Name That Sonic

* Played more games than Detlef Schrempf
* More points scored than Nate McMillan, Derrick McKey, or Dennis Johnson
* One of only 11 Sonics to have played 3,000 minutes in one season

Who am I?

Morning Hot Links

Bizarre (and brief) article from Puget Sound Business Journal's Steven Goldsmith about the residual effect of the Sonics leaving KeyArena. Goldsmith makes a sort-of claim that the Key is doing just fine without the Sonics, because Roller Derby has filled the void.

Um, okay.

Much better is the PI's story this morning from Casey McNerthey, which paints a completely different picture (and, in my opinion, a much more accurate one) of how the area surrounding KeyArena has become a ghost town.

Best of all, though, is the link provided to the PI's coverage of the Sonics' championship 30 years ago. If you click on the link to the PDF (it's a large file, so beware), you may recognize a picture at the bottom right corner. Just one question: How is it possible that the PI is unable to conjure up a better quality representation of their old issues? Did they sell off all the scanners when the paper went belly-up?

Name That Seattle Sonic

FOUR CLUES:

* More rebounds than Vincent Askew
* More playoff games than Olden Polynice
* More blocks than Paul Silas
* Top 10 all-time in disqualifications

Who am I?

Sonics 30th Anniversary viewing party today

(photo from the Seattle Times)

Some kind soul is putting on viewing parties all over town today to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Seattle Supersonics clinching the NBA championship.

1979 NBA Finals Game 5 Viewing Party:

Jalisco
11am/1pm/3pm/5pm/7pm/9pm

Floyd's Place
2pm/4pm/6pm/8pm/10pm/12pm

Sport Restaurant
1:30pm/3:30pm/5:30pm//5:30pm/7:30pm/9:30pm

The Spectator
4:30pm/6:30pm/8:30pm/10:30pm

Sporty's Beef & Brew
7:00pm/9:00pm/11:00pm

For more info, go to http://supersonics30.com/

30 Years Gone By

Here's an interesting question to ponder: If you were standing and cheering at the Sonics' championship rally 30 years ago today, which would you be more inclined to scoff at, were someone to ask you:

1. That the Sonics would be gone in 30 years, or

2. That GM would file for bankruptcy

Tough call, that. Anyhow, they've both come to pass but, for today, we'll try to focus on the positive. There are stories aplenty on the web today, columns filled with wistful nostalgia that Sonic fans can wallow in. Included:

* Art Thiel, the PI (if I read his column right, Thiel is 6'8"?)

* Steve Kelley, The Times

* Damon Agnos, Seattle Weekly

* Percy Allen, The Times

* John McGrath, News Tribune

And, perhaps as good as reliving those memories, is the possibility of 1) watching Rashard Lewis in the Finals this week and 2) hoping that he beats the Lakers. Barring a return of pro hoops to Seattle, what more could a fan ask for?

Stadiums Are Great, Or Not

Something you'll never hear from anyone associated with getting a new sports facility built:

"While the ballpark construction would create 453 jobs during construction, the $49 million total investment would actually create a net loss of 182 jobs citywide.

“If those individuals who put their money into baseball via taxes are allowed to put that money into the private market, that same amount of money would actually yield more jobs,” explains ECONorthwest number-cruncher Abe Farkas."

(From The Portland Mercury, via Field of Schemes).

Naturally, Portland city officials were less than keen to share this sort of news, and tried their best to keep it out of the public's view, but, eventually it got there. And so, naturally, the city tried to explain that the study (which they commissioned) was all screwed up to begin with.

After studying these situations (far too much, honestly) for the past few years, I can see both sides of the argument in these discussions. Certainly, pro sports teams provide economic activity and help keep neighborhoods such as the one surrounding KeyArena viable. Just talk to the folks running businesses in that area these days about how thrilled they are about the Sonics leaving town. Not much.

However, teams also are a consistent drain on public finances, and the bang for the public buck is often a whimper, relatively speaking. In the end, there is no logical argument for throwing money at stadiums - only an emotional one. When times are good, that emotional argument can be persuasive, as it was for the Seahawks and Mariners. When the economy is in a freefall and the state and city are scrapping together bake sales to pay for basic services, though, that argument becomes increasingly flimsy.

