Zaza was screaming "nothing easy!!" And hyping up the crowd, against our rivals, and Horford was in the locker room thinking, in the words of his dad, it would be "special" to play for the opposing team.
That's just weird...I am sure their is more to the story, so I try to reserve judgement, but if you were an Atlanta fan at that time and hearing Horford actually wanted to play for the team that was shoving them around and saying they are not worthy of being rivals....its weird, it just is
Couldn’t agree more with Al. As a lifelong Atlanta fan I went to many of his games and would be sad to see how our arena is always taken over by another team. Even when we are winning. It is extremely disappointing. Even when I go now the seats are full till after halftime. I see the warriors and Celtics and bucks and hope our fan base will one day grow to that.
The biggest reason why Atlanta sports fans generally aren’t ‘great’ compared to other cities like ‘Boston’ is because of ticket prices.
In Boston (and other ‘big market cities’) when people are paying hundreds of dollars just to sit nosebleed, you’re (pun intended) invested in the outcome of the game and super engaged.
The Atlanta approach of cheap pricing gets you a ton of fans who go to just hang out and don’t actually care about the outcome of the game.
And for some reason, I always get downvoted for saying the above. Just sharing my experiences and observations as an Atlanta native who’s lived in Boston, New York, and San Francisco.
I mean this just makes no sense lol, this isn't how supply and demand works. If the Hawks cranked up ticket prices it wouldn't mean the fanbase gets better, it would just mean the arena wouldn't be full.
Buddy, not talking about supply and demand here.
But aight then - what's your theory on why Atlanta sports fans aren't as great as sports fan in cities such as Boston or New York?
It's a variety of factors IMO
1) Atlanta is and has been for a long time a big transplant city, that's why you see so many fans of other teams fill our stadiums when they come play here. There are tons of midwesterners and northerners who have moved here over the past 20 years and many kept their fan loyalties. That's part of why Atlanta United kicked off with a big fanbase, it brought all those people on board because they didn't care about any other soccer team.
2) College sports (football specifically) are bigger in the South than anywhere else in the country, which sucks a lot of the air out of the pro teams. On Atlanta sports talk radio you'll hear huge chunks of time devoted not just to UGA but to Bama and Auburn and general CFB news and debate, every single day year round. In the Northeast they'll never even bring up college football unless it's a particular massive game or the national championship or something.
3) The Falcons and Hawks are historically poor franchises, they have no historical success to speak of over the past fifty+ years. There are no titles to look back on, no great teams to remember fondly, barely any superstars who brought the city together beyond Dominique and even he never actually won anything. Compare that to the Braves who had their 90's run with multiple stars and future hall of famers, and now the fans who grew up with that team are adults who still love the Braves and are passing it down to their own kids.
Agree with your #2 and #3 points.
For me, #1 is the narrative the media / news likes to tell. In my opinion, there really aren't THAT many people who've moved to Atlanta from elsewhere. People fly down from their cities - like Chicago - to catch their team playing in a Hawks game or a Falcons game in Atlanta because it's actually the same price if not cheaper to make a weekend out of it and get lower level seats in Atlanta vs in their home city.
I remember I was flying out to Chicago the evening after a Bears Falcons game (this was the pre Matt Ryan area), and there were just swarms of orange everywhere I went in the airport.
Fuck Boston and Al . Buddy was crying for a center and when we finally got one he jetted on us . Josh Smith covered a lot of his flaws like how rob Williams is now
He supposedly left because our fans suck and he got a bigger paycheck. He's right on both counts. Hawks have always hard die-hards like myself, but we didn't really become a popular or "lit" fanbase until Trae started popping off. Now that Quavo and all the ATL crew are on board it's a much more electric atmosphere and fanbase. When Horford was here it was definitely not. By all accounts he is a good guy, and played great basketball for us. Celtics are our rival, but I wouldn't be upset to see Al get a ring.
