Whatever happens in todays Game 7 between the Atlanta Hawks and Boston Celtics will ultimately be effective for one team and one team only: the ATLANTA HAWKS. The team, organization and city has been officially revitalized during this unexpected and surprising first round series against the overall #1 seeded Boston Celtics

After last years NBA draft the whole NBA world was upended when Boston pulled off one of the great transactions in professional basketball history by acquiring Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to join Paul Pierce and become the self titled trio The Boston Three Party. Everybody penciled these guys into the NBA Finals and for all intent and purposes receiving the teams 17th NBA Championship and this was before the '07-'08 season had begun. Every person I talked to had the same opinion, "Boston is the team to beat in the entire NBA" but I felt differently and today as I type this blog, while also listening to Game 7 on the radio, my feelings and predictions of apprehension back then have come to fruition in this series; although I have to admit I didn't think it would come this early in the playoff season

I basically felt like neither one of the Boston 3 had demonstrated any playoff fortitude or big game composure individually to rightfully predict that they could come together as a group and 'win it all'. Yes, each player is arguably one of the best at their postion during this current generation of NBA Players. Yes, they each have won big regular season games at different moments for their respective teams in the past and they've been crowned franchise type players upon being drafted into the league. But with all of that being said, the Big 3 still lack the 'Killer Instinct' it takes to win 'Big' in the playoffs. And these 3 are seasoned NBA veterans not early 20-something players

I never bought into the hype and finally the reasonings behind it are in front of every NBA fan, High Def style! Kevin Garnett might be called the Big Ticket, but ask him to cash that ticket at the end of important games and he won't do it. He's been so unselfish thru the years that it has made him a player who's now scared to take the 'big' shots. In this series KG has put up decent numbers and has pounded his chest quite a bit on defense but he's yet to take advantage offensively against a Hawks team that has no equal in the low-post to his talent.  A little of the same can be said for Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, each are great streaky jump shooters with little to zero of a defensive presence; but there not on the court to play great defense, there around to put the ball in the hoop but during these playoffs neither one has been scoring consistent enough to eliminate a young-inexperienced-shaky Atlanta Hawk team. Pierece is cocky and has never been as good as he thinks he is and Ray is a good person and teammate but he's always been a one-dimensional player--a jump shooter who has never been comfortable with creating his own shot. It all comes down to this, Boston should have ended this series in 4 games, a 1 seed against an 8 seed, and been well rested for the 2nd round. But now there going to enter the 2nd round tired and mentally wary; with Lebron James and the Cavaliers waiting to apply more pressure to the Big 3 

It looks like the Celtics are going to avoid the biggest upset in NBA Playoff history (there crushing the Hawks by 34 towards the end of the 3rd qtr.) and avoid joining their cross town peers, New England Patriots, as the biggest 'choke jobs' in professional sports history. But there not out of the woods yet, anything short of the NBA title will be a disaster in the eyes of Bostonians and once again they'll have to travel over to Fenway Park to see how a real Championshipteam closes the deal. 

Atanta Hawks have nothing to hang there head about, there playing with House Money right now, nobody expected this group to be playing a game 7, they've exceeded expectation and in doing so have jump-started a franchise that was boring and lifeless for the last 15 years. Expect to see the Atlanta Hawks making a lot of 'noise' in the Eastern Conference for the forseeable future and in 5 years time they'll be able to look back on the 2008 playoffs and thank the Championship-less Boston 3 for indirectly re-starting the ascension of their Franchise