The Hawks recently released their preseason schedule set to begin on October 10. The team’s seven-game preseason is stacked with Western Conference teams including the Lakers, Clippers, Hornets and the 2011 champion Mavericks. The first game  will be against the Detroit Pistons at Philips Arena.

The team’s first regular season game is against the Minnesota Timberwolves on November 2.

So far, no games have been cancelled due to the lockout, and the box office is open for business. Not surprisingly, plenty of tickets are still left.

With the basketball world abuzz wondering who will be next to head to Europe, there is at least one player who is adamant about staying in the good ol’ USA. Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Terry commented on the lockout and where he stands on the situation. And as usual, he got his point across in typical “every sentence out of my mouth is worth of being a headline”  fashion:

“I don’t see us not having a season next year. [A] potential delay is out there, but we have to train as if there’s going to be a season. We know what we are now. We are champions. Everybody already was gunning for the Mavericks and they will be again.”

When asked about the possibility of following some of his comrades overseas, Terry staunchly refuted any such option:

“I’m not even looking. My season next year’s going to be with the Mavericks. All the money in the world couldn’t amount to being a champion and being able to defend that title next year.”

Terry is a player representative with the NBPA. The 11-year veteran was drafted in the first round by the Hawks in 1999 and played with the team through the 2003-2004 season.

After months of speculation and wondering, Magic center and Atlanta native Dwight Howard has stated he will enter the free agent market at the end of the 2011-2012 season. Howard claimed he would not sign a two-year contract extension to remain with Orlando– the longest deal he could sign under the current CBA.

“I want to win a championship,” Howard told NBA.com “I think the owners have to really know that. That’s been my goal and my mission since I’ve been in the NBA– to win a championship. I don’t have side goals or agendas. My main goal is to win a championship. I want to have 14 other guys who feel the same way.”

While Howard concedes that the team’s current mix of players has shown a similar intensity at times, he also says:

“It’s off and on. Sometimes guys are there whole-heartedly and then sometimes I’ve had teammates allow people getting in their ears and things like that effect [sic.] the way that they play and approach the game.”

Howard has played with the Magic for the entirety of his six-year career after being drafted in 2004. Could Howard be following in LeBron’s footsteps as yet another franchise player choosing personal glory over loyalty to a team? LeBron’s come under a lot of heat for it (hah, no pun intended) and is quite possibly the most hated person in Cleveland, but it’s kind of hard to blame him for his ultimate Decision. Besides, I can’t help but feel a little sorry for someone like Allen Iverson who had to have felt frustrated wasting away for years in Philadelphia without a title.

But maybe Orlando will make some major moves and build a championship-caliber team around their superstar. I mean hey, it worked for the Mavs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8xlyp3vP7s

As irritating as it is to hear the phrase repeated 23892374983 times as part of ESPN Radio’s marketing, it’s started to resonate more and more with each new move made by the Atlanta Spirit Group. Not only did the ownership group recently sell the Atlanta Thrashers to a Winnipeg group, leaving Atlanta without a professional hockey team, but rumors have been swirling about a potential sale of the Hawks as well.

I used to hate Mark Cuban, secretly resentful of the fact that the billionaire owner of the Mavs had the ability to pay off luxury taxes and exceed the league’s salary cap like it was nothing. I also used to hate the Steinbrenners and the way they could just “buy” championships by luring top players with hefty contracts that they couldn’t turn down. (Somehow, I failed to see the fact that Ted Turner was pretty much in the same category.)

Ted Turner

Now, I have to say I kind of respect that. It’s refreshing to see owners that are willing to invest in their teams. That actually care about their team’s success rather than just trying to turn a profit. The Hawks strung together their longest consecutive streak of over .500 seasons, and the Braves enjoyed their 14-year division champion streak while under Turner’s ownership. Mark Cuban just celebrated his team’s first championship, and even paid for the celebration parade stating:

“I’ll pay for it because I don’t think it’s right for the city to have to pay for it. And let’s just have some fun.”

It works the other way too– look at Mets majority owner Fred Wilpon and Dodgers former owner Frank McCourt whose egregious financial scandals were recently exposed. Both teams are struggling financially and on the field: Wilpon said the Mets were “bleeding cash” and could lose as much as $70 million this year, and commissioner Bud Selig seized control over the Dodgers from McCourt; both teams are sitting in second-to-last place in their divisions.

As sleazy as Cuban and the Steinbrenners may be, at least they abide by the law (as far as we know). It’s true– good owners, good teams; bad owners, bad teams. Simple as that.

Well, the Mavs have won the title and that’s $6 million down the drain for Mike Bibby. $6.2 million to be precise.

Shortly after being traded to the Washington Wizards, the former Hawk point guard agreed to a buyout with the Wizards and the Heat. Bibby elected to forgo the $6.2 million he was promised for next season to head to Miami  in a “championship-over-money” decision. While the decision didn’t exactly pan out the way Bibby had hoped, the Heat’s run in the playoffs still beats the 23-59 season he would have been a part of in Washington.