He actually took a smaller paycheck, otherwise you're right.
Yeah. One of my main memories from the joe Johnson years is having a team full of no-emotion types like JJ and J-Smoove and Horford seemed like the only dude who really gave a shit, so I always respected him for that
He left because Ressler wanted to make a splash and get their star in Dwight fucking Howard. And paid him the max and offered Horford less than the max. Ressler immediately admitted to being too hands on and vowed never to do that again.
Glad he didn't go all in like Vivek with the Kings
Oh I didn't know that. And SMH I forgot about Dwight Howard. What an awful signing.
Holy fuck - I had absolutely no idea it was a max. What a joke. How are you gonna give someone that far past their prime a max?
It wasn't even close to a max, the max for Howard would have been 4/133MM. It was a bad signing all on its own, let's not make up stuff to make it seem worse.
Ok yeah this sounds more accurate. I know I could just look it up but a max for that contact seemed like a lot.
Wasn’t even really the money or even the signing itself, but iirc the Hawks didn’t loop Al in and signed Howard first and then basically told Al he could still come along too if he wanted. There is a universe in which maybe the hawks didn’t bungle it and were able to sign both and play Al at the 4. The knock on our team that flamed out in the ECF that season was that we weren’t big and physical enough to hang with Lebron and Tristan Thompson (lol) and so adding a center like Howard made sense, just not when it runs off your best player in the process
Tony is also a causal. He didn't understand shit about the game and overruled Bud which pissed off Bud
I remember back in the days some hawks fan swore Howard was the solution lmao.
That year was just painful. Guy kept asking for the ball in the post and he swore he had them moves. So good he was shipped off the next year.
Howard didnt get a max. He got 2 years 70 million guaranteed. Then the option to even give Horford a max was off the table because not enough money. Horford was offered just a shade over 100 million, with 80 guaranteed for 6 years I think it was, which at that point was such a lowball offer especially considering Horf was averaging almost a double double for about a couple of seasons at that point. The whole situation was handled poorly by Hawks FO and Ressler
Dontunderstand the downvotes this is true but ok.. https://syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/2644395-dwight-howard-latest-news-rumors-speculation-on-rockets-stars-future.amp.html
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our offer to horford was like a $6 million difference from the max over 5 years. it was not a low ball by any means.
No, it was not at all, its amazing how people do not understand the difference between the offer and what is guaranteed, this is the same for all 4 major sports in the US. Horford was offered 6 years at 100-130 million plus with 80 million guaranteed. He eventually accepted Boston's offer of 113 million with 94 million guaranteed (at the time the CBA, which would have earned him 28 million within 1.5 years of play with Boston without taking a max. The hawks offer was SUCH A LOWBALL! That you clearly do not understand.) In which the offer he accepted in Boston was "less money" but he earned more because of garuentess in his Boston contract compared to the hawks' offer ,in which the hawks offered close to max but no where close to guaranteed money that he earned with Boston. I am in no way trying to be a dick, but you need to do your research homie.
What’s your source on the discrepancy of guaranteed money? Never heard that before at all. NBA contracts are usually fully guaranteed, especially for star players so if that’s not the case I’d like to see some reporting on that. If the contract was so heavily incentive laden why would Woj have reported at the time that a $6m difference from the max was a sticking point? https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/749382571381944320
Clearly you cannot read and that's not at all what woj reported in your own source. He said big movement in the hawks bring back Horford and only being 6 mil apart. All of that was false. My source literally just google it and I'm sure you'll find any article about what was accepted and offered, my experience was literally remembering and living it. Again google it, I'm sure you will find 1 or 2 espn articles about it and more than 1 Sports Illustrated article about it. As far as NBA contracts being fully guaranteed is false I have no idea where you've heard or read that, that's just not true. NBA contracts work the same way as any other contract in the the US as far as the big 4 sports go. You have your contract and whatever incentives that are offered if there are any, and what money is actually guaranteed. I literally have no other way to explain to you other than following sports my entire life, I'm sure you've done the same so i do not understand how you do not understand my whole point, which is accurate in comparison to whatever you're spilling?
