Solomon Jones has signed a two year deal with the Indiana Pacers taking his 2.6 points and 2.1 rebounds per game with him. I must say I miss Solo. Every game he provided me with upwards of 12 seconds of pure pleasure. Which is more than Thomas Gardner can say. Solo may have lacked any real understanding of team defense, but he found a way to carve his own niche in the world that is Hawks basketball.
Assuming the Hawks sign another big man...any big man, the team probably will not miss any contribution Solo provided on the court, but I must say I will miss him as a member of the team. In his honor, I have constructed a top ten of my favorite memories of our third string center.
10. The pain he indirectly caused Hoopinion every time Bret watched Paul Millsap.
9. His diligent practice of the buzzer beater three at the end of warm-up.
8. The time he actually hit the buzzer beater three against the Thunder pushing the Hawks to an 11 point lead and probably ruining the 10s of people who bet on Thunder/Hawks games.
7. His attempt to block Mike Bibby's first layup in the layup line and how it always was somehow hilarious to the two of them.
6.The pain said joke brought me as I watched Bibby's only successful drive of the night happen when it didn't matter against what was suppose to be our shot block specialist.
5.The 21 times he tied his career high in steals at one.
4. That time he had a double double against Detroit his rookie year and I thought about thinking he could be a decent contributor and then decided Rasheed Wallace let him get it just to mess with my head.
3. How in his third year, Solo graduated out of the intro line for starters to run through and to the greeter at the end of that line.
2. Dick Bavetta protecting Dwayne Wade from his lanky grope.
1. The time he punched Zaza in the face.