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

"Get Fired Up!"
by Lang Whitaker

The good news is that the Hawks have won three of their last five games, and if the Playoffs started today, we'd be in.

The bad news is that the Hawks have had terrible starts to three of the last four games, falling way behind from the get-go. As great as we looked two weeks ago, this week the Hawks seemed to be drifting back to where they were before, a team that from night to night can be an elite team or a D-League team.

I'm convinced that this has something to do with motivation. Tuesday night we needed only to beat a beat-up Pacers team to basically lock up a Playoff invitation, but we couldn't even make that happen. Where's the fire? Where's the desire? Where's Zaza Pachulia's game?

But look, there's still four games left to play, and it'll take a collapse of New York Mets proportions for us not to make the postseason. This ain't the Olympic flame, and we will not be extinguished. By hook or by crook, the Hawks are going to the Playoffs.

And that's where you guys come in.

When I was in high school in Atlanta, we played our home games in a little gym in Buckhead. The gym had been built in the 1940s, constructed entirely of brick. The wooden court had been replaced at some point with one of those rubber floors that was considered progressive and cutting edge in the 1970s but had since been worn into an ice-slick plane that the city school system was too broke to upgrade.

They constructed the gym to fit the landscape: You entered at the top of the structure, onto a cement walkway that ran along behind the upper-most row of the chipped wooden bleachers -- all bolted to the concrete floor, as if someone would actually steal a forty foot long bench -- which cascaded about 45 rows down to the court. It was a small structure, but it was home for us.

At some point, our team was invited to play a game downtown in The Omni. Before we loaded up our bus and drove down there, our coach gathered us on our court and unfurled a tape measure, then had our guys go around and measure various things in the gym -- the height of the rim, distance of the foul line, etc. As we boarded the bus, I asked Coach if he was going to do like Gene Hackman in "Hoosiers" and measure everything at The Omni to show our guys that the building may be larger, but everything else was the same.

"Shh!" he hushed me. "Most of these guys haven't seen 'Hoosiers.'"

We got to The Omni, Coach pulled out the tape measure and dazzled the guys with his motivational tactic, and we went on to win the game.

My point is, it's not always what you say, it's how it's received.

Two weeks ago I wrote a column with my motivational speech ideas. And now we want you guys to take a shot. Hawks.com is launching our Get Fired Up! contest. The details are here, but basically it's your turn to try and fire up the team and the fans before our first home Playoff games in about five decades. If your speech is selected as the best, you win tickets to the game, dinner, plus the chance to see your speech on the scoreboard at The Highlight Factory.

I've got high expectations for you guys. So start recording. And get fired up!

MAILING IT IN…

This week's letter comes from reader Anita, who cryptically writes…

Tuesday night was the only game frustrating to watch. Stoudemire should have been placed in at the beginning of 3rd quarter no less than eight minutes left in the 3rd and Richardson was on the bench and he's good at 3-pointers. We have a great team of Atlanta Hawks. Almost 3 teams in 1 if everyone was playable. We may need a stronger leader.

Anita, thanks for writing in. First of all, I assume you meant Stoudamire instead of Stoudemire, although it would've been great to see Amare out there instead of Salim. Nothing against Salim, but Amare, well, he'd be a helluva two guard.

I wasn't upset with Salim's PT as much as I was about Horford's. Big Al picked up two fouls early, then was attached to the bench for a very long time as Zaza came in and played his intangible-laden game. Coincidentally, that's when things started getting out of hand.

I do agree that we should rest guys a little more, but at the same time, we're on the brink of the postseason. Let's throw everything out there and see what sticks. Time off? That's what the summer is for.

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.