A few things to keep in mind for Atlanta basketball fans as the end of the lockout nears:

The Hawks will play their first game on December 27 in New Jersey against the Nets. Which side of the court will Jamal Crawford be on? Right now, it’s anyone’s guess. The team’s first home game will be on the 28th against the Milwaukee Bucks.

On the economic side of things, Atlanta will be working with a tight budget come December 9 when the free trade market opens– the team currently has about $65 million in guaranteed salary, and the salary cap in the new agreement is expected to remain at $58 million, with a $70 million luxury tax cap.

Additionally, a proposed amnesty provision in the new agreement would allow teams to remove one player’s salary from cap and tax considerations over the life of the CBA (10 years total, or six if one side opts out). According to Hawks beat reporter, Michael Cunningham,

“Judging by the comments of my blog people, Tweeps and the radio interview I did yesterday, Marvin is the people’s choice to be waived under the amnesty clause. The move would reduce Atlanta’s salary commitments for 2011-12 from $65 million to about $57 million. Assuming the accounting down to the final cent comes to about that figure, Atlanta’s team salary would be just below the expected salary-cap level.”

Oh yes. And the eventual return of something other than former Hawks players and cheerleaders on the team’s homepage.

Jamal Crawford

It finally happened. After epic marathon meeting sessions between the players and and the league, a tentative agreement has been reached, and the season is scheduled to begin on Christmas Day. Player profiles are back up on NBA.com and the basketball world is slowly emerging from its slumber and beginning the return to normalcy.

This means the free agent market opens back up again too; the signing period is currently scheduled to begin December 9. Here are the Hawks’ free agents this year:

• Hilton Armstrong
• Jason Collins
• Jamal Crawford
• Josh Powell (committed to the Liaoning Dinosaurs in China for the rest of the season)
• Etan Thomas
• Damien Wilkins

NBA players and owners met earlier this week to resume discussions and the now 148-day lockout. The two sides are demonstrating a renewed sense of urgency to get a deal done in time for Christmas day games, traditionally a big exhibition for the league. A new CBA cannot be negotiated until the union, which disbanded earlier in the month, is reformed. According to league commissioner, David Stern, the league needs about 3o days between a new CBA and when games can be played. The talks are now focused on settling lawsuits– the players’ antitrust lawsuit against the league, and the league’s pre-emptive suit to prove the lockout was legal– rather than a disagreements about the percentage of BRI each side should get.

There’s no basketball, but Hawks players and employees are finding ways to stay busy and give back the the community this Thanksgiving week. Here’s what a few players are up to:

• Jamal Crawford Announces 2nd Charity Game – Crawford announced plans for charity basketball game to take place on December 15 at the University of Washington. Other NBA players who have confirmed their attendance include John Wall, Brandon Roy, Kevin Durant, and Jason Terry.  Crawford hosted a similar event back in July.
• Hawks Employees Plant Trees in Kirkwood - Hawks employees teamed up with Trees Atlanta to plant 47 trees in Kirkwood. As part of the “Threes for Trees” program, every three-pointer made by the Hawks last season resulted in a donation.
• Josh Smith Skates for a Cause - Smith participated in the “Roll Over Hunger” skate party hosted by Ludacris and Big Boi today. Proceed benefit the Hosea Feed the Hungry Foundation.

Walt Hazzard, a former Hawks guard, died Friday after complications from heart surgery. Hazzard is best known for his head coaching position at UCLA in the 1980s. He also played for the Bruins under John Wooden in the 1960s. He was co-captain of the school’s 1964 team that went 30-0 and won the national championship under Wooden.

Hazzard came to the Hawks in 1968 in a deal that sent  Lenny Wilkins to Seattle. While with the Hawks, Hazzard had his career high average in assists, with 6.8 during the 1969-70 season.

Hazzard changed his name to Mahdi Abdul-Rahman after converting to Islam. He is also the father of hip-hop producer, DJ Khalil.

Atlanta guard Jamal Crawford is the latest Hawk that may be headed overseas as a result of the NBA lockout. China’s Xinjiang Flying Tigers have expressed interested in Crawford. The Denver Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin is already playing with the team, and according to reports, Crawford and Martin share the same agent, Andy Miller.

