No owner, per se. No coach, really. Darn few players. Is it just my imagination, or is this the best shape the Hawks have been in since the Omni imploded?

Considering what's gone on lately inside Philips Arena, we discover that limbo is a huge improvement.

Not knowing anything about this team, right down to the identity of its paymaster, is a lot more comforting than the unfortunately undeniable truth. Honestly, don't you feel much more at ease when the Hawks aren't in motion? Or if they are, they're subtracting, not adding?

One day, you can tell your grandchildren you were there for the Hawks' Golden Age of Inertia.

Then throw in the development of last week, when the team was shedding personnel like Oprah sheds pounds. Didn't we all experience a sudden surge of pride, a sunburst of hope, a veritable new lightness of being?

It was the kind of happy tingle that only comes from living in a city that has just gained all this new salary cap room.

Sacrificing a season to the salary cap may seem an odd act to celebrate, unless one has lived through all the salary crap the Hawks have foisted upon their fan base