Interview With Legendary Atlanta Hawks Announcer Bob Rathbun
Few people enjoy universal approval in 2021—Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson, Oprah Winfrey, and Bob Rathbun. The Hawks play-by-play announcer has seen and done it all over the last few decades. Yet, despite his status and notoriety around the league, Rathbun still treats every day like it's the first day of tryouts.
Thursday evening, I spoke with the longtime face of the Hawks. Besides being starstruck, I was impressed by his passion and energy. It's the dog days of August, and Rathbun is in midseason form. He came out of the locker room shooting (so to speak).
"I think this past season was the most exciting that I've ever called. It was so unexpected the way we turned the season around first and foremost. And then to see everything come together like it did, was even better for me than the 60-win team." Rathbun pointed to how this team was home-grown, coupled with the return of fans for making the experience so special. But like everything else right now, it wasn't totally normal.
Instead of traveling with the team or hanging around practice, it was a more isolated experience. "The gameday routine changed once I left my house. Instead of going to the plane, I would just go to the arena - home games and road games. And once we got to the arena for the road games, it was very very different. There was nobody in the building but us. There were about ten people upstairs, and the production people in the truck are outside the building. But we were all in it together, all the broadcast teams did the games exactly the same way, and we are just hoping that we will be able to go back and enjoy our old routine this year."
While some of us may have lost faith in the team in early winter, Rathbun never blinked. "We thought we could make the play-in tournament for sure with what we had, and then everything else after that was just the natural maturation of a young team."
Rathbun continued, "Once we made the change, the team caught fire. Nate was the perfect coach at the perfect time, and everything came together. We got a little healthier for sure, although we never enjoyed total health for one day last season. But once it all came together, that was pretty cool. And once we got into it, not even being around to talk to them, you just got the feeling that there wasn't a team out there that they feared. They were ready to play and had Trae not gotten hurt; we may have gone to the NBA Finals - who knows."
Speaking of Trae Young, I had to ask the walking basketball encyclopedia if he had ever seen a player get the kind of hate Young received from Knicks fans. "No, I can't say that I have. We were in constant communication with the Knicks broadcasters to get through this, and they were saying to me, that first game was the most vile crowd they had ever seen at Madison Square Garden."
Of course, it was different having fans back in the stands. But Rathbun made an interesting observation. "It was a very different crowd, and the reason why I say that is because of all the games we've done in New York and playoff games in the past, that's a pretty expensive ticket, and particularly, the people down front - that's a who's who of celebrity and status in New York City. That's the Spike Lee's and all the stars, and everybody is down on the front row."
He continued, "Well if you're going to spit on Trae, you got to get pretty close. And we would watch the monitors from the Garden during the commercial breaks, just looking for Hawks fans to put on, and there were very few women in the crowd. Almost exclusively male audience of like 20 and 30-year-olds. And that's not a playoff crowd."
Instead of seeing Wall Street bankers in suits, the broadcasters saw guys wearing cut-off shirts and jeans. "Those are the guys that spit on Trae and started all the chants... And didn't he handle it fantastically well? He lives for this (not for getting spit on and cussed out), but he lives for the moment where he can go in there and shush them up - and he did. I thought one of the coolest things was taking that bow in Game 5. They've got a lot of plays around here, and that's what you do when the show's over (laughs). I thought that was awesome."
The conversation turned to the 2021-2022 season. "I think we are going to be great! This is a team that's on the rise, we are going to be really good for a long time, and this young core continues to get better. It's very rare that you have a young team do what we did in the playoffs."
Picking up steam, he continued, "I think it's great that they're picked 4th or 5th so they can have a chip on their shoulder. I think the next goal for this team is to win 50+ and secure home court in the playoffs - certainly in the first round. If they can do that, then that is the next step. Once you get in the playoffs, it's all about matchups and health and homecourt. But I think we are going to fair well. I wish training camp was tomorrow. I cannot wait to get this season going because I think we have the deepest team in the NBA."
Still not done, Rathbun added, "All these other clubs in the East that have gotten better, the East is much better than the West (top to bottom), but none of them have the depth we have. Not Brooklyn, not Milwaukee, certainly not Miami. None of these teams have the depth that we have, and that is what wins you a ton of games during the regular season."
I had to ask what changes he would make to the game. The man behind the mic rattled off a few items from his list. Flip-flop the draft and free agency. No more conditional draft picks in trades. And yes, stricter rules about load management.
Before our time was up, I wanted to ask about the organization's involvement in the community. "I think we've always done a good job! This is where the engagement is more prominent. Because we have top-to-bottom integration, probably for the first time in our history. Tony and Jami set the tone. Steve Koonin and his group execute the plan. The Basketball Ops side with Travis [Schlenk]; they do their share. The media partners come in to play after that."
Continuing that thought, "Tony and Jami are the best owners we have ever had. And that last piece of the puzzle is to win the championship, and we made a quantum leap last year. But our engagement in the community has never wavered. Tony and Jami stuck by their guns all the way through; nobody got laid off through the pandemic, nobody suffered a pay cut, nothing. They just took care of their people, and the reward for them is that our team, from top-to-bottom, they will run through a brick wall for those people. Loyalty. Espirit de corps. That sense of we're all in this together has never been in a better place. They should be very proud of the organization that they have, and they are."
Thank you to Bob Rathbun for taking time out of his busy schedule to sit down for an interview. You can follow the effervescent television personality on social media for your daily dose of hoops and positivity. Hawks training camp starts next month, and I know at least one person who cannot wait.
