Lang Whitaker is a sportswriter [1] who works for the Memphis Grizzlies as the General Manager of Grizz Gaming, and a contributor to Grind City Media, as well as a contributor to GQ Magazine.
From 2000–2013, Whitaker worked as a writer and editor for SLAM Magazine , a hip-hop-influenced basketball magazine. [2] From 2006–2008, Whitaker was the editor-in-chief of Striker, an American soccer magazine. From 2008–10, Whitaker wrote a weekly column for Hawks.com, the official site of the Atlanta Hawks. During the 2008–09 NBA season, he did color commentary on several radio broadcasts of Hawks games. [3]
In 2010, he was one of the co-authors of the book "FreeDarko Presents: The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History." [4]
In 2011, he co-founded the sports website The Classical alongside FreeDarko founder Bethlehem Shoals and several others.
From 2011–2013, he was GQ's NBA writer for GQ.com. Since 2015, Whitaker has written regularly about cooking and food for GQ.
From 2013–2017, he worked for NBA Digital, writing for NBA.com, co-hosting the Hang Time Podcast, and appearing on NBA TV.
He attended the University of Georgia and has written for magazines, newspapers and made guest appearances on television. He is an avid fan of Atlanta's three major professional sports franchises: basketball's Atlanta Hawks, baseball's Atlanta Braves, and football's Atlanta Falcons as well as English soccer team Manchester United. Whitaker has also been written about in The New Yorker and The New York Times. [5] He appeared as a cultural commentator on VH1's series "I Love the New Millennium."
His memoir about growing up as a fan of the Atlanta Braves and Bobby Cox, titled "In the Time of Bobby Cox: The Atlanta Braves, Their Manager, My Couch, Two Decades, and Me," was released in March 2011, from Scribner. [6]
The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games at State Farm Arena.
Julius Winfield Erving II, commonly known by the nickname Dr. J, is an American former professional basketball player. Erving helped legitimize the American Basketball Association (ABA), and he was the best-known player in that league when it merged into the National Basketball Association (NBA) after the 1975–1976 season.
Jacques Dominique Wilkins is an American former professional basketball player who primarily played for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Regarded as one of the greatest small forwards in NBA history, Wilkins was a nine-time NBA All-Star, a seven-time All-NBA Team member and is widely viewed as one of the most acrobatic slam dunkers in NBA history, earning the nickname "the Human Highlight Film". In October 2021, he was honored as one of the league's greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. Wilkins is the leader in most years with the Hawks for 12 seasons, the most games played with 882 in Hawks franchise history, the most minutes played with 32,545 in Hawks franchise history, the most career points in Hawks franchise history with 23,292 points, and the most points per game with 26.4 in Hawks franchise history.
Anthony Jerome "Spud" Webb is an American former professional basketball player. A 5 ft 6 in (168 cm) point guard, Webb played college basketball at Midland College and at North Carolina State University. He then played for four teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) in a professional career that spanned from 1985 to 1998. Webb also played professional basketball in the United States Basketball League, in the Continental Basketball Association, and in Italy.
Lowell Gibbs "Cotton" Fitzsimmons was an American college and NBA basketball coach. A native of Bowling Green, Missouri, he attended and played basketball at Hannibal-LaGrange Junior College in Hannibal, Missouri and Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. He coached the Phoenix Suns three times, was named the NBA Coach of the Year twice, and is often credited as the architect of the Suns' success of the late 1980s and early to middle 1990s. Fitzsimmons won 1,089 games in his coaching career: 223 games at the junior college level, 34 at the Division I college level and 832 in the NBA.
Robert Joe Cox is an American former professional baseball third baseman and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). Cox played for the New York Yankees and managed the Atlanta Braves and Toronto Blue Jays. He is a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He recorded a 100-win season six times, a record matched only by Joe McCarthy.
Robert Kauffman was an American professional basketball player and coach. Kaufmann was a three-time NBA All-Star.
Antonio Maurice Lang is an American former professional basketball player who is an assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball at Duke, where he won back-to-back NCAA tournaments in 1991 and 1992.
