Harry the Hawk impersonates Prince (Video)

The Atlanta Hawks’ mascot Harry the Hawk puts on a fine halftime tribute to the late pop icon Prince during Atlanta’s Game 5 home game versus Boston.

Thursday was a sad day for music fans all over the world as news broke about the untimely passing of Prince in his compound outside of Minneapolis. Prince transcended music and was a national icon in the way that Michael Jackson was in his heyday.

While many professional sports teams paid tribute to Prince, the Atlanta Hawks’s tribute was among the best. At halftime during Game 5 of their first round Eastern Conference Playoff series with the rival Boston Celtics, Atlanta Hawks’ mascot Harry the Hawk did his best impersonation of Prince on the Philips Arena hardwood.

Decked out in the finest purple leather, Harry the Hawk began his tribute set with the timeless “Purple Rain”. He is accompanied by two men pretending to be part of The Revolution strumming inflatable guitars.

Then the unmistakable intro guitar from “When Doves Cry” kicked in and the lights faded out in the place Atlantans refer to as the Highlight Factory. Philips Arena’s noteworthy pianist Sir Foster couldn’t help but throw in some of his patented keyboard riffs to really get the Atlanta crowd amped up for this Prince tribute performance.

To wrap up the set, Harry the Hawk gave us another classic from “Purple Rain” with an energized cover of “Baby, I’m a Star.” Harry the Hawk is known for his antics and there was no doubt he was going to do something to honor Prince on Tuesday night. Perhaps most impressive is that he had to miss the two-game road trip to Boston for what he did to himself in Game 2 a week ago.

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