All it takes is one loss to give home court back to Boston. But a breakthrough win in Game One by the Hawks would send shockwaves thru the NBA, especially in Boston. Game One Sunday night has a chance at being special.

We know the teams will meet. Every other detail will be hashed out by Thursday night/Friday morning.

The Hawks have qualified for the post-season for a fifth consecutive season. It’s the third longest streak of consecutive playoff appearances for the Hawks since the franchise relocated from St. Louis in 1968.

The up and coming playoff series with the Celtics marks the 11th time in Hawks franchise history that they have faced the Celts.

Three series standout.

In the late 50s and early 60s, the Hawks and Celtics were seemingly annual combatants in the NBA Finals. The Hawks were a Western Conference power, led by Hall of Famer Bob Pettit. The Hawks and Celtics met in the NBA Finals four times in a five year span, with the Hawks breaking thru to win in 1958.

That season, the Celtics had home court advantage. But St. Louis broke thru with road wins in games one and five, setting the stage for a dramatic Game Six at Kiel Auditorium.

Pettit was sensational! He scored 50 points against Boston, as the Hawks prevailed, 110-109 to win the World Championship. That scoring mark still stands to this day as the most points ever scored by a player in a Finals clinching game.

The Hawks and Celtics also met four times during the Dominique Wilkins era. The most famous of these meetings occurred in 1988.

It was an Eastern Conference semi-final series. Boston, once again, had home court. But the Hawks came up big in the old Boston Garden. On May 18th that year, the Hawks travel to Beantown for Game Five with the series tied at 2-2. The Hawks won 112-104, then headed back to the Omni for Game Six.

The Celts won here 102-100, setting the stage for one of the great playoff shootouts in the history of professional basketball.

Nique and Larry Bird engaged in a back and forth score-a-thon that, 24 years later, on a spring Sunday afternoon, fans still talk about and watch on line.

Wilkins scored 47 for the day, but what made the game so compelling was the fourth quarter when Bird erupted, and the two Hall of Famers matched each other hoop for hoop.

Bird scored 20 of his 34 in the final period, as the Celtics won, 118-116.

The irony of it all: the Hawks point guard that day was current Boston head coach Doc Rivers. Doc had 16 points and 18 assists in that game before fouling out. To this day, Doc has not watched a tape of that game from start to finish. Too painful.

Fast forward 20 years to the last Hawks-Celtics matchup. In 2008, the Celtics were on their way to a World Championship. The Hawks barely qualified, earning the eighth playoff position, despite a losing record.

After two Boston blowouts, the pundits were predicting a four-game sweep. But the Hawks somehow caught fire at home. Games Three and Four saw Philips Arena explode with excitement, as the Hawks rallied for two wins to even the series. In game four, Joe Johnson scored 20 of his playoff career high 35 in the final period in a 97-92 victory.

Boston won Game five yet the same story unfolded in Game Six, with the Hawks holding series here in another thrilling game with another raucous crowd at full throat at the Highlight Factory. Boston won the series at home in Game Seven.

Even in defeat, the Hawks gained confidence that they belonged, and have carried that thru to five consecutive playoff berths. The Hawks, Lakers, and Celtics are the only teams to advance to the second round in the last four consecutive seasons.

One of the best things about the men’s and women’s Final Fours are all the great stories about the players and coaches, in print and on the air.
The season flies by, but with two weeks to savor the Elite Eight, the reporting has been great. I love learning about the college players…

Speaking of newspapers, went down for breakfast Saturday at the Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia. Love reading the Philly papers, drinking in the box scores with my coffee. “Sorry, sir, Saturday is the only day we don’t get the Inquirer.” Ugh.
Yes, I have my iPad, but I still enjoy the host city’s sports page, enjoyed the old fashioned way…

Hockey and basketball doubleheader Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center. Seamless transition. The NHL game went to a shootout, and the court was down and the baskets were up an hour before the 7:30 start. Came to admire the conversion crew at Philips Arena. Lots of unknown soliders doing great work without much thanks….

