RIP, Kenny McIntosh

Former Sonic Kenny McIntosh, who played two seasons and change in Seattle in the early 1970s, passed away Friday of a stroke in Los Angeles.

McIntosh was a first-round pick of the Bulls in 1971 (the same year the Sonics found one Fred Brown from Iowa) and spent a little more than a season in Chicago before coming to Seattle in an October 20, 1972 trade for Gar Heard and a third round pick in the 1973 draft, which turned out to be Martin Terry.

McIntosh, a 6'7" forward who attended Eastern Michigan University before entering the NBA, never clicked in Coach Bill Russell's system, which, combined with injuries, led to his being waived by the team on November 12, 1974, ending his NBA career.

McIntosh's No. 54 jersey was retired by Eastern Michigan in 2006. During his time at EMU, McIntosh was named to the Division II All-American First Team. He turned 60 years old in January.

Pacer Situation Looking Awfully Familiar to Sonic Fans

History, consider yourself repeated.

An NBA team playing in a publicly funded arena about one decade old and with a 40-year history, is threatening that the lease under which they are playing is just not cutting it anymore, and while they don’t want to leave …

Stop me if you’ve heard this all before.

Except this time, the words are uttered not from Seattle, but from the heartland of basketball, Indiana. As in the home of Hoosiers, Larry Bird, and Bob Knight.

It’s the standard woe-is-me routine deftly practiced by all professional sports owners, but some of the declarations from the Pacers would stagger even the staunchest NBA supporters. Among them:

- The team has lost money in 26 of the 28 seasons Herb Simon has owned them
- Included in those 26 money-losing seasons is the year Indiana advanced to the NBA Finals before losing to the Lakers
- The team has lost money in nine of the ten seasons it has spent in Conseco Fieldhouse
- The current tab is $200 million in losses since Simons bought the club in 1983

Why is this coming out now? Well, as part of their lease with the city for the Fieldhouse, the Pacers are able to renegotiate the contract during a small window which, naturally, is right now. In other words, there’s no time to waste, and Mr. Simon really hates to bring this up, and he’s a good corporate citizen, and he loves Indianapolis, but that $15 million the Pacers are obligated to spend every year to operate Conseco? Yeah, that’s too much to handle.

Of course, it should also be pointed out that the Pacers are estimated to be worth $300 million, or $289 million more than when Mr. Simon bought them more than two decades ago, but who’s counting? (Actually, the Pacers are, and they dispute that number. They claim the team’s losses exceed whatever “golden egg” of a sale would net them. They wouldn’t say what they’re worth, or provide evidence as to why Forbes magazine’s estimate is faulty, but they did cross their hearts and hoped to die.)

Not everyone is buying what Mr. Simon is selling, though. Acccording to information from Forbes Magazine, the team actually made money for six consecutive seasons, ending in 2006 when the Pacers were a disaster both on and off the court. (And by the way, what the heck happened in 1999? Was Indiana writing down the debt on Vern Fleming’s leisure suits?*). The Pacers, naturally, refute Forbes’ calculations, although they refused to provide any evidence beyond their own words to back up their argument.

While on the topic of charts, I’d also like to take issue with the graphic the Star presented as a sidebar to the story, listing the Pacers’ annual salary expenditures. This is the chart here:



The ostensible reason for putting this artwork with the story is to buttress the Pacers’ argument that escalating player salaries are to blame for the team’s dire financial situation. Taken by itself, the chart is fine, but when you look at the statement accompanying it, it becomes a joke.

“PLAYER EXPENSES This price tag, which includes benefits and bonuses, is the second-highest in the 10 years the Pacers have played at Conseco Fieldhouse.”

Think about it for a minute – do you see why that statement is so wrong? It’s called inflation, people! To compare 2008 numbers with 1999 numbers without any adjustment for inflation that’s … well, that’s just dumb. In fact, if you adjust for inflation, there are at least four instances in the past ten years when the Pacers have spent more money on player salaries than this year. See below:



Of course, that doesn’t jive with Mr. Simon's assertions about how woeful his current predicament is, but that’s to be expected from someone in his position, although it does help his other argument about how crappy his annual financial situation is. I’m just surprised that no one at the Star thought to run that chart by someone in the Business section.

But enough bemoaning the Star, and back to the Pacers.

If you’ve lived through the Sonics’ situation you know that extortion is the name of the game in these encounters, and the Pacers are certainly armed and ready to do battle in that sort of contest. In fact, they even have a former Seattle resident on hand to lead the parade.
“I've seen it, I lived it for 18 months in Seattle and it was painful,” Don Welsh, a 40-year resident of Seattle and now the President of the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association told WTHR-TV. “Losing a basketball team strips away some of the fabric of a city and Seattle is still mourning the loss. I'm hopeful it won't get that point here.”

