Lang Whitaker is many things - executive editor of Slam Magazine, a columnist for SI.com, and most importantly, a die-hard Hawks fan. For 2007-08 , Lang will be sharing his thoughts on the team in an exclusive column for Hawks.com. Check back every Wednesday throughout the season to read his latest musings, and read him every day at www.SLAMonline.com

"Hawks Fans Like Job?"
by Lang Whitaker

My friend Russ sent me an email last night just after Stephon Marbury nailed a three-pointer to help the Knicks put away Russ' favorite team, the Chicago Bulls. The email was only six words long, but four of those words were profanities, things we probably shouldn't print here on Hawks.com. The two words I can repeat without worrying about the FCC were "this" and "team."

I understand Russ' pain. His Bulls were expected by many observers to finish in the top half of the Eastern Conference playoff teams. Instead they're 13-20, three games behind the Hawks, and they're already three coaches deep this season. So instead of figuring out playoff seeds and how the Bulls could go about clinching home court in the first round, Russ finds himself cheering for a team adrift while looking at www.nbadraft.net to see who the Bulls could get in the lottery.

I try to explain this to people often, but that's the thing about sports: You have to go through the bad times to make the good times worthwhile. I'm not a Red Sox fan, but they spent something like 300 years losing and losing and losing, so when they finally won a title in 2004, their fans had a much bigger party than if, say, the Celtics had won their 17th title. It's all the rough patches we endure that make the good times sweeter.

Which makes Hawks fans something like the equivalent of Job (editor's note: not to be confused with GOB). The Hawks have been so bad for so long that the five-game winning streak in December felt incredible, like we'd won a championship or something. Literally, it was easier to wake up in the morning, made looking at the standings and box scores so much more fun. Then the last four games happened, four straight losses, and all that fun went right back out the window. And we Hawks fans are back to wondering if the Hawks will ever be able to get it together for a period longer than a week at a time. Again.

Once again, that's sports, and in sports, sometimes when it rains it pours. (Just like it did on the Philips Arena practice court this week. Philips may make great flat-screen TVs and other electronic doo-dads, but they apparently don't manufacture flood detectors or bilge pumps.) The Hawks were hot, but then they were not. As Rihanna said, right now it's raining, ooh baby it's raining.

And it doesn't get any easier. Even though we have four home games ahead, seven of the next eight are on the road, including games at Denver, Portland and Phoenix. Ugh.

So let's try to keep taking this one day (or week) at a time. We have Cleveland tonight, who we played pretty well against a week ago, and then we host Washington, Chicago and Denver. I'd be happy with a 2-2 split there, but I'd love to see us go 3-1. Then we'll tackle the West Coast swing when we get to it.

Until then, just remember, Job lived to be 140 years old. Wonder if his team ever won a title?

MAILING IT IN:

Finally, let's check this letter from a reader named I. Favors. I. writes…

Why don't the Hawks trade Shelden Williams to the Bulls who need a low post scorer for a 2nd round pick. The Hawks took Shelden Williams so high in the 2006 draft and they barely use him. Why not trade him to a team that needs his services?

Getting Shelden more playing time isn't a bad idea, but I'm not sure he'd be taking playing time away from Ben Wallace or Tyrus Thomas. (You know you've been writing about basketball for a while when you type the word "Tyrus" and your spell check doesn't even blink.) There are several things Shelden can do, but being a consistent low-post scoring threat hasn't been one of those things.

Shelden took a lot of hits when the Hawks drafted him so high, ahead of guys like Brandon Roy and even Paul Millsap, and many of those hits came from me. He's been in The A for over a year now, and I'm still waiting on him to turn it up regularly. He's had some very good games and some very bad games, and he's already seen some of his minutes swiped by Al Horford, who's been awesome all season.

Forgetting where we drafted Shelden -- because that Draft is dunzo, people, so we can't dwell on it -- I like having Shelden on the team as a bench guy, a rotation player who can go 15-20 minutes a night and give you some fouls and rebounds. But I'd also like to see Shelden develop into a guy worthy of being drafted 5th overall. Either he's got more to give, or Billy Knight drafted him too high. Hopefully it was the former, not the latter.

Lang Whitaker is the executive editor of SLAM magazine and writes daily at SLAMonline.com. He can be reached at lang@harris-pub.com. The best email he receives each week will run in this column.