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Revisiting Kenny Atkinson’s Time With the Atlanta Hawks

By Sandy Mui

Dec 30, 2016; Washington, DC, USA; Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson holds the ball on the bench against the Washington Wizards in the third quarter at Verizon Center. The Wizards won 118-95. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 30, 2016; Washington, DC, USA; Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson holds the ball on the bench against the Washington Wizards in the third quarter at Verizon Center. The Wizards won 118-95. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /
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Once friends, now foes: tonight, Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson will face the Atlanta Hawks, a team he once served as an assistant coach for. Let’s revisit his time with the Hawks and how it’s influenced the way he runs things in Brooklyn.

The Brooklyn Nets host the Atlanta Hawks tonight at the Barclays Center, and Kenny Atkinson is all too familiar with this high-flying opponent.

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“It will be strange,” Atkinson said to the New York Post on the matchup. “You’re with [Mike Budenholzer] in the trenches for four years right next to him and now you’re competing against him.”

Before joining the Nets, Atkinson spent four years with the Hawks as an assistant coach behind Budenholzer. He’s seen some of the best of the team, including Atlanta’s franchise-best 60-win season in 2014-15. Atkinson has been with Budenholzer every step of the way, as Budenholzer joined the Hawks two seasons after him.

RELATED STORY: Why Atkinson Is the Best Coach the Nets Have Had in Years

But eventually, Atkinson would receive his own opportunity to lead a team. Brooklyn fired head coach Lionel Hollins on this day one year ago (witchcraft?), and Atkinson filled the vacant spot just three months later.

Still, being with Atlanta for that long, it’s nearly impossible to not pick up some things along the way, and the Nets head coach has nothing but praise for Budenholzer.

"“Everyone thinks coaching is X’s and O’s and strategy. And of course, I learned stuff there,” Atkinson said to Newsday. “But it’s more about program-building and culture-building. When Bud came in there and really opened my eyes to a different way of doing things. Little stuff like how important team dinners were, how we did our travel. The idea was really leaving no stone unturned, making sure we had the right forks in the cafeteria.”"

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Evidently, Atkinson does not have the same pieces to work with in Brooklyn as Budenholzer does in Atlanta. With the Nets holding a meager 8-28 record in mid-January, that picture has become as clear as day. And yet, many fans credit Atkinson with helping to establish a culture in Brooklyn: one that emphasizes grit, ball movement, and three-point shooting. Arguably, this is much farther than the team was last season, even if they’re on pace to get about the same amount of wins this year.

Atkinson even applied some important lessons from “the process” in Atlanta to what he’s trying to achieve in Brooklyn.

"“What I learned from [the losing streak] is we’re sticking with the process,” Atkinson said to the New York Post. “We aren’t talking about wins and losses. And when we won 60 games, there wasn’t a huge difference either. We weren’t swayed by the short-term whether it was success or defeat. That’s hard in this business.”"

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There’s no doubt that the scenery in Atlanta is much different than that in Brooklyn. All Atkinson, Nets fans, and the Nets organization can hope for is that in time, Atkinson and the rest of the team will be able to alter the scenery for the better.

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