The Atlanta Hawks took the floor for the first time since falling to the eventual world champs in the playoffs, suffering an 85-81 defeat to the Boston Celtics. Luckily, this time was just the first Summer League game and won’t be held against them. Their next game will be on Tuesday against the Indiana Pacers.
In the meantime, their loss belies a game that was filled with encouraging moments from beginning to end.
The good vibes were flowing before the game even began as owner Tony Ressler was spotted courtside with none other than Hawks wing Cam Reddish. The third-year man out of Duke has been the subject of trade rumors for quite some time.
The Atlanta Hawks had several good things happen in their Summer League opener
Those rumors began again when it was reported he wasn’t going to participate in Summer League. This was after he was specifically mentioned by management as one of the players we would see. This had some speculating injury on top of the swirling trade winds.
We always figured it was more precautionary and got confirmation it wasn’t injury-related.
If isn’t enough, Hawks CEO Steve Koonin addressed Reddish’s absence.
"“There are two pieces, Cam was gonna play and Okongwu was gonna play, and you know the big O, unfortunately, is injured and had to have surgery,” Koonin said. “And the way Cam felt coming back from the playoffs he did not feel rest and we saw a great performance in the playoffs, so he asked to opt-out and we said great.”"
Koonin went on to say they didn’t imagine Reddish would play in Games 5 and 6 when the comments were made. Reddish had 21 points on 58.3 percent shooting and went 6-for-7 from downtown in the deciding game of the Eastern Conference Finals.