Atlanta Hawks Players Take Uno Extremely Seriously While on the Road

The Atlanta Hawks play basketball when they're not playing Uno.

Scott Cacciola revealed in a recent New York Times article that while on the road, several Hawks go absolutely nuts over the card game—which is intended for players 7 and older.

This isn't your grandma's let-you-win-every-time version, though. Rookie guard Lamar Patterson can explain:

"

I'm sitting down with these guys for the first time, and I play all the time, you know what I'm saying? But they were all like, 'No, see, we play this way, with the Draw 2s and the Draw 4s from the extra decks. We lay the heat.' And I was like, 'Wow.'

"

Oh, there's a ton of heat in Atlanta's version. Kent Bazemore calls it "the WWE of Uno, man. It's crazy."

Jeff Teague started it all last season and got teammates like Bazemore, Al Horford, Kyle Korver and Dennis Schroder to play.

Tim Hardaway Jr. used to, but then…

"

The games almost always continue from takeoff to landing, and each player is expected to be a full participant, with no excused absences. Guard Tim Hardaway Jr., who was a part of the group earlier this season, learned that lesson. After a couple of weeks spent honing his Uno expertise, teammates said, he wanted to take a break, if only for one flight.

"He said he was tired and wanted to rest," Schroder said. "So we had to kick him out."

"

Ruthless.

Schroder is in charge of carrying the cards, and Bazemore has been given the prestigious task of finding an actual championship belt.

These guys are serious.

And here we were thinking the Hawks were just a good basketball team. It turns out they're also the most Uno-crazed group of people on the planet.

[New York Times, h/t Extra Mustard]