Wes Morton – A Sincere Thank You And See You Later

Dec 23, 2014; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Hawks mascot Harry the Hawk performs during a time out of their game against the Los Angeles Clippers at Philips Arena. The Hawks won 107-104. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

When I started writing on Soaring Down South almost 3 years ago, my favorite sports team, the Atlanta Hawks, were almost completely unrecognizable from their form today. Joe Johnson and Josh Smith were still the team’s focal points. They were the pillars of a long and stable but boring Atlanta regime. Their offense, while still somewhat effective, was maybe the most bland and stagnant in the league and their ceiling frankly was not that of a championship contender. You knew exactly what the outcome of the Atlanta Hawks would be from 2005 to 2012 from the season’s beginning.

Which was perfectly fine.

Only 1 team out of 30 gets to lift the Larry O’Brien trophy at the end of the season. The other 29 just come along for the ride.

NBA basketball is an extremely fun spectacle disguised as a multi-billion dollar business. You never knew when a random Atlanta Hawks and Utah Jazz matchup would go to 4 overtimes and produce multiple game-extending buzzer beaters. Any defensive possession could produce a runout Josh Smith windmill dunk, bringing all the fans in the arena on their feet. For the many fans of the NBA and the Atlanta Hawks, the league is an exciting event year round, even when the only action was offseason rumors and rummages.

For me, basketball was always something more than everything else. I liked watching the Atlanta Braves. I enjoyed watching the Atlanta Falcons. But there was always something about basketball in the great city of Atlanta. The five players moving in unison. The sweet snap of the net after a perfect jump shot. The crazy characters and interview hijinks.

But there was always the thought of the Hawks not being good enough. Not good enough to win the title. Not good enough to turn the heads of NBA followers. Not even good enough to warrant attention from otherwise devout Atlanta sports fans.

Nonetheless, I pondered the Atlanta Hawks way more than any teenager should. I pored through a number of sites to find a working streams of Hawks games and when that was over I would located a random Suns-Kings stream to finish the East-West double header. I looked at cap sheets to figure out when the team could shed some salary to bring in a certain desired free agent. I started following my favorite basketball writers on social media, especially twitter.

And then I saw some like me without much of a writing or journalism background contributing to blogs about their favorite teams. And then came the constant visitation to Hawks-themed blogs. It seemed like a perfect fit for me: to reach other like-minded fans and start discussions and exchange ideas and information.

I wanted others to see how fun the Hawks were, which is a big reason I decided to write and spread my voice over the internet. I am most certainly not a writer by trade, but I do love stats and figures and trying to understand what makes a team tick and what makes other crumble. As an engineer and proud spreadsheet worshiper, advanced stats always interested me greatly. And with the advent of SportVU cameras, this era of big data allowed the public a view into vast amount of knowledge that exists, to my delight. On the surface, it seems like such a simple game — just five players working together to put a ball in a basket. But how does a team accomplish that better than the other 29?

Over a period of almost three years, I attempted to answer just that with opinion rooted in numbers, or by pointing to spreadsheets of data or pictures, videos, or gifs of a play or series of plays. I attempted to break down the seemingly minor aspects that could transform a good player into a great one, a good team into a great one. You can see the game but did you really watch the game?

Although analyzing any aspect about the Hawks I could was my main goal, if being a blogger meant bringing the completely objective news and notes for the day then that was my sincerest attempt. I learned more and more about the Hawks and writing in general through the many interactions with others smarter and more articulate than me.

An NBA team is large, ever-changing entity, obscured by a shroud of PR and coachspeak. While many like myself endeavored to scratch the surface of what goes on behind the scenes, learning how to think and rationalize information methodically was the biggest takeaway on my part. It was a skill that goes beyond sitting behind a keyboard and typing. It is a great life skill that I hope opens doors down the road.

Fast forward three years and the Hawks are running away with the Eastern Conference and have re-energized the sports fans in the center of the south. The team is drawing major attention around the league as a top candidate to hoist the trophy on a parade float through downtown. Everyone, inside Atlanta and around the nation, recognizes this team as both fun but a determined competitor; they recognize this team as one every fan should be proud to support.

I was born and raised in the Atlanta area. Atlanta sports teams was one of first things I associated the city with, long before seeing shows in the Fox Theater or going shopping in Lenox Mall. Atlanta sports kept me tied to the city more than anything else. And once I lived at school in Midtown, having the arenas within walking distance was a great boon to my fandom.

I have now graduated from a tough college experience and have physically and mentally moved on to other things. Living in Atlanta is but a memory now, and with the majority of my time consumed by adult responsibilities, I can’t constantly have the progress of my favorite teams in mind. My fandom is back to just that, a passionate fan and no longer a calculated and semi-unbiased arbiter of news and stats.

As such, I have decided to hang up the proverbial gloves and take a break from writing on the site. I want to thank everyone that has come through the site since I came on in April of 2012. All have made me better as a writer and fan. Most of all I want to thank David Menze, who has been my editor since day one and has given me both the free range to write about a number of topics while encouraging me to explore ideas outside my comfort zone.

I have really enjoyed writing about the Atlanta Hawks and all the positive feedback I received, and even some of the negative. This isn’t goodbye forever, this is a see you later. I hope to offer my thoughts on the Hawks at a future date.

You can still find me on twitter @Wes_Morton rooting on the Hawks and other Atlanta sports teams.

And as always, go Hawks!