Kristen and Joey Maddox are big Hornets fans. But recently, another NBA team has made a place in their hearts, starting with the heart of their home.

The young couple, whose yours, mine and ours family also includes five children, moved into a Habitat for Humanity home in “Faith Village” in Covington near the end of last year. Recently, they learned that besides themselves and members of the faith-based community, another group had picked up hammers and nails to help get their house built.

Members of the Atlanta Hawks basketball team framed a Habitat house in Georgia, then shipped it to Covington for completion. It ended up on Slemmer Road with the name “Maddox” on the mailbox.

A local Habitat for Humanity West St. Tammany family met some of their more distant benefactors when the Atlanta Hawks came south to play the New Orleans Hornets. Hawks players framed the Maddox home and shipped it to Covington for assembly and further construction. On game night, the appreciative family was presented with tickets, pictures, signed jerseys and more. Pictured are, from left, first row: Elaine Maddox, Ella Maddox and Jakob Tweedle; and second row: Hawks'€™ player development representative Harold Ellis, Joey Maddox, holding baby Jack, Hawks player Joe Johnson and Kristen Maddox.

And when the team visited the “Hive” recently to face the Hornets, the family was invited to the game to meet its usually distant benefactors.

“We’re so incredibly grateful to them,” said Kristen. “It was really neat for them to go through the trouble to do it, especially since they had to know it was probably not for somebody who was an active Atlanta fan. I told them, too. I said, ‘You’re trying to steal Hornets fans, one house at a time.’ They laughed.”

The Maddoxes said they do deeply appreciate the Hawk’s efforts. They are settling in and extremely thankful to have a home of their own.

The family was living in Mandeville with two other families when Hurricane Katrina forced a move. Of course, the subsequent escalation in rent prices didn’t help, and while they struggled to make the payments from month to month, they also worried the prices would again increase.

Then they were approved for a Habitat home, and after months of work they moved in just in time for the holidays. Now the Maddoxes are paying a mortgage note on their own home that is less than half of what they were paying to rent an apartment.

The comfort level has been raised, and the Hawks’ visit enhanced the good feelings.

The “meet and greet” with guard Joe Johnson and player development representative Harold Ellis before the Hornets game was a big event for the Maddoxes. The family was presented a framed picture of themselves in front of their home. The border was made up of pictures of different Hawks players working on the house. The kids were also given jerseys and other goodies, said Kristen.

“The jerseys were their favorite,” she said. “A couple of them already had on Hornets jerseys. They put the Hawks jerseys over them.”

The Hornets won the game, but the Hawks won a place in the hearts of some Hornets fans.

One of the gift pictures shows some Hawks players signing the wood of the frame of what is now the Maddox home.

“I haven’t seen it because the Sheetrock is up,” said Kristen.

But she knows it’s there, and the family will remember. There will always be some Hawks in the heart of their home.