http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sp...1021hawks.html
Count Sports Illustrated among the media outlets predicting doom and gloom for the Hawks this season.
In its NBA preview, the magazine ranked the Hawks last in the Eastern Conference and had few flattering words for the team, outside of a short feature on third-year forward Josh Smith's coming of age late last season.
When informed of the Hawks' preseason status, Smith smiled.
"Am I supposed to be surprised that someone is underestimating us again?" he said. "The next time somebody says good things about us will be the first time.
"I don't even worry about that stuff anymore. People are going to say what they want to say, but we didn't finish last in the East last year and we have no intention of finishing last this year. They can say whatever they want about us."
And it did. SI even took a dig at the Hawks in the preview's main feature, an eight-page spread on the marketing of the league's young trio of superstars — Denver's Carmelo Anthony, Miami's Dwyane Wade and Cleveland's Le-
Bron James, whom the Hawks face in an exhibition game Saturday night in Columbus, Ohio.
"We're not promising that every game is worth watching — or any Hawks game, for that matter," the article read, "but the league has moved past relying on the Shaq-Kobe drama."
Smith said that extra shot was uncalled for.
"They obviously didn't watch us last year, especially late in the year," he said. "We played at a different level then. And we feel like we're going to play at that level to start this season.
"I think [SI] should get some season tickets and check us out before they start clowning us like that."
SI predicts Hawks to finish last
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