Wednesday, July 22
Tuesday, July 21
Locked on Utah
David Locke, ertwhile blogger, Sonic radio man, and a friend of Sonic fans, has been tabbed to succeed the legendary "Hot" Rod Hundley as the voice of the Utah Jazz.
Locke, who came to Seattle from Utah before returning two years ago, was one of the first of the local media to delve into more sophisticated analysis of basketball statistics (and, for all I know, MLB and NFL stats; I wasn't paying as much attention in those areas).
While I didn't agree with everything Locke said - he got awful wound up sometimes - and I never thought he fit comfortably into the play-by-play chair, that could be attributed as much to the man he replaced as it did to his skills. It's never easy to replace a legend, and now Locke has managed to try to fit into yet another pair of oversized shoes. First Calabro, now Hundley ... what's next, Locke, a shot at taking over for Vin Scully in Los Angeles?
In all seriousness, congrats to David for his promotion, and best of luck.
Locke, who came to Seattle from Utah before returning two years ago, was one of the first of the local media to delve into more sophisticated analysis of basketball statistics (and, for all I know, MLB and NFL stats; I wasn't paying as much attention in those areas).
While I didn't agree with everything Locke said - he got awful wound up sometimes - and I never thought he fit comfortably into the play-by-play chair, that could be attributed as much to the man he replaced as it did to his skills. It's never easy to replace a legend, and now Locke has managed to try to fit into yet another pair of oversized shoes. First Calabro, now Hundley ... what's next, Locke, a shot at taking over for Vin Scully in Los Angeles?
In all seriousness, congrats to David for his promotion, and best of luck.
Wednesday, July 15
The Stern & Steve Show
Amount of time David Stern permitted Steve Kelley for an interview at the Las Vegas Summer League: 1 minute, 43 seconds
Amount of time it took Mr. Kelley to write his column: 1 minute, 38 seconds
Amount of time you should waste trying to think of any conclusions other than, "David Stern will say whatever it takes to further advance the agenda of David Stern": 0 minutes, 0 seconds
Amount of time it took Mr. Kelley to write his column: 1 minute, 38 seconds
Amount of time you should waste trying to think of any conclusions other than, "David Stern will say whatever it takes to further advance the agenda of David Stern": 0 minutes, 0 seconds
Nate: Sonic Fans are Blazer Fans
As much of a Nate McMillan fan as I am (and I am a huge one), he's really beginning to test my patience.
For evidence, see this latest quote from 'Mr. Sonic':
"The fans of Seattle have really become Blazer fans. Some of them up there of course still love the Sonics but because we have a lot of guys from Seattle area, we do have a fan base there."
(quote obtained via seattlepi.com).
Set aside the sheer inaccuracy of his statement (the fans of the Seattle have really NOT become Blazer fans, regardless of how much effort the Portland marketing staff makes), is it really necessary for him to say these things? At what point do we stop wondering if this is Nate trying to placate his present employer, and start wondering if he really has a bitter attitude towards all things Sonics after his messy departure four years ago?
McMillan endeared himself to a generation of fans with his on-court tenacity, selfless devotion to the team, and his no-BS style as a coach. He was a key contributor to all of the great Seattle playoff runs of the past 25 years, and if you had asked five years ago if there was any way I would ever consider throwing away my McMillan replica jersey, I would have laughed in your face.
And then spit in it.
Now? Now, I'm not so sure.
I'm not saying we should go crazy and cut the Mr. Sonic sash from his chest, but, at the very least, perhaps we should open the utility drawer and remove the scissors.
For evidence, see this latest quote from 'Mr. Sonic':
"The fans of Seattle have really become Blazer fans. Some of them up there of course still love the Sonics but because we have a lot of guys from Seattle area, we do have a fan base there."
(quote obtained via seattlepi.com).
Set aside the sheer inaccuracy of his statement (the fans of the Seattle have really NOT become Blazer fans, regardless of how much effort the Portland marketing staff makes), is it really necessary for him to say these things? At what point do we stop wondering if this is Nate trying to placate his present employer, and start wondering if he really has a bitter attitude towards all things Sonics after his messy departure four years ago?
