Atlanta to Host Exhibition Game Featuring NBA Players

The NBA isn’t back yet, but for residents of the A, they can still catch some of their heroes from the L in an informal setting. Reports the AJC: “If no settlement is reached in the next few days, there will a loose form of pro basketball in Atlanta this week. A very loose form. Damien Wilkins, Dominique’s nephew, who most recently played with the Hawks, will gather some of his buddies Saturday at Clark Atlanta for something called the Monster Slam Exhibition Game. Hawks scheduled to appear are [Joe] Johnson, Josh Smith and Jeff Teague. Among others scheduled to appear are Jarrett Jack (New Orleans), Rudy Gay (Memphis), Louis Williams (Philadelphia) and Anthony Morrow (New Jersey). There is planned a free fan fest beginning at 1 p.m. Tickets for the game, which begins at 3, range from $7 to $25. Proceeds go to the Boys & Girls Club. Players in town have been congregating at an Atlanta church gym to practice and play pick-up games. Before he took the floor to shoot last week, Jack was asked if he was worried about fans around the league drifting away from the NBA during the lockout. If you think he was going to concede anything, you don’t know Jack. ‘Just because we might miss a month or two, that shouldn’t outweigh all those years we put in playing a game we love,’ he said. Unlike the NHL, the NBA most certainly will come back to Atlanta. Negotiators make a concession on a billion here, a billion there, and it is back to basketball as usual. Then the Hawks will get a more accurate read on just how much, or little, they were missed.”