Carter's 2008-'09 NBA Season Preview: Atlanta Hawks

IRS auditor. White House press secretary. Bear taunter. There are occupations in this world more thankless than “Atlanta Hawks” fan, but not many, and not by much. Even worse, while auditors, press secretaries, and, um, bear taunters get compensated for their efforts, Hawks fans have to shell out for the experience of watching a team that has been one of the most chronically chaotic organizations in all of professional sports. In ’07-'08, thanks to the continued emergence of the team’s young stars and a bold trade for Mike Bibby—a much-needed veteran playmaker—Hawks fans finally got their dollars’ worth. And then, during a characteristically vexing offseason, the organization just about managed to squander the goodwill earned during the team’s first postseason appearance in eight years. Some of that was bad luck. Some of it was incompetence. None of it, sadly, was surprising. The loss of restricted free agent Josh Childress to Greece’s ... (link)