Everyone who knows me, knows how much I love basketball despite not having a single fiber of talent whatsoever to even make a layup. And yesterday there was quite a bit of news that got me thinking “with the NBA, hell, you don’t even need reality TV.” (just do a quick search on Dirk retiring, Magic quitting, and DWade retiring, and you’ll have a bunch of cool things to read AND watch for a good 4-5 hours.)

But I digress, the Atlanta Hawks proved EVERYONE (including me) wrong in drafting Trae Young, who will certainly develop into a really great player with all the strides he has made this season. Plus, John Collins has come along great, and ATL will most likely have two top 10 picks in this year’s NBA draft.

A part of me wishes I could be in Atlanta for tonight’s final season game and I do regret that I was not able to attend any Hawks games this year (both away and at home). Simply put, moving from Colorado to the Pacific Northwest and all the various travels and changing jobs etc. etc. etc. couldn’t enable me to attend any NBA games this past season. I plan on changing that come next fall, now that I have settled in well here in Washington state.

And oh yes, I will splurge the money and be sitting courtside. As frugal as I am (when you get rid of $238K in med school debt in 2 years, you know no other lifestyle) this is one of the few things I go all in on with my money. A buddy of mine from my residency days and I usually attend 2 or 3 games a season just to hang out, and plus NBA basketball is, simply put, REALLY AWESOME. Imagine being one of the 450 best people on the planet at a particular skill or talent. That is what the NBA is in terms of all the billions of basketball players on the planet. Truly humbling.

So yeah, watch out! The Atlanta Hawks will be for real as long as they pick well in this year’s draft and continue their development as a team and as a franchise. Tony Ressler and Jami Gertz have been wonderful owners to have, and plus having Travis Schlenk as the general manager and Lloyd Pierce as the head coach puts this Atlanta Hawks team in a great position to continue to develop individual young players into a viable team for years to come.