The Atlanta Hawks (and whoever buys the team) have a lot of work to do to repair relationships in Atlanta. The combined email of outgoing owner Bruce Levenson and GM Danny Ferry’s comments on Luol Deng during a conference call (which led to Ferry taking a leave of absence) have damaged the Hawks’ brand in the city. There will be a lot of work to restore those relationships.
A statue for the last true superstar the Hawks had in Dominique Wilkins is a good start (and long overdue).
The Hall of Fame player and current Hawks’ broadcast color commentator (as well as Vice President of Basketball Operations) is going to get one, reports Chris Viviamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.“The first thing that comes to mind is that it immortalizes you,” Wilkins told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday. “There is no better feeling in the world to know that you will be recognized for the rest of your life and even after you are gone it’s still going to be there.
“One of most important things, not just for me but for the city of Atlanta, is it’s a sign of appreciation for what they’ve done for me. This city made me who I am.”
The statue gets unveiled on March 6, before a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James
This is well deserved for the human highlight reel. He is currently 11th on the NBA’s all time coring list with 26,668 points. He in a lot of ways is still a key face of Atlanta basketball — and he wants to own the team.
We’ll see what happens with that plan, but the statue is a good step for the Hawks.