As the NBA season begins tonight, you need to remember one important statistic.

Bobby Jackson of the Sacramento Kings will not be the only prime-time player from Rowan County.

Bob Rathbun will be starting his 82-game schedule as well.

Rathbun is a play-by-player, if you will.

A 1972 graduate of West Rowan High School and a 1977 grad of Catawba College, Rathbun is employed by the Atlanta Hawks. He is currently in a Houston hotel room right now, going over notes in preparation for the Hawks’ 2001 opener.

Rathbun was in Greensboro on Sunday for Operation ACC Basketball because he will also be doing about 20 league games for Jefferson Pilot and Fox. And he is quick to point out there is a big difference between college and professional hoops.

“The best way to describe the pro game,” Rathbun explains, “is that everything is done for the final eight minutes — the way you play the game and the buildup of the game. A pro game starts and people are still fiddling with their seats.

“In college, everything is done for the tip — the buildup, the preparation, the frenzied crowd.”

Rathbun loves the Hawks, but remember, he did grow up on Tobacco Road. And he loves the college game just as much.

“The ACC is the best, unquestioned, because of the traditions and the rivalries,” he said. “No conference has three schools (North Carolina, N.C. State and Duke) within 30 miles of each other. Imagine having Michigan, Michigan State and Indiana all together.

“People would be amazed. You go out and watch a Big Ten or Big 12 game and it’s pretty good basketball. But it ain’t nothin’ like this.”

And there was nothing like covering the Hawks last season, a team that floundered to a 25-57 finish under first-year coach Lon Kruger.

“You really have to manufacture the enthusiasm,” Rathbun said of broadcasting a game featuring a bad ballclub. “You have to look for positives. But even though we won only 25 games, there weren’t many nights we were blown out. And as a broadcaster, if it’s still a game in the fourth quarter, that’s what you look for.”

Rathbun is a big fan of Kruger.

“Take the best coach you’ve ever been around and multiply that by the best person you’ve ever known, and you have Lon Kruger,” he said.

Kruger deserved better and this season, the Hawks brought him much more talent from the free agent market. So things are definitely looking up.

“One of the guys on the stat crew came up to me the other night and said, ‘You won’t have to lie as much this year,’ ” chuckled Rathbun.

Rathbun is doing exactly what he wants — something he envisioned as a 12-year old keeping stats at WSTP-Radio and following Horace Billings around at the Salisbury Post.

“If I had to get a job, I’d be in trouble,” he laughs.

The only time it seems like a job is when the travel starts piling up. Rathbun has the same schedule as the Hawks players. A lot of planes. A lot of hotels. A lot of meals here and a lot of meals there.

“But you know, it’s really not that bad,” he says. “We charter. We stay in nice hotels. You just get your schedule and gear up for it. And you know the players. You travel with them all the time — and I mean, all the time.”

The good thing for Rathbun is that half of those 75 games that will be televised are in Atlanta. His family lives just 15 miles from Atlanta in Dunwoody.

It gives the 46-year old time for his seven-year old son Cortland and his recently adopted Chinese daughter Grace Xiao-Jheng Rathbun.

He’ll see everyone off in the morning, stop by the elementary school to eat lunch with his son and take care of Grace. She is 17 months old and “she’s a handful,” he said.

And then, there’s his poor, darling wife Marybeth, who chases the kids around the house while Bob chases the Hawks around the country.

“On the 1st and the 15th of each month (paydays), she is thrilled,” Rathbun laughs. “The other days, it’s ‘When are you coming home?’ ”

“Well, honey,” he probably tells her, “I’ll be home for Thanksgiving but the next day, I’m flying out. Sorry.”

Rathbun adds, “What an NBA schedule shows is how you have to be a professional. You have to be ready to handle the grind physically and mentally. You’ve got to bring it every night.”

Kinda sounds like something Jackson might say before a big game, huh?

Rathbun has one of those big games Thursday when the Hawks play the Washington Wizards and what’s-his name.

“For the fans of Michael Jordan and the fans of basketball, it’s wonderful, because of the attention he has generated and the tickets he has sold,” Rathbun said.

“But it also suggests to me that he just can’t get off the stage. He has accomplished everything a player can but yet, at age 39, he’s going to drag himself through another 82-game season ...

“And the Wizards are a terrible team. They are just awful.”

Rathbun feels after a couple of months of 40-point nights by Jordan and 20-point losses by the Wizards, the fanfare will taper off. But the first week of the season? Watch out. There will be four TVs doing Thursday’s games: the Hawks and Wizards channels, TNTand Japan.

“It’s crazy,” Rathbun says.

But back to the Hawks. They will win, Rathbun thinks, if they just use their secret weapon.

“They only won 25 games but they were 2-0 with Grace there,” he says proudly.

Contact Ronnie Gallagher at 704-797-4256 or rgallagher@salisburypost.com .