Bibby played in 20 playoff games with the Heat this season, averaging 20.8 minutes and 3.6 points per game. Aka, $180,000 per game.

Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Heat and the Mavs is tonight in Dallas. Each team features a former Atlanta Hawk point guard: Jason Terry for the Mavs and Mike Bibby for the Heat.

[Fun fact: Terry and Bibby also played alongside one another as teammates at the University of Arizona. The two led the Wildcats to an NCAA Championship in 1997.]

Terry was drafted by the Hawks in Round 1 as the 10th overall pick in 1999. He led the team in steals, assists and free throws in the 2000-2001 season and played with the team for five years before being traded to the Mavs in 2004 for Antoine Walker.

In February, Bibby, along with Jordan Crawford, Maurice Evans and a first round draft pick, was traded to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Kirk Hinrich and Hilton Armstrong. Shortly after, Bibby agreed to a buyout with the Wizards, giving up the remaining $6.2 million on his contract to go to the Heat for a chance at a ring. Well, now he’s got his chance.

How have the two former Hawks stacked up against one another thus far in the series?

In Game 1, Terry had 12 points, 1 rebound and 1 assist in 33 minutes compared to Bibby’s 3 assists and 2 steals in 14 minutes (he went 0-for-4 from the field).

In Game 2, Terry put up 16 points and 5 assists in 31 minutes, while Bibby had 14 points and 4 steals in 22 minutes for the Heat.

While Bibby has struggled from the field, it looks like Terry has gotten back into a groove. And just in time for the Mavs. Terry had earned a reputation as “the closer” due to his 4th quarter performances, but that role had been called into question in earlier playoffs. In Game 2, however, Dallas found itself down by fifteen with just over seven minutes to play and facing a potential 0-2 series deficit. With a flurry of eight points in just over three minutes, Terry equaled his scoring output from the first three quarters combined to fuel the team’s comeback.

Looks like Terry’s got Bibby beat so far in this series. And if “the closer” is in fact back, Dirk just may get his ring after all.

The NBA Finals begin tomorrow night with the Miami Heat taking on the Dallas Mavericks. My heart’s with Dallas, but my head is leaning towards Miami.

It’d be great to see Dirk finally take home a ring, but a one-man team is going to have its work cut out for itself in a seven game series. Not that I don’t think highly of Kidd, Chandler, et. al., but the Big Three are The Big Three for a reason, and they’ve managed to live up to the hype thus far during these playoffs.

Former Hawks superstar Dominique Wilkins appeared less impressed with the potential of the Wade-Bosh-James trio, however, and had actually picked the Bulls over the Heat:

“(The Heat) has two superstars and a very good player in Chris Bosh, but they’re not that strong on their bench so I think it will be tough for them to beat Chicago.”

[Sidenote: I think poor Chris Bosh might forever be relegated to his place in the shadows of Wade and LeBron.]

And Wilkins probably would be against contraction in the NBA, preferring that superstars play against rather than with one another:

“We didn’t want to play with one another. We wanted to kick each other’s butt. Basically, that’s the way it was. I didn’t want to team up with (Larry) Bird or team up with Magic (Johnson) or (Michael) Jordan. I wanted to play against those guys.”

So we’ll soon see if Dirk and Wilkins-style basketball can overcome the Heat and this new-fangled contraction trend.

The teams for the NBA Finals are set: the Dallas Mavericks against the Miami Heat. A repeat of the 2006 series that the Heat won in 6 games. I wouldn’t mind seeing Dirk finally get a ring after what has been a terrific post-season for him; at the same time, wouldn’t it be something to see the Heat pull off the “I told you so!” despite being the team everyone loved to hate all season? (Thanks, Rick Reilly.)

Anyways, although I was a little disappointed to see some of the younger underdogs get knocked out, it should be a good series, and it would be fun to see either of these two teams take the trophy. (Read: indecision is a win-win.)

And so we’re back to 2006 again. How did the Hawks do in the 2005-2006 season? So glad you asked.

• The summer before, the Hawks selected Marvin Williams in the 2005 draft with their Number 2 pick. This was the year they passed up Deron Williams and Chris Paul. For a UNC bench player.

• Also that summer, the Hawks picked up Joe Johnson from the Suns in return for Boris Diaw and two first-round draft picks. This was the deal that provoked controversy among Atlanta Spirit owners and eventually resulted in the dismissal of Steve Belkin from the group. And is also still being mocked as quite possibly the worst return on investment for a player with a maximum contract.

• On the bright side, Atlanta came back from its worst season in history, doubling the team’s win total from the previous year: 26 wins, 56 losses. Great job, guys.

So as hard as it was to watch the Hawks get eliminated in Round 2 of the playoffs, a little perspective helps. It could always be worse. It could be 2006.