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Greetings! The NBA playoffs are on the horizon as each team has between 3-5 games remaining in their season and as we approach the finish line it’s time to look ahead towards the playoffs. First, let’s project the seed in each conference.

West

1. Oklahoma City
2. San Antonio
3. Denver
4. LA Clippers (Division Winner)
5. Memphis
6. Houston
7. Golden State
8. LA Lakers

There are a few changes from the current standings here. The Spurs currently hold the #1 seed but with Manu out of the lineup and Oklahoma City looming, I think the Spurs give up the top spot to the Thunder. On the bottom half, Houston currently trails the Warriors by a game but they have been significantly better for about 3 months now and I see them zooming past GSW and into the 6-spot. The 8th seed is the biggest battle to watch between LA and Utah but after a huge Laker win and Jazz loss Tuesday, I’ll give the edge to Kobe.

East

1. Miami
2. New York
3. Indiana
4. Brooklyn
5. Chicago
6. Atlanta
7. Boston
8. Milwaukee

Nothing changes here! The closest battle is between Atlanta and Chicago for the 5th spot, but with Chicago holding a 1/2 game lead and the tiebreaker, they’re in a bit better shape. Everything else is comfortably set.

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With that set, let’s take a (very) quick look at projecting the path to the NBA Finals.

Round One

• Oklahoma City over Los Angeles in 5 - The Thunder are head-and-shoulders better than the current Lakers team, and while Kobe’s offense has been crazy this season, he isn’t guarding a soul. It is popular to think that LA could “put it together” in the playoffs, but not against a gauntlet like OKC.
• San Antonio over Golden State in 6 – Without Manu, San Antonio seems vulnerable, but with their coaching advantage and the presence of Duncan/Parker, they’d still beat Golden State.
• Houston over Denver in 6 – Here’s my one-and-only bold upset pick. I think Houston would beat Denver in a series. They have the best player in the series in Harden, they can play at Denver’s tempo (perhaps better than Denver can), and they can score at will.
• LA Clippers over Memphis in 7 – This is probably the best matchup in the West and a re-match of last year’s crazy back-and-forth series. Give me Chris Paul & C0.
• Miami over Milwaukee in 4 - I yawned out loud when I thought about this series.
• New York over Boston in 7 – I really wanted to take Boston although I couldn’t pull the trigger without home-court. New York will put up a stinker or two if these two teams meet but Boston can’t score enough to win 4 games.
• Indiana over Atlanta in 7 – Call me a homer for taking this to 7 games but the Hawks would hold home-court against Indy. The Pacers are better overall (defensively being the key), however, there’s no reason it wouldn’t be highly competitive throughout.
• Chicago over Brooklyn in 6 – Tom Thibodeau is very, very good at his job. If Chicago beats Brooklyn in this series (like I predict), he should be awarded a medal for winning a playoff round with Nate Robinson as his best guard.

Apr 5, 2013; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Hawks small forward Josh Smith (5) scores a basket against the Philadelphia 76ers during the second half at Philips Arena. The 76ers defeated the Hawks 101-90. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

My  favorite player, my idol, my hero, might be leaving me. Leaving me stranded on an island. Leaving me sitting on the side of the road. Leaving me rooting for a team that plays games almost 1000 miles away. I can’t be mad at him. Without Josh Smith, I wouldn’t be here, on Soaring Down South, to tell you this story.

December 2009 – I’m your average 7^th grader. I have always loved sports but I was too impatient to appreciate them for what they truly are. I buy an Xbox 360 with my Christmas money and start playing with friends. A few of them spend lots of time playing NBA 2K10. “Looks cool” is what I probably thought, giving no proper thought to the conversation. It was way cooler than I realized then. It took me a while to appreciate it, but for good reason.

