Jealous? A little.
Rashad Mobley of Hoopsaddict.com hung out in Woodson's office prior to Saturday night's game. (HT: Zaza's Playground)
Usually when I meet with the opposing coaches prior to the game, there are a group of journalists around and it is done in the hallway outside the locker room. Today, when I spoke with Hawks’ head coach Mike Woodson, he called me into his office, and we had a one-on-one meeting. Apparently, he did not want to break away from Auburn/Alabama football game that was on the television.
Woodson went out of his way to tell me that he thought Former Wizards head coach Eddie Jordan got a raw deal. He said Coach Jordan was a class act, and he hoped to see Jordan back in the league soon. He also said that having been the subject of many firing rumors last year and this year, he definitely sympathized with Jordan. When I asked Woodson if his highly contested series with Boston last year in the playoffs, and the new contract he signed over the summer made him feel more comfortable, he laughed and said, “Hell no.”
I asked Woodson how he and his team would guard against overconfidence going against a 2-11 team. He said that any overconfidence his team had, went out of the window once they went 3-6 after a 6-0 start. He said that injuries contributed to that drop off, but his team now knows that playing hard every night is a must.
Coach Woodson said the goal for the Hawks tonight was to make someone besides Antawn Jamsion and Caron Butler beat them. He said that the Wizards had not consistenly proven that they had a third reliable scorer, so they planned on pressing those two extra hard. Although the Wizards’ Darius Songalia had 16 points, to compliment Jamison’s 26 and Butler’s 21, he scored 10 of those in the second quarter and he was not a factor down the stretch. On the Wizards’ final possession, the Hawks smothered Jamison and Butler, and forced DeShawn Stevenson into a bad shot, that effectively ended the Wizards’ chance of victory.
There's much more there (though nothing about Zaza Pachulia's health, my great mystery of the weekend). Go read the whole thing while I reconsider the usefulness, or lack thereof, of media access to blogging.