McMillan endeared himself to a generation of fans with his on-court tenacity, selfless devotion to the team, and his no-BS style as a coach. He was a key contributor to all of the great Seattle playoff runs of the past 25 years, and if you had asked five years ago if there was any way I would ever consider throwing away my McMillan replica jersey, I would have laughed in your face.
And then spit in it.
Now? Now, I'm not so sure.
I'm not saying we should go crazy and cut the Mr. Sonic sash from his chest, but, at the very least, perhaps we should open the utility drawer and remove the scissors.
Tuesday, July 14
Leroy Smith
I don't know if you've seen this yet, but if you haven't, you really should. Right now. Go.
Tuesday, July 7
Sam Perkins: Did You Really Just Say Neat?
Imagine you're Tim Wilkin, a writer for a smallish paper (The Times-Union of Albany, New York), and you've scored an interview with former resident/basketball star Sam Perkins.
Now, if you're Tim Wilkin, you're just a hair nervous, in that Sam Perkins 1) is more famous than just about anyone you have ever interviewed and 2) exudes more cool through his left pinky toenail than you do through your entire body.
So, if you're Tim Wilkin, you're hoping your Q&A with Big Smooth can at least get off to a solid start, because, man, you're more nervous than a Clipper fan with a $250 Blake Griffin jersey.
And then this happens:
Q: Coming back to be inducted into the Capital District Basketball Hall of Fame ... is that a neat thing for you?
A: Is it neat? I haven't heard that word in awhile. It's cool.
Perkins manages to help Wilkin along by not hanging up the phone after one cliched question ("Who was your favorite teammate?" "What are you doing now?") after another (all of which begs the question: Do they have the internet in Albany yet?).
Not surprisingly, there was nothing too revelatory in the article, although it was a bit of a surprise to see Sam Perkins list Dick Motta as his favorite coach, putting him ahead of (among others): Dean Smith and George Karl.
One aspect emerged for sure, though: Sam Perkins is definitely not neat.
Now, if you're Tim Wilkin, you're just a hair nervous, in that Sam Perkins 1) is more famous than just about anyone you have ever interviewed and 2) exudes more cool through his left pinky toenail than you do through your entire body.
So, if you're Tim Wilkin, you're hoping your Q&A with Big Smooth can at least get off to a solid start, because, man, you're more nervous than a Clipper fan with a $250 Blake Griffin jersey.
And then this happens:
Q: Coming back to be inducted into the Capital District Basketball Hall of Fame ... is that a neat thing for you?
A: Is it neat? I haven't heard that word in awhile. It's cool.
Perkins manages to help Wilkin along by not hanging up the phone after one cliched question ("Who was your favorite teammate?" "What are you doing now?") after another (all of which begs the question: Do they have the internet in Albany yet?).
Not surprisingly, there was nothing too revelatory in the article, although it was a bit of a surprise to see Sam Perkins list Dick Motta as his favorite coach, putting him ahead of (among others): Dean Smith and George Karl.
One aspect emerged for sure, though: Sam Perkins is definitely not neat.
Monday, July 6
Friday, July 3
Happy Fourth of July!
If you're in the neighborhood, please stop by the "All-American Salute to America, USA" tonight in Ballard at Live Girls Theater (2220 NW Market St) at 11pm. I will be hosting an ultra-patriotic late night comedy show featuring some great local performers including the 2009 Stranger Gong Show Winner Airpocalypse. For more info, go to www.ballardcomedy.com
(Awesome/disturbing poster by Supersonicsoul's Rafael "Chunkstyle" Calonzo, Jr.)
Tuesday, June 30
One Year Later
Depending upon the circumstances, one year can be a long period of time.
One year spent waiting through, say, a traffic light or watching a year’s worth of early-90s Cavs highlights? That’s an eternity.
But watching one year of your life go by without your favorite basketball team? That can transpire rather quickly.
