Holy Crap, Dr. J was a Hawk?

Bizarre piece of Hawks Trivia: Dr. J played several exhibition games with the 1972 Atlanta Hawks. He couldn't go into the NBA after his junior year due to the league policy at the time of not allowing players to join that had not seen their college class graduate. He had a ridiculous rookie year in the ABA, then was drafted by... the Milwaukee Bucks. For some reason he ended up siging with Atlanta, but it was ruled that his contract was still with his ABA team. I have no clue why the Hawks thought they could take him away from the ABA and the Bucks, but they did. Billy Knight's dad, maybe?

Some cool stuff in the article, including this choice bit:

Erving enjoyed his brief time with Atlanta: "It really was one of the joys of my life to play with Pete, to be in training camp with him. We used to stay after practice and play one-on-one. We would play for dinner after practice. I did the same thing with George Gervin once he became my teammate [in Virginia]--I pretty much learned that from Pete. If this guys is going to be your teammate, you really need to stay after practice and get to understand his game and know his likes and his dislikes--where he likes the ball and that kind of stuff. The best way to do that is to just play--go play each other one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three. Play away from the coaches, away from the whole team practicing in unison."

Maybe something our team can learn from? The kids are starting to learn how Joe Johnson likes to play, and he's learning their stuff- but does anybody know how Josh Smith wants the ball? Speedy certainly doesn't know any of his teammates style yet. Maybe a little mano-a-mano could get things going.