October 2010 – NBA 2K11 goes on sale. I rush to the store on opening weekend to grab a copy. My friend, Noah, had told me that this was supposed to be the “BEST GAME EVER, DUDE,” or something like that. As it turns out, it was. I had so much fun playing the different game modes and I learned the NBA rosters each day I played. I had watched ESPN religiously, but never paid attention to names other than the biggies, like LeBron or Dirk (remember, I live in Texas). One fall day, I found myself playing a MyPlayer matchup against the Atlanta Hawks. “Hey, they have that Silent Superstar guy they talk about on SportsCenter,” I probably thought. I’m, of course, a natural at 2K, so I find myself dominating these virtual Hawks for most of the game. But then something happened in that game that was unexplainable, unfathomable, I’m-getting-chills-while-writing-this-able. In what seemed to be a simple play, Josh Smith intercepted a teammate’s pass and had the floor to himself on the fastbreak. Those next 3 seconds would change my childhood forever.

He did the coolest thing I had ever seen. Not even video game worthy, but , alas, J-Smoove jumped off the screen (or so it seemed). He did a 360 reverse-clutch dunk that made me scream, or cry, or say something like, “Whoa nelly!” or “What just happened?” Who was this monster of an athlete, I thought. I spent the next 3 hours watching YouTube clips of him destroying opponents down low, rejecting some of the best players in the game into the stands, and performing highlight reel plays as if they were normal for him. He was so special. Special in a way I can’t describe today and may not be able to describe thirty years from now. Everything seemed so easy for him. This guy, some random video game character, had just become my favorite player.

December 2010 – It’s Christmas time, again! My parents gave me a Smith jersey and I was addicted to it. I wore it nonstop; couldn’t take the thing off me. About this time I started to periodically check in on the Hawks, Smoove’s stats, and set alerts on my iTouch for the games. Noah, my friend from earlier, was a huge Dwight Howard fan and, by default, a Magic supporter. We took on the roles of our favorite teams and became “rivals” every-time the other’s team would take the floor. Basketball was starting to separate itself from the other sports as my favorite (that title is now shared with baseball).

April 2010 – Playoff fever! The Hawks were playing Noah’s Magic in the opening round of the playoffs and I was more than pumped. We decided to bet $10 (Hey, we were in 8^th Grade) on the series and also, the loser had to wear the other team’s jersey for a school day. Those six games were the most exciting nights of my life. I was jumping up and down in front of my TV every night they played and relishing in the fact that the Hawks had beaten the Magic in outstanding fashion. Noah wore my Smith jersey to school, but I took it from him at lunch because I was worried he would damage it. I had another friend, Mitchell, who was a big Bulls fan. The Hawks fell to them in six games in the 2^nd Round, but I was still overjoyed from the Magic win and from Jeff Teague’s great performance.

December 2011 – The lockout season was beginning and, I was turning into a legit superfan. I checked the Hawks’ Google News feed every morning, at lunch, and after school almost every day. I watched every game I could on the major networks and online if I could find a stream (sorry FCC). However, that wasn’t properly fulfilling my Hawks needs. I made a Twitter just for the use of tweeting at J-Smoove. That’s it. I continued watching and tweeting, but no response.

April 2012 – On my birthday, April 2^nd, Josh Smith retweeted my comment (which probably said something like “Josh you da bomb dot com boii” or something like that) about his recent game versus the New York Knicks. My life was undeniably awesome. The next day, he responded to my question asking who he thought would win the Final Four. I thought I was hot stuff. But, alas, the Hawks lost to the Celtics in six games and I was disappointed. There’s always next year.

June 2012 – The Hawks hire Danny Ferry to be the new GM. I’m aware that Smoove is going to be a free agent next season, so I worry that he might get traded. Boy, was I wrong. He traded away Joe Johnson, with whom I shared a love/hate relationship, and Marvin Williams, who I laughed at repeatedly (#BUST). Going into the Las Vegas Summer League, I was excited to watch new Hawks John Jenkins and Mike Scott and my fan-card seemed to change its motto from “die-hard” to “analytical realist”. With Smoove on the team for the 2012-2013, I was excited and ready for basketball.