As a writer for a web site nominally devoted to a team which no longer exists, I suppose it is incumbent upon me to spill some pixel-filled pearls of wisdom about how it feels one year after Greg Nickels made a deal with the devil and allowed Clay Bennett to leave town for what turns out to be the tidy sum of $45 million.
It was, obviously, a painful day for all of us when the announcement was made. Speaking as someone who hasn’t lived in Seattle since the (first) Bush administration, though, I almost feel guilty about complaining – after all, how can I grouse about somebody leaving Seattle when I did it more than 15 years ago?
Regardless, this situation transcends individual situations, it transcends even city-wide feelings. Instead, I look at what happened to Seattle and the Sonics as a searchlight beaming directly onto the professional sports experience, and that’s precisely why it should trouble everyone, from the season-ticket holder in New Jersey to the casual fan in New Orleans.
In the aftermath of the relocation, I was a bit irked at the way the rest of the sports fans across the country viewed the way events transpired. For the most part, the prevailing sentiments fell into one of two camps:
A) “Hey, if you guys wanted your team so bad, you should have supported them better.”
B) “That really sucks for Seattle, we should do something about … hey, how ‘bout those Cavs, can you believe LeBron?”
Naturally, that bothered me. Where was the outrage? This wasn’t the Hornets leaving Charlotte, or the Grizzlies leaving Vancouver, this was the Sonics leaving Seattle. We mattered more. We had a history, dammit! Why wasn’t everyone as angry as we were?
For quite a few months, I lugged that emotion around with me, so much so that I began to wish that the league would just collapse so that everyone else would feel as crappy as I did. Then, slowly, I began to realize that the way other fans treated the Sonics’ departure was no different than the way I treated the Colts’ departure from Baltimore, or the Browns’ from Cleveland, or any of the myriad of other franchise shifts in the past twenty years.
That is to say, with a small bit of melancholy and a great big helping of indifference.
And you know what? I can’t expect any more than that.
One year later, and I still despise Stern, McClendon, Bennett, and the rest of the co-conspirators for the shoddy way they treated the fanbase here. When word came that the Blazers were mulling the possibility of playing a pre-season game in Seattle this fall, I almost threw up. Really, Portland, you think after one year that we’re ready to forget the past 40 years? That I can start cheering for a franchise that considers this guy a hero? I think not, my patchuli-scented friends.
But the truth is that I am not the target audience for the Blazers’ marketing scheme, any more than I am for the NBA. The target is the casual fan, the one who only dips his toe in the league’s pool when he feels like it, who can take or leave basketball with the ease of trying the new restaurant on the corner.
One year later, and I have finally come to the realization that the league cares as much about devoted fans as Hollywood cares about the hard-core fanatics who love their product. We are a loyal entity, a group who remain devoted no manner how shoddily we are treated.
Imagine if a local business treated you the way the NBA treated Seattle fans. After 40 years of devotion, after setting attendance records, after building two arenas, after caving in to every demand the league/team placed, they threatened to leave because of a lack of support. Can you imagine how you would feel about a local theater that tried to do that? A restaurant?
You can’t, of course, because the NBA – and pro sports in general – are a different animal, and they know it. Stern knows we are addicted to his product, and he knows no matter how poorly his teams behave towards their hosts, no matter how greedy his owners act or how egregious their demands, that there are always those who will forgive them, simply because they love the game.
One year later, and most of the anger has ebbed. And while I’ve grown to understand why the majority of population takes a not-my-problem attitude towards what happens in other cities, let me offer a few words of advice:
You’re next.
One year spent waiting through, say, a traffic light or watching a year’s worth of early-90s Cavs highlights? That’s an eternity.
But watching one year of your life go by without your favorite basketball team? That can transpire rather quickly.
As a writer for a web site nominally devoted to a team which no longer exists, I suppose it is incumbent upon me to spill some pixel-filled pearls of wisdom about how it feels one year after Greg Nickels made a deal with the devil and allowed Clay Bennett to leave town for what turns out to be the tidy sum of $45 million.
