Asa Newell and Onsi Saleh Intro Press Conference | Atlanta Hawks NBA Draft 2025

Asa Newell and Onsi Saleh Intro Press Conference | Atlanta Hawks NBA Draft 2025

okay well good morning everybody it is great to have you here and what an exciting day it is for the Hawks i’m Bob Rathman the television voice of the Hawks on FanDuel Sports Network joined by Anie Cle and the newest Hawk Asa Newell get uh to our program here in just a second but first and foremost we want to welcome you all here that’s number one and to AS’s family and friends and representation etc welcome to the Hawks family it’s terrific to have you here we’ll begin with an opening statement if you will and we’ll begin with our general manager Anie Clet hey what’s up everybody it’s good to see everybody here um busy busy time during the draft so uh ended up with the guy on our right here Asa we’re super excited to have him here um incredibly excited he he brings everything that we’re looking for from an ethos of this team um just incredibly excited he’s a huge culture ad huge ad on the court and uh I couldn’t speak more highly about him as a person um as well as that I’d say like just a thank you to our group internally our front office our staff and guys have scouted ASA for a long long time um everybody just killed it when it came to the the draft and now we’re you know we’re still going we got free agency coming up we got some things we got we got to do but super excited about the future and uh yeah pass it over to to Asa
and our first round pick Atlanta born and Athens bred asa Newell welcome to the Hawks
yeah good morning um I just want to say thank you so much you know for the opportunity i’m super blessed to be here and you know just growing right down the road in Athens and um growing up as a Hawks fan this is a dream come true uh I feel like I’m in a Disney movie um but you know I’m just I’m just so so thankful and I’m ready to work
well Asa just a couple of questions before we open it up to the media uh when you got the word you were coming to Atlanta what was going through your mind
yeah I was super ecstatic um I was just really thankful uh just want just thank my mom thank my dad um I really wanted to come here so bad and you know I’m just I’m really glad it happened
and it it happened for sure for those of you out there that may not be familiar with AC’s game tell us a little bit about the strengths that you bring to the Hawks at this juncture of your career
yeah I bring a lot of defense uh defensive energy um especially blocking shots being able to guard on the perimeter and you know stronger matchups down low in the post and also just um floor space and ability um I’m super hard worker contagious energy and yeah that’s a lot let’s open it up for questions to the media we have microphones and if you would be so kind for those of us or those of you that are watching on hawks.com uh identify yourselves and that’ll also help these two gents as well so we are ready for questions and we’ll begin on this side asa welcome to Atlanta edwin Powell with the Hawks beat there’s been a lot of talk about who your game compares to i’m curious to know who you grew up kind of watching and who do you feel your game compares to that’s already maybe in the league yeah a lot of people tell me I play like Chris Bosch uh lefty athletic um can guard multiple positions as well and you know just an overall athlete also I like watching Jiren Jackson uh Aaron Gordon who are on the league um today Aaron Gordon you can’t knock him off a straight line drive um DHO’s he’s able to take a smaller match up in the post um passing ability knock down shots jan Jackson his defensive motor um and just his overall development in the league that’s something I want to do as well hey Caleb Johnson with 929 in the game uh I’m I’m curious you’re one of the unique uh that has had the ability to play at State Farm Arena before you became a pro and and play there as a Hawk what do you remember about that game specifically and what are you most excited about to to go back and and play at State Farm as a Hawk yeah I mean we played against GCU uh super strong team love the matchup uh State Farm Arena is a great arena to play in uh I just remember getting hot um my y’all was down there right on the court side seeing my parents uh that helped a lot and you know it was just it was just a great environment you saw Lauren Williams from the Atlanta Journal Constitution i know he’s before your time but Dominique is another uh famous Georgia Bulldog who played for the Hawks what do you know about him and what are you looking forward to maybe building a relationship with him
yeah I’m super excited to meet Nick you know I know his son pretty well um Jacob uh he’s the human highlight reel um but yeah that’s I mean I have his jersey at home too so welcome to Atlanta Terrell Thomas these Urban Times um wondering how do you feel like your games will complement each other meaning yourself and the gentleman sitting in front of us Trey Young
yeah I mean I feel like Trey you know is extremely talented point guard can knock down shots and he’s a tremendous passer and you know I feel like I can catch a lot a lot of him any other questions any questions for Anie Allison hey Anie alison Mr angelo with Channel 2 in Atlanta nice to meet you um there’s always expectations when you take a player in the first round so what do you see Ace’s role in his first year with you guys and the Atlanta Hawks
yeah um I mean it’s growth and development first and foremost this isn’t a process where we like to rush anything here um and that’s honestly I I trust Quinn and he’s the one that’s going to be leading the development of this group and Asa as well but I mean we got a player that is a hard worker we got a player like he he mentioned things about him about himself that were obviously all accurate um but the thing that I envisioned with Asa is like he’s a winning player like he makes winning plays like you could see he’s a freak athlete he does all these different things on the court but he’s a winner like the culture he brought to Georgia and uh just you know talking with Coach White out there he’s he’s a winner and like that’s what we’re trying to do here bring in guys that want to win and compete and we’re so fortunate to get him hey Auntie Malik Brown clutch points uh I know today and on Wednesday you actually mentioned about Asa being a great human being uh what are those qualities that you see in him as far as being a great human being
