ATLANTA — It's truly impossible to give the full scope of just how improbable the Hawks' fourth-quarter comeback to take Game 5 and a 3-2 series lead over Philadelphia was on Wednesday night.
But it's not impossible to give the full scope of what it means to the city.
The Hawks are Atlanta's darling right now, a team that has amazingly - as 11Alive's Joe Ripley put it - finally made somebody else look like an Atlanta sports team.
Long considered the chip-on-their-shoulder team in a city where the Falcons and Braves and even Atlanta United tend to get a bit more attention, the Hawks are currently spreading their wings as the talk of the town.
As NBA writer Jameela Johnson of atlhawksfans.com put it, evoking Andre 3000's famous line at the 1995 Source Awards: "The Atlanta Hawks have something to say."
"Y’all ain’t put any Hawks in the All-Star game IN Atlanta. Y’all ain’t put any Hawks on the All-NBA or All-Defensive teams. Y’all continue on with the narratives about Trae," Johnson wrote on Twitter. "It’s okay."
Everyone from politicians such as Congresswoman Nikema Williams and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr to the legend himself, Dominique Wilkins, are in awe of the Hawks around Atlanta.
The account for the MGM Sportsbook in Las Vegas compared the Hawks to another Atlanta sports darling - The Freeze:
ESPN compared them to The Undertaker:
Perhaps no one put it better than Trae Young's dad, Ray Young, who wrote: "I’m proud of the @ATLHawks & proud of my son @TheTraeYoung. But I’ve watched him do this for years. I’ve just prayed for the day when other people would start to notice his game. Let’s keep it going though. The job is not finished."
The Hawks will have a chance to finish the job back home in Atlanta on Friday.