Atlanta Hawks Tickets – Hawks Extend Woodson

Those who have Atlanta Hawks tickets next season will not see a new face coaching the team on the sidelines. New Hawks GM Rick Sund has extended head coach Mike Woodson’s contract for two more seasons. Woodson’s eighth-seeded Hawks took the top-seeded Celtics to seven games in the first round of the 2008 Eastern Conference playoffs. Woodson had been in hot water all year and rumblings out of Atlanta going into the playoffs were that he was going to lose his job.

I think the playoff series against the Celtics saved Woodson’s job. He seemed like a lame duck coach entering that series. Most people, myself included, believed the Celtics-Hawks matchup to be the most one-sided affair of the playoffs, and after two games it appeared to be true as the Celtics won both contests with ease. But when the series got to Atlanta, the Hawks looked like a different team. The young Atlanta squad’s athleticism looked to be too much for Boston as the Hawks evened the series at two apiece. When the series came back to Atlanta in Game 5, the whole city was clamoring to get Atlanta Hawks Tickets. In that game Hawks superstar Joe Johnson went on a fourth quarter scoring rampage and sent the series back to Boston where the Celtics would eventually take the series in a blowout.

You have to give a lot of credit to Woodson. The Hawks are one of the youngest teams in the league and it must have been difficult to motivate a group of discouraged young players who have little playoff experience after they’ve been destroyed in the first two games of the postseason. But Woodson rallied the troops and the Hawks’ future looks bright. They have their superstar in do-it-all guard Joe Johnson, who has established himself as a top tier player after coming over in a deal from Phoenix. Forward Josh Smith is only 22 and is already one of the best defensive players in the league, rookie forward Al Horford finished second in Rookie of the Year voting and they have a leader in point guard Mike Bibby who came over in a mid-season deal with Sacramento.

I’m looking for the Hawks to be a much improved team next season as the younger players develop and the team gels. Could 2009 be the year the Hawks take the next step? I would act now and get my Atlanta Hawks tickets to find out.