And so it is for the Sonics these days. Sure, some of the candidates for the Mayor of Seattle have thrown their two cents in about saving the Sonics, but most of that is posturing and looking to stake a claim to a perceived weakness of the incumbent, Greg Nickels. In reality, none of these people did much to keep the team here when it really mattered (although, to be fair, James Donaldson did more than the rest).

The Sonics are, it seems, not a priority in Seattle these days. Despite the fact that private backers were willing to cough up $150 million towards re-building KeyArena, it didn't happen, largely because the public outcry was not enough to convince legislators that it would be in their political interests to do so. To get a new arena, supporters must overcome two significant dead weights: 1) The fact that arenas and stadiums are not nearly the economic panacea supporters purport them to be and 2) The citizens of this area aren't sufficiently on board.

You can climb the mountain with one of those weights chained to your leg, but with both of them shackled to your ankles, you ain't gonna make it.

30th Anniversary Trivia

In the spirit of the 30th Anniversary of the Sonics' only championship, riddle me this:

Which two participants in the 1979 NBA Finals were the last to suit up for the Seattle SuperSonics?

30 Years Ago: Game 3

30 Years Ago (from what used to be www.supersonics.com)

May 27, 1979

"The Sonics returned home looking to maintain home-court advantage. That wasn't a problem in Game 3, as the Sonics cruised to a 105-95 victory that was in reality more lopsided. With nearly 36,000 fans packing the Kingdome, the Sonics took a lead as large as 17 and were never seriously threatened. Williams again led the way with 31 points, but the big game came from Dennis Johnson, who fell an assist and a rebound shy of a triple-double, settling for 17 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. Sikma had 21 points and 17 boards. On the other side, Washington got 70 points from Dandridge, Hayes and Unseld, but just 25 from the rest of the team. The Bullets shot 25% in the first half, just 33% for the game."

Coach of the Year

Here’s an interesting thought to roll around in your head while debating which active player expends the most pre-game energy on fixing his hair … why is it the best NBA coaches so rarely win Coach of the Year?

I thought of that because of Mike Brown. Not to pick on Brown while he’s down (there are enough other supposed NBA geniuses doing that already), but have you ever seen an NBA coach do less work? Maybe it’s me, but every time they cut to the Cavs braintrust, Brown is standing around while his assistants diagram the plays, leading me to wonder, for what, exactly, is Brown responsible?

Regardless, Brown won the Coach of the Year Award this season, which is a remarkable feat, in that, one, he seems to have done a good job, and, two, it’s only the second time since Phil Jackson got tabbed in 1996 that the coach of the team with the NBA’s best record went home with a trophy.

In fact, in reviewing the history of the award, it becomes painfully obvious that the media seems to prefer the coaches of mediocre teams who overachieved than they do the men who are busy winning championships.

Skeptical? Well, answer this puzzler: From the year I was born (1972) until the year I graduated from high school (1990), guess how many Hall of Fame coaches won the Coach of the Year Award?

If you answered one (Hubie Brown, 1978, Atlanta), give yourself a pat on the back.

18 years, and one Hall of Famer. Does that not strike you as a little odd? Lenny Wilkens takes over a team (Seattle) destined for the top of the 1978 NBA Draft, takes them to the NBA Finals, and that’s considered an inferior achievement to Hubie Brown getting the Hawks to 41 wins? (And, yes, I am aware that voting takes place before the playoffs but, bub, the Sonics won 47 games that year, so, you know, they weren’t exactly crapola during the regular season).

Or, try this angle: Del Harris, Don Chaney, and Cotton Fitzsimmons have a total of four awards, while Jerry Sloan, Jack Ramsay, and Chuck Daly (all HOFers) have zero. None.

Or this one: Mike Dunleavy has won as many COY’s as Phil Jackson.

What?

In fact, if you study the entire history of the award, you’ll see that of the 47 recipients, only 12 are in the Hall. Granted, two active coaches (Gregg Popovich and Don Nelson) will undoubtedly receive their due from Springfield some day, but even adding Pop and Nellie only brings the total to 16, well short of 50%.

