PTSD: Atlanta Sports Edition
CAW CAW!
Greetings fellow Atlanta Hawks bandwagon fans. After the first three quarters of Game 5, a lot of room opened up for new people to join the caboose for this Atlanta sports adventure. Despite looking like the Philadelphia 76ers were going to take care of business at home and help minimize the strain on Joel Embiid’s torn meniscus that he’s been playing through, the Hawks were able to complete a comeback of miraculous proportions to regain the series lead. It felt so weird to see an Atlanta team on the right side of a sports comeback for once, but I can’t help but fear the worst going forward.
As someone that moved to Atlanta in 2008, I’ve seen more blown leads than I care to admit. I’ve seen the Hawks push the #1 seed Boston Celtics to 7 games in 2008 before losing in a blowout to the eventual champions. I’ve seen the Hawks go 17–0 during the entire month of January 2015 only to get swept by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals, minus Thabo Sefalosha. I’ve seen numerous blown Atlanta United leads, and the less said about Frank de Boer’s tenure the better. I’ve also seen the Atlanta Braves lose via a bogus infield fly rule decision in 2012 and give up 10 runs in the first inning of the deciding 2019 NLDS game. And then there’s the Atlanta Falcons.
The Atlanta Falcons have come to symbolize the city’s ineptitude of legendary stature by all of the times they’ve blown fourth quarter leads. There’s literally a page on Pro Football Reference which lists their top 50 blown leads, which implies that this has happened at least 51 times. That’s like 45 too many. Last season alone it happened three times, and twice in back to back weeks that led to Dan Quinn being relieved of his duties as head coach. I’m not even going to mention the 28–3 capitulation in the Super Bowl, as everyone is surely aware of that already, but I’m cautiously optimistic that the Hawks might be able to change the city’s fate.
Until the Cavaliers beat the Golden State Warriors after being down 3–1, it had never happened before. Until the Boston Red Sox beat the Yankees after being down 3–0 it had never happened before. And until the Hawks came back from being down 26 points to the 76ers, it had never happened before in Hawks franchise history. Maybe the tides are turning for Atlanta sports. Maybe the Hawks future will pan out different than we all expected when the season began. Maybe this is the year for the Hawks to emerge as dark horses to win an NBA title for the first time since 1958.
Or, Atlanta could Atlanta.
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