The Atlanta Hawks polished off the Orlando Magic 4-2 in their first-round series of the NBA Playoffs. The Hawks were leading the series 3-1 but lost Game 5 to Orlando, prompting the series to go to a sixth game. It was then that Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi crushed the Hawks in his column and declared the Magic would win.
Some of the highlights from the column:
The Magic are going to win this series and the Birdbrains are going to fold up and collapse like a $5 lawn chair. You know it, I know it and deep down in the lonely recesses of their fragile minds, the Birdbrains know it, too.
No matter how much talent they have, the Hawks are still the Hawks. They are still Team Dummy. They will always do stupid things and take stupid shots. They will always lose their focus and their composure
Apparently some of those quotes were distributed to the Hawks players prior to Game 6, and afterwards forward Josh Smith admitted Bianchi’s criticism served as a motivating factor for Atlanta:
“We’ve got reporters in here that’s calling guys ‘idiots’ and ‘dummies,’ and I really don’t understand how somebody can challenge somebody’s intelligence when it comes to basketball,” Smith said. “It’s a basketball game. Some people like to take it a little bit too far.”
What’s the lesson to be learned here? Writers and the media can be pretty powerful, so if Bianchi really wanted the Magic to win he should have praised the Hawks to no end so they would become overconfident. It’s like a reverse jinx.
