the SCOUTING REPORT

Hawks Are Fun To Watch

I am a fan of the best basketball players in the world, and let’s face it, that’s the NBA. From comments I’ve heard at work, I think that most people think that these guys are grossly overpaid; but hey, they’re still the best players in the world. If you want grossly overpaid folks, look at soccer in Europe, where Lionel Messi makes $126 million and Cristiano Ronaldo, $117 million dollars per year. No, I don’t think any of that money is deferred.

You don’t get to the NBA until you get to Lebron James, and Lebron’s not even touching $100 million per year yet.

I’m also a fan of the long-sufferening Atlanta Hawks, who are suddenly starting to make some noise in the NBA. By the way, Trae Young, who’s rapidly becoming my favorite player with the Hawks, is only making $6 million a season.

Trae averages a little over 25 points per game in his second year out of Oklahoma.

With young players like Young, Bogdan Bagdanovic, Clint Capela, Cam Reddish, and Kevin Huertor, the Hawks finished fifth in the Eastern Conference of the NBA.

It was Young who scored with 0.9 seconds left on Sunday night in Madison Square Garden to shock the Knicks in the playoff opener. While the Hawks finished fifth in the East, the Knicks finished fourth.

The winner of Atlanta’s series gets the winner of the Philadelphia 76ers and Washington Wizards series. The 76ers are the top seed in the Eastern Conference and beat the Wizards in their game one. All of the series are Best of 7.

Game two in the Hawks-Knicks series will tipoff at 7:30 PM on Wednesday. The game is being televised by TNT.

Baseball Gods Didn’t Smile On VHS Congratulations to the Jeff Davis Yellow Jackets, who swept Lovett 5-3 and 8-2 on Saturday to take the Class AA Championship in 2021.

This is the second time in the last 7 years that this type of conundrum has struck a Vidalia High School athletic team.

This year’s Indian baseball team destroyed Jeff Davis and the rest of Region 2-AA, sweeping every team in the region and outscoring the Yellow Jackets 18-3 in their three-game series.

For the record, Vidalia’s 2014 football team also beat eventual state champion Benedictine while winning their region title that season. The Indians beat the Cadets 35-28 in Savannah on what was then BC’s homefield at Savannah State.

That team also lost a disappointing game to another private school, Greater Atlanta Christian, 34-22 in Atlanta. Benedictine then hammered GAC in the title game.

While I certainly respect the Jeff Davis program, I certainly would have loved to see Vidalia get a shot at the Yellow Jackets in Savannah’s Grayson Stadium, where the AA title series was played.

But that’s just baseball. The Yellow Jackets claimed their third state title in four seasons.