72 reasons to be excited about the Atlanta Hawks: #53 Betting on little kids basketball

Everyone is excited about Hawks basketball. You pay money, buy jerseys, read blogs because you love the game. But I enjoy the whole experience of going to the game. I find the more you go, the more you enjoy them. You get to know the workers in the CNN center, where the good bathrooms are in the arena, your usher's name. In honor of this, we will close out the week with reasons to be excited about the Phillips Arena experience.

Around every fifth games, youth league basketball teams play each other during halftime, and you are more or less obligated to gamble on this with your buddy. We usually gamble the next beer. Which means things get heated.

Some things you should know:

• No fouls are called. If you know a kid that is going to play, tell him to hack the crap out of the other team. You won't pay for a beer the rest of the season.
•  The boys want to make an NBA length three pointers. This should be encouraged. I have seen one player drill one and I assume that is what the arena will be like when the Hawks win a championship.
  
• Heckling is acceptable. The kids that is the ball hog deserves to be heckled. He needs to know a beer is at stake. I am kidding. But I heckle the refs. They DO need to know.
  
• One person on each team is a ringer. He needs two things, a nickname and the ball. I have found the sooner you give the nickname and start shouting it, the quicker he or she gets the ball.

I have missed parts of third quarters to watch these guys. It is that good.