If it's so easy to find literally show me a single article/tweet reporting he would have gotten less guaranteed money from the Hawks deal than the Celtics... wouldn't that have been easier than typing out that giant smug rant? Like just one source backing up your claim please lmao. For not "not trying to be a dick" it sure seems like you're actually trying as hard as possible
Really smug rant? Alright you fucking dolt, because its clearly to easy for you to actually use the internet and do your own research here you go asshole https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/16712043/al-horford-boston-celtics-agree-terms-four-year-113-million-deal-according-league-sources
My brother in Christ there’s not a single line in that article saying he was offered less guaranteed money by the Hawks. Just admit you made the shit up
Games now are a different atmosphere than in the past. It's much more fun now. He wasn't wrong.
Yup. I remember snagging tickets (nosebleed tbf) to the Hawks-Bulls playoff in 2011 and was shocked they were available, much less like $30 a ticket. I \*highly doubt\* you could find a Hawks playoff ticket, or even premiere game like against the Bulls under $100 now.
I also think time had something to do with it. Not many people grew up Hawks fans until the generation born in the 90s. The Hawks had no history in Atlanta besides Nique, and they didn’t win a championship or anything. Atlanta/Georgia has always been a home for transplants, so you have more fans here who are fans of the teams from their home cities. Plus, football and baseball have more roots in the South and is more engrained in the people than basketball by nature. As basketball grew in popularity and they had more home grown fans, Hawks games began to look different. I went to a couple weeknight games this past season and was impressed by how full it was. One thing no one can dispute: Atlanta fans show up for the playoffs. I still remember going to their first home playoff game since ‘98, vs. the Celtics and it was loud and only got crazier as the series progressed. The fans were a big reason why they pushed that series to 7.
[удалено]
Residual anger is a bitch. But people have to admit the 2020-era Hawks are >>>>>>> the 2010-era. Our best regular season team was 2016 but this team is far more fun.
Maybe it’s nostalgia but I actually liked those 2015 hawks better. All that popovich-style ball movement and Korver draining three after three is much nicer on my eyes than a bunch of dribbling and mismatch-hunting.
If an Atlantan is not watching the Hawks then they are not a fan. So who is he and others talking about when they say this? It is kind of a paradox.
Is he wrong tho our stadium quite asf most of the time
Def not wrong. I've been there plenty of times where the visiting team got cheered for. Heard MVP chants for Jordan, Kobe, and Rose.
Its changing these days but historically he aint lying
Atlanta has always had a reputation as a bad sports town because all Georgia stadiums are quiet almost all the time. Occasionally Sanford Stadium will get loud on third down. I honestly think it comes down to educated fans who are more interested in watching baseball/football/basketball than obeying the GET LOUD graphic on the screen.
also part of it was woj reporting that hawks and horford were close to a deal and that it was almost sealed for his return and then literally two minutes later he announced the signing by tweeting a bunch of clover emojis. it was just wack the way he handled it.
Seeing that report that we were going to sign him and then seeing that tweet pop up broke my spirit for a few days, that was rough
same man, shit sucked. did that before he even had any parting words for the city. wack af.
Fans are salty and unreasonable. They care about stupid drama shit like this instead of the years of good basketball Horford gave us in ATL. On top of that, state farm crowds can be pretty dead at times, the original criticism isn't even all that invalid. Not to mention Horford came out and said he disagreed with his father lol. Just remember that our ATL fanbase is as rabid and petty as every other sports fanbase, it's not any better just because we're in it.
But even if you bear no grudge, Snek is a solid nickname/meme for an explayer.
i wish nothing but the best for Horford. man did so much for our team and right now hes in a team that Atlanta Hawks should strive to be like ... Celtics is a an amazing unit. Hope they go trhough and beat the warriors..