Xinjiang management may require that Crawford stay the length of the Chinese season, even if the lockout were lifted and the NBA season were to begin during the Flying Tigers’ season.

Tuesday evening marked the beginning of the Hawks’ annual Season of Giving Campaign when members of the team’s coaching and executive staff served Thanksgiving meals at Meadowcreek High School in Norcross, GA. The team’s president, Bob Williams was also an enthusiastic participant:

“This is one of my favorite events of the year,” said Atlanta Hawks and Phillips Area President Bob Williams in between serving. “It is so nice to see that smile on the kids’ faces. People are always very grateful, very gracious.”

Tuesday’s event was the first in a series of community outreach initiatives the Hawks will participate in over the holiday season.

So the owners’ proposal was rejected, the Players Association is disbanding, and the season is in jeopardy. Etc., etc., etc. Big shocker. It was just a matter of time. I remember when all of this started back in July and people would ask me how long I thought things would last. And then get incredulous looks when I’d say basketball by January would be a best case scenario.

Despite all the quibbling, it’s less about the money and specific percentages of BRI here or there. This lockout is the result of a bigger issue and the type of blow up necessary before things can fall into a more balanced equilibrium. It’s kind of like a cleansing process every pro sports league has to go through every ten years or so. Before the NHL lockout in 2004-2005, the owners were getting screwed; post-lockout? People are generally happy and making money. Same deal in the NBA (we hope).

Who else stands to gain? Apparently the Hawks, according to the AJC’s Hawks beat writer, Mark Bradley:

“The Hawks haven’t been a hot-button topic in the Atlanta market since the late ’80s, and most of the time the civic sentiment toward them has been one of indifference. Today the mood regarding the Hawks borders on outright hostility. They haven’t been able to get past Round 2 of the playoffs, and they paid $120 million to keep the world’s least popular All-Star in Joe Johnson and they went cheap and hired Mike Woodson’s longtime assistant as his successor — and then there’s the ownership part.

Local folks have come to disdain the Atlanta Spirit for many reasons over the years, but the Spirit’s sale of the Thrashers, who upped sticks to Winnipeg, has left many Atlantans insisting they’ll never buy another Hawks ticket so long as this bunch owns the club. In August, the Californian Alex Meruelo held a press conference introducing himself as the presumptive new owner of the Hawks. This month it was announced that Meruelo wouldn’t be buying the team and, as a kicker, the Spirit would no longer be looking to sell.

I know. It makes no sense to argue that the best thing for a pro sports team would be not to play, and for the 29 other franchises the continued lockout could inflict grievous harm. But we live in Atlanta, home of an NBA team that has rarely made much sense, and a skipped season might actually serve as a tonic.”

The NBA Players Union Executive Committee will meet with player representatives from all 30 teams today to discuss the latest proposal put forth by the league. If accepted, a 72-game season would begin December 15. The executive committee met over the weekend to review the proposal, but were still dissatisfied on a number of issues. A few of the substantial changes were recently highlighted in a New York Times article:

“For one, it would ban “extend-and-trade” deals, in which a player demands a contract extension as a precondition of being traded. Anthony used that provision to secure a $65 million extension as part of his trade from Denver to the Knicks in February.”

“Under the new rule, a traded player must wait six months to sign an extension, and a player who signs an extension cannot be traded for six months.”

“Sign-and-trade deals would also be curtailed. The top-spending teams — those that pay the luxury tax — would be prohibited from acquiring a player in a sign-and-trade deal, starting in 2013-14. That could knock six or seven teams out of the market for top free agents each summer.”

So, not a lot of things that the players would be happy with, but it could balance out the inequality that exists between top spending teams and the league’s bottom dwellers.

Former Hawks player and coach Lenny Wilkins served as a great leader for the team and also for his country. In 1961, in his second year as Hawks point guard, Wilkins was called into active duty.

“I could have gone overseas during the Berlin crisis,” Wilkens said in a 1999 interview with the Academy of Achievement, “but they knew that I had played one year of pro ball and they tried to get me to play for the base team. I wouldn’t. I had this phobia that guys who played in the service lost something and never played as well when they came back. They gave me troop duty, which was fine because I enjoyed it. It was a lot of responsibility but I didn’t mind.”