As a comparison, if you look at the winners of the MVP Award over the same time frame you’ll see that 100% of them are in the Hall of Fame (minus active players, naturally). As far as I can tell, every single MVP winner since 1962-63 is in the Hall of Fame. Which makes sense, because generally the best player wins the award, and the best players tend to be, well, the best players.

Not when it comes to coaches, though. Instead of rewarding the Coach of the Year, writers and broadcasters prefer a guy who turned a lottery team into a first-round-of-the-playoff-exit team to a guy who guided a team to 64 wins. Call me crazy, but shouldn’t we be rewarding the Coach of the Year with the Coach of the Year Award?

I suppose there are two conclusions you could draw from this overly long diatribe:

1. Coaches are underrepresented in the Hall of Fame, and henceforth some of the fellows who won the COY and should be in the Hall are, in fact, not.

2. The media does a crappy job of picking Coach of the Year Awards

It’s probably a little bit from Column 1 and a little bit from Column 2, but it seems to me that perhaps the media ought to revisit how it selects COY winners, with more of an eye for the best coach and less of an eye for the best turnaround job.

One More Time

I mined this topic once before from a different angle, but if the Nuggets manage to knock off the Lakers and advance to the NBA Finals, it is entirely possible that they will play 24 playoff games this season.

Why is this significant? Because Juwan Howard, who had a cup of high-altitude coffee with Denver earlier this year, has played 23 playoff games in his career.

Chesapeake, McLendon Could Use Some

I’ve avoided any comments about our friend Aubrey McClendon recently, which may be good news to people who want to read about basketball on a basketball website.

But with news from Gerson Leason Group’s Michael Lynch that Chesapeake Energy is planning to sell $1 billion in assets in the near future, and further news that Chesapeake is expected to sell another $1.5 billion in 2010, I couldn’t help but mention it.

Bear in mind that Chesapeake is not selling these assets because the company wishes to further pad its bank statement. Rather, it is because portions of their more than $12 billion in debt financing are coming due soon, and with natural gas prices lagging, a stock price still off more than 50% from the highs of last summer, and the CEO embroiled in lawsuits … well, they need the money.

And, even more importantly, as Lynch points out:

the worldwide financial collapse which has impacted all nations coupled with a self-inflicted shale gas glut in the U.S. has seriously jeopardized the entire natural gas industry. Close observers think the market weakness will extend into 2010 and based on what is known about the planned LNG worldwide expansions, could last a decade [emphasis added]. That is why it is imperative for the shale gas drillers to align their budgets with their cash flow and prepare for inevitable bond maturities.

In other words, despite the optimistic statements from Mr. McClendon, it will get better before it gets worse. And, considering the Sonix rank at the bottom of the league in revenue, and that Chesapeake may very well be bought out by BP any month now, you’ve got to wonder, how much longer will he be able to continue subsidizing this team?

This Might Make Your Head Hurt

Consider, if you will, the role the Denver Nuggets franchise has played in the life of one George Karl.

The Nuggets, have, thanks to an infamous series from 15 years ago, served as the millstone around Karl's neck, the very emblem of his playoff failures. It could be argued that the Sonics' continued first-round playoff debacles in the years following that Denver series may not have happened were it not for the three-game collapse Seattle suffered at the hands of the Nuggets, inasmuch as they planted the seeds of doubt into the minds of the entire roster, not to mention thousands of anxious fans.

And, if Seattle doesn't suffer those failures, basketball historians look back a bit more fondly on George Karl's tenure as a head coach, correct? In fact, if Karl's Sonics had won a couple more playoff series, he doesn't get fired by Wally Walker, doesn't take over the Bucks, get fired by the Bucks, and then get hired by the Nuggets.

All of which leads us to last night's stirring win by Denver - now coached, obviously, by George Karl - over Los Angeles. For if the Nuggets are to pull off a series victory over the heavily favored Lakers, it might be enough to propel Karl into the Hall of Fame, as the list of NBA coaches who have guided two separate franchises to the Finals is about as long as the list of David Souter's girlfriends.

And so, you might argue, if Denver is to pull off the upset, the Denver Nuggets would be - simultaneously - the franchise that held back and then propelled George Karl into the Hall of Fame.