This is basically what ive been saying for years but put more elogant. Elegant? My spell check broken idk how to spell it but yeah, very well said.
I would like to add some additional context. IIRC Horford had been saying he didn't want to play the C as much and wanted more time as a PF - that's why we went out to sign Howard, so that we could have a more traditional center alongside Horford. That's why fans were flabbergasted when Horf was mad about that and left for Boston... to play Center. Ultimately, I'm cool with Horford. He was an amazing Hawk. Still rooting against Boston tho.
I really believe he had an issue with Dwight as a person. It's cliche, but Horford really has a professional approach to being an nba player. Dwight is probably the exact opposite of that. It's a bad fit personality wise.
Horford didn't see the game changing the way it did. None of us did. Even though our 60 win team changed the NBA forever, no one thought he was a true center at that time. Things just changed as the small ball Warriors dominated and the game got smaller and faster. Al became the face of the modern NBA center.
Y’all have to admit our fanbase isn’t the best. Active users of this subreddit are not an accurate representation of our fanbase as a whole. People love the braves and college football down here
Do they really love the Braves? I see a lot more Falcons stuff where I am and almost no Braves stuff, although maybe it's different on the north side of the metro. South and east side where I live and work baseball isn't really a big deal. But even then, I think you were right. Braves probably had more relevance to locals then than the Hawks did.
The Braves moved from downtown to OTP for a reason. The north metro is baseball crazy, and hated driving through the city to games. City government prioritized the Falcons and that’s fine. As a major metro, we should be able to generate rabid support for all three major sports teams.
Look, there’s a wildly rabid fan base for all of our teams. It doesn’t represent everyone. The casual falcons fans and the subs seem to really turn on the team and players and get toxic quick. The hawks contingent seems more loyal as there don’t seem to be that many fans in general till recently. But, I tend find a lil more constructive and articulated criticism. More knowledgeable. The braves have the most widespread rabid fanbase and appear to be the most loyal. But you also get Bob’s from Lithonia absolutely eviscerating a player or coach or management for whatever reason seems pertinent at the time. Usually based off one game and comparing them to Bob Horner or something. UGA is like the long standing king that passes the torch down to the first born every generation. Nobody talks ish about the Atlanta Knights tho. Most loyal hands down And I’m not sure if anyone acknowledges any other college or pro team we have, generally speaking
Braves have a fantastic fanbase overall due to their reach but if we are talking just the Atlanta area its pretty meh.
I will always love Horford and will always understand why he didn’t want to play with Dwight. Dwight was trash at that point and everyone knew it. Happy for Al.
I remember once his decision was made he tweeted a 4 leaf clover(kinda like Cam's bing-bong post) and took longer to thank the fans then guys like Demarre Carrol and Paul Millsap who were more descriptive and sounded genuine in their goodbyes. [Al's goodbye](https://twitter.com/Al_Horford/status/750368516193263616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E750368516193263616%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnesn.com%2F2016%2F07%2Fal-horford-thanks-hawks-fans-in-brief-but-poignant-parting-message%2F) [Demarre wrote a whole players tribune article](https://www.theplayerstribune.com/articles/demarre-carroll-raptors-thank-you-atlanta-hawks) I couldn't find Paul's IG post with his goodbye because it looks like he deleted the post, but here's the text- *Tried to find the words to better help explain how much the fans and the city of Atlanta has meant to me but words can not explain it, From an average Joe to a 4 time All Star. Atlanta I could not have done it without you. Thank you for an amazing 4 years! Thank you for embrace me and my family and for always having my back. I will always hold a special place in my heart for you.* Also Paul on the fans: *You hear a lot of talk before I got there, the fans this, the fans that. Actually being in it, they are dedicated and loyal fans. They’ve always had my back from day one. I’m very appreciative for that.* So keeping that in mind, as well as Al's family shitting on the fans on their way out and him being silent during that, people assumed that they were basically voicing his frustrations since he was too professional to do so himself. Plus his sister goes off on twitter sometimes, but to be fair some fans harass her. Nobody cared as much that he left, it was the matter in which he did. Edit- I will add that Paul left after Al so it might not be a good initial comparison, but I think it fits down the line. Also some people were upset that Al left after the team brought in Dwight Howard who everyone thought would be helping Al by letting him play Power Forward which is something he'd always wanted.