We broadcast from the stands in Philly. At halftime, I visited the bar/restaurant right above our location to get some coffee. Bartender recognizes Dominique Wilkins. Whips out the cellphone, snaps a picture. Now the guy has no idea who I am. Nique leaves, and I say, “Hey man, was that Julius Erving?”…

The East playoff picture will stay in flux for a while. Heat, Bulls, Magic all lose on Sunday. Hawks must take advantage of favorable schedule from here on out. I think third in the East is not out of the question…

Watching Baylor’s Brittany Griner reminds me of my days covering the great Hall of Famer Anne Donovan at Old Dominion…

Saw where former Brave Jeff Francoeur got thrown out of a spring training game over the weekend. Nice. Once saw a guy tossed from a AAA spring training game on a back field in St. Petersburg, FL. What ever happened to Rusty Tillman? Ole’ Rusty got thrown out at the plate, thought the ump resembled an overweight female dog, told him so, and he got the heave-ho. Still laugh out loud over that one…

Can’t believe baseball starts for real this week. I missed spring training….

Anyone else out there with information overload? I read so much now on-line and on the iPad, then I get home and still have a ton of books and magazines I want to read. Overwhelmed….

Love the women’s court in Denver. Very nice local flavor. Looking forward to the UK-KU game tomorrow night….

Masters Week doesn’t seem the same without Furman Bisher with us…

Selah.

The first time I came across Tyrone Corbin, he was playing college basketball for DePaul. I was assigned to broadcast the DePaul at UAB game for ESPN in the mid-80s. Ty was a starter for a very good DePaul team.

He had broken his nose in a previous game, so he took the floor wearing a protective mask that night at the Birmingham Jefferson County Coliseum.

The game was not going well for the Blue Demons or Corbin. During the game, he ripped off the mask and threw it at the DePaul bench. “I can’t play with this thing on,” he muttered as he ran past the broadcast table. I made a mental note that night: competitor. Ty captained the Blue Demons his junior and senior years and is in the DePaul sports Hall of Fame.

Later, our paths would cross again as Ty became a member of the Atlanta Hawks. Ty was the starting small forward on the 56-win Hawks team of 1996-97. Corbin was the Hawks “glue guy”. He joined Dikembe Mutombo and Christian Laettner on the front line of one of the best Hawks teams over the last two decades. Ty was a terrific defender and capable scorer. He spent four years in an Atlanta uniform during two tours of duty.

All told, Corbin played 16 years in the NBA, finishing in 2001. After his playing career, the Columbia, South Carolina native spent two seasons coaching in the NBDL. The New York Knicks hired him as their manager for player development in 2003, and then in 2004, joined up with the legendary Jerry Sloan as an assistant coach in Utah.

I know all Hawks fans join me in welcoming back to Atlanta, Tyrone Corbin, the head coach of the Utah Jazz.

You can watch the Hawks and Jazz tonight beginning at 6pm on SportSouth.

It’s a big sports day today, with the NCAA Tournament, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, golf, etc. So I wanted to get this on your radar early for tomorrow.

Key game tomorrow night for the Hawks against the C’s.

Both clubs are jockeying for position in the Eastern Conference standings. Both the Hawks and Celtics have as their goal home court advantage in the first round. To do that, the two teams must finish in the top four in the East.

As crazy as this season has been, it would surprise no one if the Hawks and Celtics wind up as playoff opponents, possibly as early as the first round.

And if the Hawks and C’s meet again, we will revisit the 2008 playoff thriller.

That season, the Celtics were the East’s top-seed. Despite a losing record, the Hawks qualified for the playoffs as the eighth seed.