Stan Kasten is the former president of the Atlanta Braves and the Washington Nationals, and the current president and part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Long involved in Atlanta professional sports, he also served as general manager of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and president of the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers.
Mamadou N'Diaye is a Senegalese former professional basketball player and the current assistant coach for UCF Knights men's basketball.
Joshua Smith is an American former professional basketball player who played 13 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Entering the NBA straight out of high school, Smith played nine seasons with the Atlanta Hawks before playing for the Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers between 2013 and 2016. His final stint in the NBA came in November 2017 with the New Orleans Pelicans. He is sometimes referred to by his nickname "J-Smoove".
Michael Theodore "Stinger" Glenn is an American former professional basketball player.
Sports in Georgia include professional teams, Olympic Games contenders and medalists, collegiate teams in major and small-school conferences and associations, and active amateur teams and individual sports.
The 1995–96 NBA season was the Hawks' 47th season in the National Basketball Association, and 28th season in Atlanta. The Hawks received the 16th overall pick in the 1995 NBA draft, and selected Alan Henderson out of Indiana University. During the off-season, the team re-acquired former Hawks guard and one-time Slam Dunk champion Spud Webb from the Sacramento Kings; Webb played for the Hawks from 1985 to 1991. The team also replaced Stacey Augmon as the team's starting small forward with Ken Norman, as Augmon played a sixth man role off the bench for the first half of the season. The Hawks played above .500 with a 9–5 start in November, but then struggled losing 10 of their 14 games in December. After 28 games, Norman was benched as Augmon returned to the lineup for the remainder of the season, as the Hawks posted a ten-game winning streak in January, and held a 26–21 record at the All-Star break. At midseason, Webb was traded along with Andrew Lang to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Christian Laettner and Sean Rooks. The Hawks finished fourth in the Central Division with a 46–36 record.
The Saint Joseph's Hawks men's basketball team represents Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The program is classified in the NCAA's Division I, and the team competes in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Saint Joseph's competes as well as part of the Philadelphia Big 5. Their home court is the Hagan Arena. The team is coached by Billy Lange, who was hired on March 28, 2019, after Phil Martelli was fired as head coach on March 19, 2019, after 24 seasons.
DeMatha Catholic High School is a four-year Catholic high school for boys located in Hyattsville, Maryland, United States. Named after John of Matha, DeMatha is under the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and is a member of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference.
Sports in Atlanta has a rich history, including the oldest on-campus NCAA Division I football stadium, Bobby Dodd Stadium, built in 1913 by the students of Georgia Tech. Atlanta also played host to the second intercollegiate football game in the South, played between the A&M College of Alabama and the University of Georgia in Piedmont Park in 1892; this game is now called the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry. The city hosts college football's annual Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and the Peachtree Road Race, the world's largest 10 km race. Atlanta was the host city for the Centennial 1996 Summer Olympics, and Downtown Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park was built for and commemorates the games.
Guggenheim Baseball Management is the ownership group of the Los Angeles Dodgers professional baseball team. The consortium consisted of Guggenheim controlling partner Mark Walter, and also includes as investors basketball hall of famer Magic Johnson, movie producer Peter Guber, baseball team executive Stan Kasten, and investors Bobby Patton and Todd Boehly. Billie Jean King and her partner Ilana Kloss joined the Los Angeles Dodgers ownership group in 2018. Entrepreneurs Alan Smolinisky and Robert L. Plummer joined the ownership group in September 2019.
Otto Porter Jr. is an American former professional basketball player. He played eleven seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and he won an NBA championship when he played for the Golden State Warriors in 2022. He played college basketball for the Georgetown Hoyas and was selected with the third overall pick in the 2013 NBA draft by the Washington Wizards.
The Classical was a sports website featuring long-form sports articles. Described as the sports equivalent of The Awl, the site was launched in December 2011 by several members of the basketball blog FreeDarko, including Bethlehem Shoals and Eric Freeman, and features other writers such as David Roth, Eric Nusbaum, Tom Scharpling, Tim Marchman and Lang Whitaker.