The following segment was aired on ESPN’s The Jump the other day and for the past few days and I can’t seem to get the sound byte out of my head. First of all, I have so much love and respect for The Jump and Rachel Nichols does an AMAZING job hosting that show.
Kevin Arnovitz made the comment that Markelle Fultz would be a good fit in Atlanta for several reasons and one of the things he mentioned was that “there are no media in Atlanta.” Here’s the clip.
First things first, I get the joke and this isn’t a post to clap back at Mr. Arnovitz like we are having rap beef. I did take a bit of offense to the comment but I wanted to shed some light on some great people covering the Atlanta Hawks even if they aren’t full time beat writers.
The belief that because you don’t have ESPN or Fox Sports behind your name on your credential makes you less of a journalist is ridiculous. There are many hard working credentialed media gathering content covering this Hawks team that deserve to be applauded and not simply glossed over because they aren’t a “beat writer.” Here are a few of the media that deserve your attention for the great work they do with the Atlanta Hawks.
Brad Rowland (twitter: @Btrowland)
Brad does an amazing job running Peachtree Hoops and hosting the Locked on Hawks Podcast which is my go to for additional information on the Hawks. Brad is really good with metrics and giving fair assessments of Hawks players and transactions without a cloud of emotion. Brad has an amazing team of writers over at Peachtree. I’m going to get in trouble if I try to name them all but off the top of my head, Jeff Siegal, Rashaad Milligan, Graham Chapple, and Sam Meredith.
No Atlanta’s main paper The AJC doesn’t have a beat writer assigned to the Hawks but if you are looking for Hawks information this is the site to go to.
Kevin Chouinard (Twitter: @KLChouinard)
Kevin is real smooth, down to earth guy who I’ve had the privilege of having on The Hawks Beat podcast before. He writes Hawks features for NBA.com as well as host the ATL and 29 Podcast. I would say Kevin is a very smart writer who approaches stories from different angles and manages to keep everything fresh and entertaining. We began covering the Hawks around the same time roughly 5 years ago and he is a all around great guy.
Jameelah Johnson (Twitter: @JameelahJNBA)
I am a bit biased when it comes to my good friend Jameelah because she is the one who helped me when I first began covering the Hawks. The majority of the people I ended up meeting was through her. She runs AtlHawksfans.com and over the last several seasons she has become quite the photographer. 
You can always bet that she will have Hawks content on her social media platforms like Interviews and in game photos that nobody else will have. She is a dual threat and a amazing person that does really good work covering the Hawks.
Terrell Thomas (Twitter: @Eldorado2452)
Covering the Hawks is just one of the many things Terrell Thomas does because if you follow him on social media he’s always on the move. It has been a joy to watch how hard Terrell has hustled through the years and I know big things are in store for him. You can find him gathering Hawks content for some of the many platforms that he is affiliated with during home games and even some away games.
Last but not least, we here at The Hawks Beat are in our 5th season as a credentialed media member cover the Atlanta Hawks organization. No we aren’t able to make a lot of practices and away games like a typical beat reporter but one thing we aren’t lacking in is knowledge and content.
We cover 98% of all the Hawks homes games as well as appearances in the community. The Hawksbeat Podcast is a weekly podcast that we host giving our listeners the latest in Hawks news and unfiltered opinions. Our social media accounts are all current with recent Hawks content and you can also find us hosting the Gametime radio show on the Real 1100am that broadcast here in Atlanta as well as on the iheartradio network.
Many of us working as media covering this team do have other full time jobs which in my opinion makes the work that we do even the more special. We spend a lot of our own money, time and resources and do just as much only to get half the respect.
Nubyjas Wilborn, Bria Janelle, J. Simmons, Kevin Taylor, Don Stenson, AtlSportsHQ and the fellas over at the Crush Sports talk radio show are some others who do good work and deserve to be recognized just to name a few. There are countless others that do quality media work during Hawks games getting content for their outlets and they deserve all respect and kudos.
Hawksbeat 