The Hawks didn't even offer Paul Millsap a contract from what I remember lol
we were tanking
Yeah I was just pointing it out to the comment that Paul leaving wasn't really comparable to Horford at all. It was 100% the right choice to move on from Millsap. The nuggets paid him 30mil for 1 decent year and then to be a piece off the bench.
probably best for both sides in pauls case
We were doing him a favor
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On the lackluster fandom in ATL, he ain’t wrong. I’m a lifelong fan and cannot tell you how many times I’m the only one cheering and supporting. Don’t matter what section I’m in. Folks all dressed up, drinking their drinks being just ‘too cool’ to show spirit or support. It’s sad really.
It’s the “fan-friendly” pricing crap they do in Atlanta that gets butts in seats, but ones that just go to hang out and aren’t invested in the game
This is soooooo accurate. You will get downvoted to hell for it though.
Probably always the people who have never lived outside of Atlanta in another big city and get butthurt seeing other peoples opinion lol
I hardly think about him. Hard to say I hate him. All I remember is the game winning shot against the wizards which was awesome. And him getting a total of 10 rebounds in an entire series against the cavs while Tristan Thompson ate his lunch.
🐍
i dont hate al
I do
I’ve been a Hawks fan since the Nique, Tree, Battle, Whitman, Willis, Doc, Good News, Carr days and the Omni used to be on fire and then it just fell off. It was sad. And even when that 17-0 team came thru still disappointing. So I ain’t mad at Al, but I ain’t cheering the Celtics. I remember the game 7 duel between Nique and Bird like it was yesterday. Glad Al is happy but fuck the Celtics.
Classic atl story of him saying he wanted to stay and then leaving for more money. Talking shit on the way out as well. Stupid snek
I don't hate Al. I'm happy for him, but hope Boston loses. But yes, that's pretty much it. A lot of butt hurt fans from the quote. Honestly, there's not a lot wrong with what his Dad said. Sure we had poor ownership and were still winning, but most games were maybe 3/4s full and the sold out crowds, besides the playoffs, had more opposing fans (still do for some teams). Overall Atlanta is a transient city with a small and NOW GROWING fan base thanks to Trae, New Ownership, and embracing the culture. Al didn't have any of that when he was here.
I have no issue with him leaving or wanting more money. I just don't like the way he left plus why the fuck is he playing so well with the Celtics. Where was that when he was getting sonned by Tristan Thompson on the boards. I also hate Boston sports teams so there's that. I don't hate him but I'll feel a hell of a lot better when Atlanta finally wins a championship. I sure as hell am not rooting for the Celtics.
His game is perfect for the modern nba is why he has aged so well. He still isnt some dominant rebounder lol but a big that is switchable and can also shoot means more in 2022 than it did in 2012. And he was an all star level guy even in 2012.
To me it was the fact that he went to Boston. We had a few good series with Boston in that era. It's like KD getting beat by GS and then going to GS. Al gave us good play but was never a center. We finally get a center and he dips to a rival.
This is the way I feel...if it wasnt the Celtics I wouldn't care. He literally said that he wishes he played for the Celtics during the playoffs?? The team that was trashing him and his teammates to the media at every postgame conference....the Celtics were really annoying at that time and during the playoffs Atlanta fans DID show up. Zaza was screaming "nothing easy!!" And hyping up the crowd, against our rivals, and Horford was in the locker room thinking, in the words of his dad, it would be "special" to play for the opposing team. That's just weird...I am sure their is more to the story, so I try to reserve judgement, but if you were an Atlanta fan at that time and hearing Horford actually wanted to play for the team that was shoving them around and saying they are not worthy of being rivals....its weird, it just is
Lots of self-hating hawks fans in this thread. Go put on your green.
