Game #77- Atlanta Hawks

Atlanta Hawks vs. New York Knicks November 3, 2013 Philips Arena Atlanta is one of those cities I have technically been in close to 20 times, but never outside of the airport. After a week in Hawaii I immediately had to fly out to North Carolina for work, and then took a quick trip to Hot-Lanta for a Hawks game. Besides the fact my allergies were trying to kill me, I made the best out of the 16 hours in the city. I ran to the 1996 Olympic Cauldron which is now set just outside of the Atlanta Braves stadium, ran through the Olympic village, and then headed over to the game. I don’t have a lot of good things to say about the city, in fact it was a bit sketchy. Maybe if I have a bit more time to explore I will be more impressed. Philips Arena is pretty much in the heart of downtown Atlanta, and like Philadelphia the football stadium is just down the street (Georgia Dome). The arena is nice, but after a lap around the place, once again I couldn’t find any cool memorabilia or showcases. I am not sure what is going on with these sports cities. It takes so little to build a cubby hole in a few corners of a building to put up some old jerseys, shoes, basketballs, pictures, etc. Especially since two of the most recognizable players in the 90’s were on their team…Dominique Wilkins and Spud Webb. They did have a fairly cool plaza area with large pictures of current players and the CNN headquarters is part of an indoor food court that is connected to a large hotel, I guess you need to take the good with the bad. As for the game, after some serious back and forth runs by both teams it turned out to be a really exciting game. It didn’t look that way in the first quarter as Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks were putting on a clinic. At one point they were ahead by 17 points, then were down by as much as 7, but in the final period the Knickerbockers went on a 30-23 run to take the win 95-91. ‘Melo put in 25 points, Andrea Bargnani had 20 with 11 rebounds, and Tim Hardaway Jr. included 12 for NY who overpowered Jeff Teague and Al Horford on the Hawks. Perhaps the crowd had something to do with it as at least half of the arena were heavily clad in blue and orange and were eating up Anthony’s constant crossovers. The oohs and aahs almost sounded like an “And 1” mix-tape. Unlike the majority of the games I have been to, I didn’t notice anything unusual or funny at the game. For the most part the crowd was really quite (unless the Knicks were scoring). Maybe because I felt so crappy and my allergies were so bad I was practically crying in the stands I didn’t have all my faculties with me, and therefore I missed all the good stuff. Don’t worry, I have to come back for a Falcons and Braves game.