yeah just based on we we do a lot of intel uh like that he probably doesn’t even know about but uh we talk to people you know in different circles and things like that and the character like how much he works too he is a grinder and like that’s what that’s what we’re about we’re about grinding and like we want to represent this city the right way and ASA fits that aaron Lad with Atlanta News First here in town this is for Anie as well you mentioned the work is still needs to be done here i know there’s some things that you can’t talk about but where do you see the roster right now and where are some places you’d like to see things i I really like our roster like we’re we’re one of the younger teams in the NBA just got a little younger um but I’m super excited we got we have a good core of guys um but we’re always trying to get better and kind of like what I mentioned about the optionality we have you guys are probably sick of me saying that word but uh you know we got some things that we could do and um we’ll see where it goes
uh uh Sean Pownb NBA.com um with players coming into the league like you know 19 year years old how important is player development in your in your organization
uh it’s the utmost importance like and it’s not just about 19year-old players it’s if you’re 26 36 doesn’t matter you could always get better like that’s one thing um we are a program a developmental program in that sense like San Antonio was the same thing whether you’re a rookie whether you’re an undrafted um player coming in at 26 27 years old like it’s our job to make you better and um when you look at the finals this year you see those two teams like they’re predicated on development and again I I just don’t like the word development also being used in the context of like you just have a young team everybody could get better so Asa you mentioned your support system with your family watching you play what’s it mean on day one to have Trey here supporting you in the front row yeah it means a lot and he was actually the first player to call me too so just knowing that you know I have support you know from the players and you know a guy allstar like Trey means a lot any others okay oh we do have one okay Andrew thank you Anie i feel like you know for this team for a while we’ve been talking about the growth and development and things like that this is a team that hasn’t been in the playoffs and is hungry for a championship so when you look at that growth and development do you think that you are on the right path to get back into the the playoffs with this team and maybe even win a championship yeah I think we’re on the right path it’s um it takes time to do things you know it’s hard to just like put a team together right away and you know try and make be a certain seed in the playoffs no like we’re not about honestly just being you know a six seed a five seed we want to be good for a long time and that’s the goal here um you see the sustainability and continuity of you know places I’ve been I’ve been at before in San Antonio Golden State and that’s what we’re trying to build here asa you haven’t had your welcome to the NBA moment i’m over here you haven’t had your welcome to the NBA moment yet but I know you probably envisioned it who was the one or two guys that you really excited about competing against
i’ll just say my guys from Vert um you know just that competitive rivalry um that we all have for each other so I’ll say you know getting the match up against my guy DQ you know Coup Liam I think that’ll be super fun but guys in the league um uh Jiren Jackson you know I watch his game a lot so I’ll just say him uh can’t go wrong with LBJ either so
you uh you didn’t lose any games at M did you
no uh Brad Roland from Locked on Hawks for ASA uh I know you talked earlier about what you bring to the table already but going into your first professional summer what are you highlighting to work on i don’t know if there’s been any any conversations with Anie or the front office about what you like would focus on over the next couple months
yeah I mean I just got to get stronger uh eat more um just get grow into my grown man body and that’s just growing up but uh also you know I just want to work on my decision- making uh consistency in my three-point shot ball handling skills um and yeah that’s those are my top three priorities asa Brandon Harper 680 the fan you talked about energy and we all know that State Farm Arena can be one of the more energetic arenas in basketball especially when this team can get going uh what are you looking forward to when it comes to playing in front of these Atlanta Hawks fans this season at some point in time this season
yeah I mean I just want to make a statement um especially you know playing in front you know of a lot of great people and great fans and you know just bringing that energy like I did in high school and at um UG anyone else okay great well we’ll break it off for one-on- ones but first we have a very special presentation so Anie and Asa we’ll have you come to the front of the stage pr staff does it all here and AC’s new Atlanta Hawks jersey presented by ANI [Applause] great thank you gentlemen asa welcome it’s awesome man welcome to the Hawks and we’ll uh we’ll launch into our one-on- ones right now

General Manager Onsi Saleh introduces our first-round pick from the NBA Draft: Asa Newell from the University of Georgia. Watch their full intro press conference here.

Subscribe to our channel ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/c/ATLHawks

#TrueToAtlanta #AtlantaHawks #AsaNewell

Hawks Homepage: https://www.nba.com/hawks/
Hawks Shop: https://www.hawksshop.com
Hawks Tickets: https://www.nba.com/hawks/tickets
Hawks + State Farm Arena App: https://www.nba.com/hawks/app

Follow us on:
Twitter – https://www.twitter.com/atlhawks
Instagram – https://instagram.com/atlhawks
TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@atlhawks
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/atlhawks
Snapchat – https://www.snapchat.com/add/atlhawks