The Hawks hadn’t won Game 7 of a NBA playoff series since their days in St. Louis, back in 1961.

That long-futile franchise hadn’t advanced past the first playoff round since 1999. The Hawks hadn’t won a best-of-seven series since 1970.

So when they blew out the Heat Sunday to win that first-round series, this was news.

(How do NBA executives feel about the Hawks knocking superstar Dwyane Wade out of the playoffs? We’re guessing not good.)

“It feel like the monkey’s off Atlanta’s back,” Josh Smith told reporters. “Not just the team’s back. The whole city.”

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while wondering what, if anything, is more disappointing in sports than a rainout against the Nationals:

• Say, is Brett Favre really getting in shape to play for the Vikings next season? How would Packers fans respond to that?
• Are Blues fans enjoying Rod Brind’Amour’s work in these playoffs? What’s Murray Baron doing these days?
• How are Cubs fans handling Carlos Zambrano’s hamstring strain?
• Who could have possibly guessed that Floyd Mayweather Jr. would come out of retirement for another big pay day?

DAVID STERN CARES NOT FOR HIS HUMOR

Ohio State walk-on Mark Titus, a fabulously successful blogger at the end of the Buckeyes bench, will not make himself eligible for the NBA Draft after all. It seems the league believes his well-chronicled candidacy was a sham, a mockery or, worst of all, a shamockery.

SOMETHING ELSE TO BET ON

If the Kentucky Derby didn’t make you rich.

MAN IN TIE VS. WOMEN IN HEELS

When the UConn women’s basketball team went to the White House, it was time to hoop it up.

Had things escalated, Tipsheet guesses that Secret Service agents would not have let the Lady Huskies take the President down on the blocks. That would have gotten ugly.

A LESSON LEARNED

Earlier this year at Bay Hill, Sean O’Hair had a five-stroke lead on Tiger Woods and blew it. Afterward, the sympathetic Woods sent him a supportive text message.

O’Hair bounced back to win the Quail Hollow Championship this weekend, holding off Woods and others in a thrilling finish. Tiger, who finished fourth, hung around to congratulate him.

He realizes that O’Hair once traveled the mini-tour circuit in a RV, scrounging up entry fees. How do you not pull for him?

“He’s got all the talent. We know that,” Woods said. “We’ve seen how well he’s played. He’s been through a lot off the golf course, and it’s just a matter of time before all that settles in.”

DUDE, STICK TO BOXING

Manny Pacquiao pounded Ricky Hatton, reminding us that he is the world’s top boxer. But give him a guitar and he isn’t exactly the Next Gordon Lightfoot.

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Mike Lupica, New York Daily News: “Alex Rodriguez doesn’t need a SWAT team of agents and handlers and PR people and crisis managers. Just home runs and runs batted in, and the Yankees back in first place. This is sports. The lowest point of Rodriguez’s public life — the story that he used steroids — has now turned into an opportunity for him. The media, some book, can’t help the Yankees win. A-Rod can. There’s a famous line from Emerson about all heroes eventually becoming bores. As soon as he steps to the plate at the new Stadium, Alex Rodriguez will get his chance to turn that one around like he does fastballs.”

Jay Mariotti, Fanhouse.com: “If the finale was comparatively routine, this series still goes down as legendary. It can’t be ranked as the best ever because it was a first-rounder and didn’t feature the star power of the NBA’s most memorable Finals showdowns, such as Magic Johnson’s Lakers vs. Larry Bird’s Celtics in the ’80s. But as a non-Finals series, give me one that was better. Lakers-Kings in 2002? Spurs-Mavericks in 2006? Bulls-Knicks in 1993? Warriors-Mavericks in 2007? In my book, none of those series featured the exhilarating finishes, relentless theater, killer shot-making, physical scraps, fluctuating momentum and yo-yo emotions of Celtics-Bulls in 2009.”

Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “Time magazine’s 100 most influential people list includes three athletes: tennis star Rafael Nadal, boxer Manny Pacquiao and golfer Tiger Woods. Woods has influenced millions through his example and philanthropy. Pacquiao has influenced and inspired his home nation, the Philippines. Nadal has helped repopularize Capri pants.”

Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: “If you’re a spectator at a NASCAR race and a driver lands in your lap, do you have to throw him back? Carl Edwards didn’t quite make it into the cheap seats at Talladega, but the radio account of Edwards’ oopsie probably went like this: ‘And there’s a souvenir transmission for some lucky fan!’”

Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel: “It’s no wonder  Hedo Turkoglu went berserk Thursday night and was ejected from the game after an altercation with Sixers center  Samuel Dalembert. I mean, come on, Dalembert actually grabbed Turk’s head and gave him a kiss on the forehead. To paraphrase one clever reader: I know Philly is the City of Brotherly Love, but this is ridiculous.”

MEGAPHONE

“There’s things in my life that I’m not proud of, that I’ve done I wouldn’t want my kids to have to deal with it. You know, I tell my kids that daddy makes mistakes. I do, and I apologize for them. I say ‘Daddy’s not perfect.’ It’s not necessarily something that I would want them to read about all the time and to be the focus. (A-Rod) wants to be a father, too.”

Yankees manager Joe Girardi, criticizing the new, highly negative Rodriguez book.