Rise Up, indeed. 0-4 to start the season for second year in a row. And this time, as a bonus, the shot clock and scoreboard stopped working early in the second quarter - glad the Hawks back office fails to practice quality control at all times, even before the freakin season opener - or maybe it was just Belkin residue.
I’m not about to give up, fellow fans and blog readers. However, it is hard not to be cynical and player hate when you see wide open threes by the opponent, no offensive rebounding and a crowd that was easily 60% Lakers fans, all at your home opener. Plus, our million dollar man Joe Johnson looks like he has skills, but is being asked to do to much - he wheels, friends. It will be interesting to see if he gets frustrated losing and being asked to carry the load over the course of the season. Also frustrating is the softness of Childress. I was hoping he’d start to show some toughness/aggressiveness this season, and he was far from it against the Lakers. I wanted to boo him, to be honest.
At least we had our spirit packs to play with. Spirit pack contents: a magnet calendar, thundersticks and paperwork. One of thunderstacks had a hole, somehow, somewhat similar to my personal thunderstick. However, my thunderstick hole discharges liquid when being used, rather than air, fellow Hawks fans and blog readers.
This game was seen with Steve Smush Cazayoux and my first born, Quin. Quin was a hit with this buxom chick that, by the grace of Steve Holman, ended up next to us. Our seats blow, readers, so we are mostly surrounded by hip hop, making this chick is a god-send. She does have a boyfriend, and he seems like a good dude, hardcore Hawks fan, so we will be respectful.
Otherwise, just a couple more observations:
- Draft beers, which come in a “souvenir cup” are $6 inside the stadium, offering tremendous value in my estimation.
- Andy Roddick was in the house.
- Smush Parker has game.
- Patrick Kerney and Alge Crumpler were in the house.
- Roy Williams was in the house.
- Dallas Austin was in the house.
- Young Jeeeeeeeeeeeezee was not in the house, disappointingly.
- It was apparently Hip Hop night.
Hopefully, when I post next we will have won a game.

This could be a great season, or then again, maybe not.

We got a late start ’cause Dave is such a corporate tool. To make matters worse, traffic sucked. This is a Hawks game, there should be no traffic. While we’re sitting on Marietta, It’s one Kobe-jersey-wearing pile of crap after another passing us on their way to Phillips. FUCK Kobe. What a total butt-fucking piece of shit. Any father that lets his son or, God forbid, his daughter wear a Kobe jersey should be thrown in jail for child abuse.

We finally got to the lot, and made our way to the CNN center. Because we were late, there were no lines in the food court. We’ve determined that 2 big beers and 12 tacos at $21.50 is the optimun dinner.

Upon entering the arena, we were given Hawks “Rise Up” T-shirts. T-shirts!! And not crappy Mediums or Larges, but XLs! We were a half hour late, but they still had enough shirts left for the stragglers. Maybe the spirit group knows what they are doing, what with cheap tickets, and decent giveaways. As we were making our way, we were stopped by this she-male in a ushers uniform who told Dave that he had to take Quin down from off his shoulders. When Dave asked him/her why, you could see the him/her struggling to come up with an answer. Finally, he/she through out the catch-all response: he/she said in a low, monotone voice, “for…for safety reasons.” He/she was so happy with this response that he/she repeated him/herself, “for safety reasons.”

So we finally get to our seats. For $5, not bad: ~4 rows up in the upper deck, directly behind the basket. The view of the near key is obstructed by the play clock. The arena is filled with fans of the hip-hop nature. By some stoke of fortune unknown throughout my life, there was a very pretty young woman sitting next to us. She was immediately charmed by Quin. Her boyfriend and his brother have the four seats next to us for the season. She was cool and helpful when Dave went to get beers, and I was left with a screaming Quin.

Oh yeah…the game. Hawks played like shit. Lakers won 103-97. Kobe got ~40. Go Hawks…Rise Up.

Some observations: The Hawks fanbase sucks. I knew this to be the case going in, but I was still taken aback by how loud it got when Kobe had a dunk.

Overall a fun evening. I look forward to many more.