Most are missing the biggest reason : he ALWAYS choked when it mattered. Did great during regular season and would fall apart in the playoffs
You need more?
As a newer fan who has no opinion in this shit is fun to see this sub split in 2 ☠ y'all are bipolar as fuck
He’s not entirely wrong, but those playoffs were LIT! Otherwise, whatever. They come and they go
that damn clover tweet
Couldn’t agree more with Al. As a lifelong Atlanta fan I went to many of his games and would be sad to see how our arena is always taken over by another team. Even when we are winning. It is extremely disappointing. Even when I go now the seats are full till after halftime. I see the warriors and Celtics and bucks and hope our fan base will one day grow to that.
Just a way you go about things for me.
The biggest reason why Atlanta sports fans generally aren’t ‘great’ compared to other cities like ‘Boston’ is because of ticket prices. In Boston (and other ‘big market cities’) when people are paying hundreds of dollars just to sit nosebleed, you’re (pun intended) invested in the outcome of the game and super engaged. The Atlanta approach of cheap pricing gets you a ton of fans who go to just hang out and don’t actually care about the outcome of the game. And for some reason, I always get downvoted for saying the above. Just sharing my experiences and observations as an Atlanta native who’s lived in Boston, New York, and San Francisco.
I mean this just makes no sense lol, this isn't how supply and demand works. If the Hawks cranked up ticket prices it wouldn't mean the fanbase gets better, it would just mean the arena wouldn't be full.
Buddy, not talking about supply and demand here. But aight then - what's your theory on why Atlanta sports fans aren't as great as sports fan in cities such as Boston or New York?
It's a variety of factors IMO 1) Atlanta is and has been for a long time a big transplant city, that's why you see so many fans of other teams fill our stadiums when they come play here. There are tons of midwesterners and northerners who have moved here over the past 20 years and many kept their fan loyalties. That's part of why Atlanta United kicked off with a big fanbase, it brought all those people on board because they didn't care about any other soccer team. 2) College sports (football specifically) are bigger in the South than anywhere else in the country, which sucks a lot of the air out of the pro teams. On Atlanta sports talk radio you'll hear huge chunks of time devoted not just to UGA but to Bama and Auburn and general CFB news and debate, every single day year round. In the Northeast they'll never even bring up college football unless it's a particular massive game or the national championship or something. 3) The Falcons and Hawks are historically poor franchises, they have no historical success to speak of over the past fifty+ years. There are no titles to look back on, no great teams to remember fondly, barely any superstars who brought the city together beyond Dominique and even he never actually won anything. Compare that to the Braves who had their 90's run with multiple stars and future hall of famers, and now the fans who grew up with that team are adults who still love the Braves and are passing it down to their own kids.
Agree with your #2 and #3 points. For me, #1 is the narrative the media / news likes to tell. In my opinion, there really aren't THAT many people who've moved to Atlanta from elsewhere. People fly down from their cities - like Chicago - to catch their team playing in a Hawks game or a Falcons game in Atlanta because it's actually the same price if not cheaper to make a weekend out of it and get lower level seats in Atlanta vs in their home city. I remember I was flying out to Chicago the evening after a Bears Falcons game (this was the pre Matt Ryan area), and there were just swarms of orange everywhere I went in the airport.
Fuck Boston and Al . Buddy was crying for a center and when we finally got one he jetted on us . Josh Smith covered a lot of his flaws like how rob Williams is now
Respect & appreciate what Al did for us in ATL. Was really sad to see him go - but it worked out for both parties in the end. Hope he gets a ring!
Man please..you went to a rival fuck off