October 2012 – It was time for training camp and I was counting down the days until I could watch my Hawks play on TV again. My Hawks hat had been worn down from being out in the sun all summer and I waited endlessly for those meaningless preseason games to end. League Pass had been ordered, Tweeters had been followed, and my appetite for good basketball was growing.

April 2013 – The Hawks are in the playoffs and Josh Smith is certainly a reason. From October to now, I’ve gotten a job here at Soaring Down South and things can’t be better. All because I’ve been following bloggers on Twitter. All because I watched too much Summer League. All because I cheered too hard in the playoffs. All because I won that bet with Noah. All because I bought NBA 2K11. All because I like Josh Smith.

It’s that time in the story where the narrator uses fancy figurative language to display their message. Well, that’s no fun, so I’ll put it out there plain and simple. Josh Smith is my favorite player. His jumpers make me cringe. His dunks make me dance. But, even if he leaves Atlanta in free agency, his game will always make me smile.

On Wednesday, Al Horford and Sprint put on a Unique Fan Experience as part of an expansion to their 4G LTE network. It was a series of events where Al Horford met with fans in the area through a set of three events to promote community.

First, Al Horford played a game of SPRINT (HORSE) with a group of fans at the Peachtree Hills Park gym. There was stiff competition from one man, who matched three pointers with Horford for an extended amount of time. A group of local elementary school kids sat to the side and oohed and ahhed at every difficult shot. The man in a white t-shirt (see pictures below) held out for a long time, hitting long three pointers for Horford to match and eventually made the Atlanta Hawks take an “I”, but Horford put him away with a three at the top of the key.

The next part was an abbreviated game of HORSE (dubbed LTE) with three students of the local elementary school. Needless to say, there was little competition, other than from one precocious little Kyle Korver. I can direct you to my Youtube page for some video from both games.

I was able to ask Al Horford a question about his thoughts of this event and what it meant to be a part of event like this. He said he favorite part was the atmosphere. The game of horse was something like what kids would play at a neighborhood blacktop, although Horford admitted he was glad the competition was held inside in with the air conditioning .He was very enthusiastic about putting on a show for the kids, even lifting one up for a dunk at one point.

Instead of embedding a ton of photos that would take up a vast amount of space, I decided to put together an album. You can hit “start” to have it automatically rotate through the pictures or “>>” to advance through them manually. Or just head to this Flickr set. (I apologize in advance, I’m nowhere close to a professional photographer. All I had handy was my iPhone 3GS and its puny 3 megapixels.)

Al Horford Fan Event
Horford 1 Horford 2 Horford 3 Horford 4 Horford 5 Horford 6 Horford 7 Horford 8 Horford 9 Horford 10

Upon taking photos with the participants of LTE, Horford was whisked off to the GameStop in Lenox Mall, where he played NBA 2K13 with some fans and passers-by. I was able to combat his Atlanta Hawks with the Oklahoma City Thunder for a quarter, draining three pointers with ease using Kevin Durant. The picture to the right is not me but as soon as Sprint uploads the pictures to their Facebook page, I can direct you to it.
Unfortunately, I had to head home before the last segment, due to some undisclosed family issues, just before Horford was to sign autographs at the Sprint store in Lenox Mall. I headed home early, knowing I had to fight the Atlanta traffic on the downtown connector, so it was an unfortunate end to my day. Still, the experience was very enjoyable and I'm thankful I could be a part of it.

Overall, the day of events showed how the Atlanta Hawks, through sponsorship with Sprint, try to give back to the fans. Throughout the entire event, Al Horford was upbeat and seemed very exciting to be sharing time with the fans and people in the community. Al Horford is known around the league as one of the most open player to talk to, whether it be in the locker room after a game or around the city of Atlanta. He did nothing to deflect that label and, along the way, possibly inspired kids to go for their academic and athletic dreams. I invite you to check out more on Sprint's Forum Blog.