It was, obviously, a painful day for all of us when the announcement was made. Speaking as someone who hasn’t lived in Seattle since the (first) Bush administration, though, I almost feel guilty about complaining – after all, how can I grouse about somebody leaving Seattle when I did it more than 15 years ago?
Regardless, this situation transcends individual situations, it transcends even city-wide feelings. Instead, I look at what happened to Seattle and the Sonics as a searchlight beaming directly onto the professional sports experience, and that’s precisely why it should trouble everyone, from the season-ticket holder in New Jersey to the casual fan in New Orleans.
In the aftermath of the relocation, I was a bit irked at the way the rest of the sports fans across the country viewed the way events transpired. For the most part, the prevailing sentiments fell into one of two camps:
A) “Hey, if you guys wanted your team so bad, you should have supported them better.”
B) “That really sucks for Seattle, we should do something about … hey, how ‘bout those Cavs, can you believe LeBron?”
Naturally, that bothered me. Where was the outrage? This wasn’t the Hornets leaving Charlotte, or the Grizzlies leaving Vancouver, this was the Sonics leaving Seattle. We mattered more. We had a history, dammit! Why wasn’t everyone as angry as we were?
For quite a few months, I lugged that emotion around with me, so much so that I began to wish that the league would just collapse so that everyone else would feel as crappy as I did. Then, slowly, I began to realize that the way other fans treated the Sonics’ departure was no different than the way I treated the Colts’ departure from Baltimore, or the Browns’ from Cleveland, or any of the myriad of other franchise shifts in the past twenty years.
That is to say, with a small bit of melancholy and a great big helping of indifference.
And you know what? I can’t expect any more than that.
One year later, and I still despise Stern, McClendon, Bennett, and the rest of the co-conspirators for the shoddy way they treated the fanbase here. When word came that the Blazers were mulling the possibility of playing a pre-season game in Seattle this fall, I almost threw up. Really, Portland, you think after one year that we’re ready to forget the past 40 years? That I can start cheering for a franchise that considers this guy a hero? I think not, my patchuli-scented friends.
But the truth is that I am not the target audience for the Blazers’ marketing scheme, any more than I am for the NBA. The target is the casual fan, the one who only dips his toe in the league’s pool when he feels like it, who can take or leave basketball with the ease of trying the new restaurant on the corner.
One year later, and I have finally come to the realization that the league cares as much about devoted fans as Hollywood cares about the hard-core fanatics who love their product. We are a loyal entity, a group who remain devoted no manner how shoddily we are treated.
Imagine if a local business treated you the way the NBA treated Seattle fans. After 40 years of devotion, after setting attendance records, after building two arenas, after caving in to every demand the league/team placed, they threatened to leave because of a lack of support. Can you imagine how you would feel about a local theater that tried to do that? A restaurant?
You can’t, of course, because the NBA – and pro sports in general – are a different animal, and they know it. Stern knows we are addicted to his product, and he knows no matter how poorly his teams behave towards their hosts, no matter how greedy his owners act or how egregious their demands, that there are always those who will forgive them, simply because they love the game.
One year later, and most of the anger has ebbed. And while I’ve grown to understand why the majority of population takes a not-my-problem attitude towards what happens in other cities, let me offer a few words of advice:
You’re next.
Monday, June 29
Thursday, June 25
Wednesday, June 24
CHK: It's All About Priorities
Estimated yearly savings for Chesapeake Energy after laying off 50 Oklahoma City employees, assuming base salary of $50,000, taking into account benefits, office space, et al: $6,750,000
Estimated cost of maps, paintings, etc. purchased by Chesapeake Energy from founder Aubrey McClendon in December 2008: $12,100,000
By my math, it would appear that two years of employment for 50 people < pile of maps.
Estimated cost of maps, paintings, etc. purchased by Chesapeake Energy from founder Aubrey McClendon in December 2008: $12,100,000
By my math, it would appear that two years of employment for 50 people < pile of maps.
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