Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Woodson and his star player, Josh Smith, have ushered in the new season the only way they know how: By getting into a little shouting match, of course.
Things got testy during practice, and the AJC has the details from inside Hawks HQ:
Woodson called his team together in a practice-ending huddle and began his speech by telling his team that they needed to take their game to another level with the regular season approaching. He mentioned Smith by name, which prompted the fifth-year forward to react by saying he was willing to “take all the blame.”
After a brief exchange the huddle broke and Smith headed for the locker room steaming at being called out and shattered his mouthpiece case against a wall. Woodson, smiling the entire time, warned his assistants and other players that Smith would be fine and that they shouldn’t worry.
Hawks fans will be glad to know that Smith eventually calmed down, and seemed to take it all in stride when approached by the media. He even sided with his coach: “Coach is right. I do need to crank it up. And we do need to crank it up as a team.” Would you look at that, J-Smoove appears to be all grown up.
