Atlanta Hawks: Who are your 5 favorite Hawks?
May 20, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Hawks guard Kyle Korver (26) shoots against the Cleveland Cavaliers during the second quarter of game one of the Eastern Conference Finals of the NBA Playoffs at Philips Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
Nostalgia is a powerful thing. Sometimes we have things in life that we love and we just can’t explain why. Sports are like that. We have our favorite players that we will ride or die for. If anyone criticizes that player we irrationally yell at them on Twitter because our blind love or that player cloud our better judgment.
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Are they the best player? Do their stats justify our undying love? Sometimes, but other times not. That’s the great thing about fandom. No logic allowed. It’s all about irrational emotional attachment. During my time as an NBA fan, and a sports fan in general, I’ve had my fair share of players I loved.
In baseball it was Chipper Jones, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Jason Heyward. Those were my guys and no matter what I would always be a fan. Ranking the top five point guards in Atlanta Hawks history yesterday got me thinking of some of my favorite Hawks players. Not necessarily the best players, but players I loved.
Jason Terry was in that group, but not in the top five. Who cracked this elite group? It’s a random hodgepodge of shooters, point guards and big men. The only criteria is that I had to be alive to watch that player. This means that all of these players come from around 1999 to 2015 (ages 7 to 23 when I was actually able to comprehend and appreciate basketball). I’ve limited myself to only one player from the current batch of Hawks. If I didn’t, I could easily pick last year’s entire starting five, considering how talented and likable that bunch was.
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