And, of course, the requisite comments about what would become of Conseco should the Pacers leave town were flowing fast and furious, with one official asking, “What would you rather have, the Pacers or cat shows?”

That argument is one that we hear in Seattle as well, and I think it deserves further examination. Follow along with me, please, as we explore the methodology:

1. Team and city co-exist in harmony with older arena which perfectly suits the needs of both
2. Team grows tired of arena, demands new one
3. City balks, as existing arena is more than satisfactory for other, non-basketball activities
4. Team threatens to leave
5. City gives in, builds new arena, demolishes old arena
6. Team and city co-exist in harmony with new arena
7. Team grows tired of new arena/lease, demands new one
8. City realizes that because it is still on the hook for new arena, it can’t afford to lose its major tenant
9. City and team try to squeeze more money from taxpayers

Am I missing anything here? Essentially, by forcing the city to build a new arena, the team has painted the city into a corner and essentially given themselves the ultimate trump card in perpetuity, as the city desperately needs the team so that it may continue to pay down the debt on an arena it never needed but the team demanded.

Sickening, right? And yet, it’s the exact same situation in Indianapolis as it is in Seattle. Because Seattle rebuilt KeyArena, it is obligated to have a team fill it up with nightly activities, or else KeyArena becomes a giant white elephant with cat shows. Because Indianapolis built Conseco Fieldhouse, it is obligated to have a team fill it up with nightly activities, or else Conseco becomes a giant white elephant with cat shows.

More sickening still, digest what Simon has said, that the Pacers have lost money in 26 of 28 seasons. Is that really possible? 26 of 28 is 93%, meaning that for the past three decades the Pacers are more effective at losing money than the best free throw shooters in history have been at making free throws. Ask yourself, do you really believe that Herb Simon would own a business which was better at losing money than Rick Barry was at making free throws?

And is it possible in a year when the Pacers advanced to the NBA Finals, playing more than a dozen home playoff games to sell out crowds, and all the accompanying merchandise, concession, and parking sales, etc, etc, that this team lost money? Did that really happen?

There are two answers. Yes, it did, in which case the NBA is a horrible investment for both Mr. Simon and the city of Indianapolis, because if the Pacers can’t even make money with an NBA Finals appearance and a new stadium to boot, well, they must be an investment of which only Bernie Madoff would be proud.

Or, no, it did not, and Mr. Simon is flat-out distorting the truth to advance his case for concessions from the city.

Take your pick.

[*-Obviously, the deficit in '99 was due to the lockout. Like David Stern, I guess I had tried to block that year out of my mind.]

From the "In My Day..." Files

I hate to discredit a Hall of Famer, but I came across this quote from Hakeem Olajuwon in LZ Granderson's otherwise wonderful story about the rarity of quadruple-doubles in the NBA:

"When I was playing, it was expected that a good player, especially a big man, would get a double-double. Today, getting a double-double is considered special."

Hakeem Olajuwon's career double-doubles (data only from 1986-87 season): 674
Average per 82-game season: 53

Double-double leaders, last four seasons: 69, 66, 62, 69
Number of players who compiled 53 or more double-doubles, last four seasons: 4, 3, 4, 2

Even giving credit to Olajuwon due to the fact those numbers encapsulate the decline phase of his career, and while it may be true that the number of players achieving double-doubles were greater "back in the day," it would seem pretty obvious that double-doubles by the elite players are as frequent now as they were back in the day.

And, of course, none of this takes into account pace or number of possessions.

Eye-opening Story in PI About SU Player

The PI's demise is on a when, not if, basis these days (Wednesday? Thursday?), so it's bittersweet to see a story such as this one in the paper today.

Reporter Dan Raley details the story of Peller Phillips, a former point guard who attended Seattle University in the 1960s, was accused of point-shaving, kicked off the team, denied entry to the NBA, then completely exonerated.

Philips' ability to let the charges and impact upon his life roll off his back is admirable, as is Raley's telling of the story. Well worth a read.

NBA Attendance, From Another Angle

In studying the NBA attendance figures this season, my eyes have gone a bit bloodshot entering in daily totals for every single team. Still, it hasn't been without its rewards, garnering such insights as:

-If every NBA team could play every game on Saturday night, the Sonics would be in KeyArena right now and David Stern would be wearing platinum-plated underwear instead of those miserable gold-plated boxers Larry O'Brien gave him in 1982. LeBron, Kobe, Shaq ... nobody has as much impact on an NBA team's attendance as a Saturday night.