But in reality (and to borrow an NCAA Tournament phrase) this was really a one-seed against a 16-seed. The Celtics played the role of Kentucky, a team on a mission (they would go on to win the NBA title in 2008). The Hawks were the upstarts, a team counted out before the series began. Atlanta entered the post-season with the worst record of any playoff team. And after two Boston blowouts, it looked like the pundits might be right.

But in a shocking turn of events, the Hawks evened the series by winning games three and four here at Philips Arena. Game Four was one of the most memorable in this building’s short history.

The Hawks trailed going into the final period. It was at that point that Joe Johnson played, arguably, his greatest game in a Hawks uniform. The Celtics found out that when Joe gets it going, no defense can stop him. Johnson lit the Celtics up for 20 in the final quarter, scored 35 for the game, and the Hawks sent the series back to Boston, 2-2. The final: Hawks 97 Boston 92.

And the home court magic continued in Game Six here. The Hawks won that one as well, before Boston clinched the series in Game Seven in Boston.

It was a memorable series, one that may play out again in a few short weeks.

The first of three Boston-Atlanta games comes up tomorrow night in Atlanta. Hope to see you there.

Today, the tournament proper began with Murray State drilling Colorado State in Louisville.

Quick! Check my bracket! I did pick Murray State, right? Good. 1-0. Hey, I’m winning my pool!

It’s all great fun. People who never pay attention to basketball all year, pay attention now. The bracket is the be-all and end-all.

But there is a downside.

The explosion of the NCAA Tournament over the last 20 years has reduced the regular season and conference tournaments to insignifigance. We now have, as my friend Jay Bilas has said, a three-week season.

TV ratings for the regular season are falling, and with it attendance at arenas. Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium seats slightly over 9,000, and they adminstration had to beg the students to use all of their tickets for many of the home games this season.

The tournament, now is everything. The question is, is that a good thing? The worthiness of a season and a sport is devalued with all of the attention on whether or not you get into the NCAAs.

For the superpowers, the pressure is greater. Now, unless you make the Final Four, your season is deemed a failure by fans and the critical media.

Do you think the Kentucky Wildcats are feeling a little heat? Unless they go 6-0 over the next three weeks, Big Blue Nation will be upset. And goodness knows what they will say about Coach John Calipari! “He can’t win the big one” will be the most used phrase in the Bluegrass Sthat since “Down the Stretch They Come!”.

I’m not sure I have an answer to the problem. But I still long for the days when playing the game, building a team, and developing lifelong friendships and bonds was its own reward.
Here is my comprehensive plan for changing the …

Hold on! Kansas State just won! Now I’m 2-0!

As for the big game on Sunday night, wouldn’t it be nice to see the Hawks Josh Smith in that game? Can you imagine “J-Smoove” free-lancing, running and dunking with absolutely no defense being played?
What a show that would be!
Many Hawks fans want to see Josh an All-Star. His numbers are tremendous.
But Josh could have used a little “PR” help after bashing the league and commissioner David Stern when he was passed over. I wish Josh could have ‘held his tongue’ and not lashed out. Because history tells us that a player or two will get injured and an opportunity would present itself for being chosen as an injury replacement.
We’ll never know if the league would have asked Josh instead of Boston’s Rajon Rondo, but his verbal blast at the league derailed any good fortune that might have been coming his way.
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As for the dunk contest, unless the NBA can coax the best dunkers and biggest stars into the action, hen they might as well do away with the contest.
Nothing against this year’s competitors, but the event has grown stale. To add LeBron, Josh Smith, and other stars would spice up the event like the old days when Dominique Wilkins, Michael Jordan, Clyde Drexler were the talk of the basketball world.
As it stands now, it is a bore.
And why do the stars not want to compete? Their egos can’t handle individual failure. They feel that their “legacy” would be tarnished if they lost.
What nonsense.
Dominique won two Slam Dunks and got shafted on two others. He still made it to the Hall of Fame.
The dunk contest could again become the marquee event of All-Star weekend. But not until today’s stars care more about the game and the fans more than their own ego.