-I don't know which is more worrying for the league, that the Bobcats are as popular in Charlotte as George Shinn biographies, or that the Pistons have dropped from the ranks of the Sellout Every Night Club. If the Pistons don't advance to the second round in the playoffs this season, I'm guessing next year might be a bit tough at Auburn Hills.

Sideways banter aside, allow me to provide you a new graph for your reading enjoyment. This time, I've taken the average attendance of every team and paired it with their standard deviation from said average.


You'll notice that fans of the teams grouped in the bottom right corner are those in no danger of seeing the word "relocation" any time soon in their local newspapers. Fans of those teams in the upper left and, especially, in the bottom left, on the other hand, are free to start their bitching about the inequities of modern professional sports. Not that it will do you any good, mind you, but I thought you ought to prepare.

As you'll gather by looking at the chart, teams which fall into the bottom left quadrant are victims of (1) low attendance and (2) apathy, in that their attendance is neither high on average nor on a once-a-month scenario, regardless of a LeBron sighting, a foam finger giveaway, or what have you.

Teams with high deviations, those at the top half of the graph, tend to have more fluctuations, which is why you'll see the Wizards and their schizophrenic attendance at the very peak, located nearby Charlotte, Minnesota, and Philadelphia, who have managed to get good numbers occasionally, but not often enough to off-set the bad nights.

The graph points out all too well how precarious the situation is in Sacramento these days. Not only is their average attendance quite poor, but it very rarely changes. Please don't take this to mean that I believe Kings' fans are unjustifiably apathetic. Far be it. Rather, I think they've been afflicted with the same malaise we've seen in other cities (cough, Seattle) that visits fans of teams with uncertain futures and miserable on-court play.

Donaldson Eyes Mayor's Seat

As per today's Seattle Times, former Sonic James Donaldson is exploring the possibility of running against incumbent Greg Nickels in this year's mayoral election in Seattle. Donaldson, who earlier announced his intention to run for city council, said he would make a decision within the next two to three weeks on his decision to run for mayor.

At 7'2", Donaldson would obviously become the tallest mayor in the country (world? checking various sub-Saharan African cities) should he pull off the upset over Nickels, but I couldn't help but ponder a bizarre bit of trivia upon hearing of his plans.

With former Phoenix Suns guard Kevin Johnson in Sacramento's mayoral chair, and the possibility of Donaldson in Seattle's, and with Sacto facing the possibility of losing their team in the near future (I'm not saying it will happen, but bear with me here), it's entirely possible that the only two cities in the United States with former NBA players as mayors would be the two most recent cities in the United States to lose their NBA teams.

And, maybe, if I'm living in Detroit, I think twice about voting for Dave Bing.

Sonics & Huskies: Another View

Last spring, the Sonics (this is when they were still the Sonics and before they were the Something Elses) were in a unexpected pickle: They needed to extricate themselves from a lease they had signed, and their only excuse for doing so was to prove that they had no impact, economically anyways, on Greater Seattle.

It was a surreal experience, seeing a professional sports team begging others to understand that professional sports teams have no monetary impact, as odd as seeing Dick Cheney trying to convince the House of Representatives that they needed to excuse Halliburton from its contract because defense contractors do nothing to help employment, or, at least, some much more well thought out analogy.

And, so, as I watched/read the deliberations in court, I wondered to myself, "How long is it going to be until somebody uses the Sonics' words against them?" Well, if not them, then at least another pro sports team clamoring for public financing for its stadium so that its fans can have bigger cup-holders, because, hey, those other kids in the next state have them, and, geez, how can you expect us to compete against those cup-holders when we've still got these puny, 1996-style ones? I mean, come on, I wouldn't even put a warm cup of Mountain Dew in these things!

Well, to answer my question from seven months ago, it apparently took about seven months. From The Heartland Institute (which, apparently, is run by the Son or possibly Nephew of Zod, at least judging by his photograph), in an article discussing the merits/lack of merits of improving Husky Stadium and KeyArena:

Ironically, the SuperSonics—Seattle’s former professional basketball franchise—last year went to court to get out of a lease at Key Arena and agreed sports facilities do not promote economic development.

“The financial issue is simple, and the city’s analysts agree, there will be no net economic loss if the Sonics leave Seattle,” the Sonics said in a brief. “Entertainment dollars not spent on the Sonics will be spent on Seattle’s many other sports and entertainment options. Seattleites will not reduce their entertainment budget simply because the Sonics leave.”

It means nothing to Bennett & Crew, obviously, since they have long since packed up the wagon and moved on down the road, but is it not the least ironic that in swiping our favorite basketball team, the Sonics' former owners not only managed to harvest the crops — as it were — from our fields, but to salt the earth on their way out of town?

Whoops

Bend it Like Bennett checks in with a report from the MySpace page of Graham Bennett, son of Clay.

With these sorts of things, you never know what the truth is, but if what we see is true, and Graham's dad did indeed ask what was up with the "black midget with a pickle in her hand," well, it can't be good.

If nothing else, it might serve as an interesting test of Charles Barkley's hypothesis that Oklahoma is "no place for black people."

Wait a Minute, Clay Bennett Owns a Bookstore?

Were one to compile a list of possible retail soups in which Clay Bennett would dabble his entrepreneurial finger, small-town bookstore owner would surely are one of the least-likely possibilities, perhaps right below running a laundromat in Ballard and above operating a GLBT Sex Shop in San Francisco.

And, yet, surprisingly, small book store owner is exactly what Mr. Bennett has listed on his resume, Owner, Town Center Bookstore in lovely Basalt, Colorado. (It's right there on the sheet, see it? next to Carpetbagging Owner of Seat ... well, let's leave that alone for one day, at least, shall we?)

Unfortunately for the employees of said store, the swinging ax of the economic downturn has finally landed upon their heads, as Mr. and Mrs. Bennett have decided to close the doors on their little operation. Naturally, as someone who has witnessed first-hand the havoc of which the Bennetts are capable and the rapidity with which they are able to yank rugs out from underneath unsuspecting victims, I'm less than enthusiastic about dancing a jig over the Bennetts failed store. After all, the dozen or so folks working there aren't exactly thrilled about it.

No, my reason for bringing this up is more pertinent to the operations of a certain basketball team in Oklahoma City.

You see, the bookstore's General Manager, Fred Durham, dropped an interesting tidbit of information while in conversation with Aspen Daily News reporter Brent Gardner-Smith. Quoting the article here:

"Durham said the Bennetts looked down the road at the challenges facing both newspapers and independent bookstores and decided to close up shop in Basalt.

“'When you have to write a check every month to make something work, you begin to say ‘Now wait a minute,’” said Durham."

Why is this relevant? Simply because Clay Bennett's fortune is tied extremely closely to two entities: Chesapeake Energy and Oklahoma Publishing, the Bennett's media conglomerate. We're all well aware of the sad state of affairs at Chesapeake (no need to document them on this site, surely), but it might surprise you to know that the Daily Oklahoman is no stranger to financial problems.

With the ongoing death watch of newspapers across North America, is it any wonder that the Bennetts decided that it might be a good time to tighten their belts when it came to their financial holdings? And is it any wonder that 99.9% of Sonic fans in Seattle are cursing the day the city caved in to Bennett's group last summer?

Because, mind you, if Clay Bennett is willing to sell a 10-man operation in Colorado to save a few bucks, don't you think he might have been the same about a basketball team in Seattle?

Attendance Report, March 3, 2009

All data through March 2, 2009. Teams are shown with their attendance on a year-over-year basis from the 2007-08 season.

. Oklahoma City 143506 . New Orleans 81083 . Philadelphia 51520 . Indiana 35765 . Portland 32819 . Atlanta 24450 . Denver 10592 . New York 7478 . Houston 1670 . Boston 0 . Cleveland 0 . LA Lakers 0 . Phoenix 0 . Utah -309 . Detroit -356 . Charlotte -1712 . Milwaukee -4791 . Dallas -5851 . Memphis -7677 . Minnesota -10728 . Toronto -10728 . San Antonio -11834 . LA Clippers -13279 . Orlando -14089 . New Jersey -14357 . Golden State -14761 . Chicago -22332 . Washington -28837 . Sacramento -40011 . Miami -50257

NBA Economic News

A couple of stories of interest to those who are curious to see how the league is handling the global economic downturn:

1) Sports Business Journal discusses how premium-seat renewals may be difficult for both the NBA and the NHL.

2) The Wall Street Journal marvels at how 80% of the teams in the league are essentially out of the running for a title, and how almost all of those clubs have given up in even trying.

Another Kemp Comeback? Not So Much

Instead of battling sweaty Italians and Croatians on the court and mingling with anti-birth control groupies in Italy off it this year, it appears Shawn Kemp will be taking on ... middle-aged Americans desperate to prove they can hang with former NBA superstars.

Yep, the Reign Man will be competing in Spike's "Pros vs Joes" this season, alongside Alonzo Mourning, Robert Horry, Glen Rice, Antoine Walker, and Steve Francis.

Rice, Walker and Kemp were previously booted from their earlier deal with "The Biggest Loser" after the trio managed to boost the weight of not only the competitors, but the cameramen, cleaning staff, producers, and these freaks.