All-Starry Eyed

Artis is still cooler than you.

From nba.com:

"The judges of this year’s Sprite Rising Stars Slam Dunk are the participants from the inaugural ABA dunk contest that took place in Denver in 1976. Joining the 1976 slam dunk contest winner Julius Erving are George Gervin, Artis Gilmore, David Thompson and Muhsin, formerly known as Larry Kenon."

Putting aside for the moment the more intriguing question of why Larry Kenon bothered changing his name when no one would ever notice, and trying not to picture what the A-Train's mutton chops look like at his age, am I the only thinking that a dunk contest featuring the judges would be a helluva lot more interesting than the ACTUAL dunk contest?

While they're at it, what about bringing back the Old-Timers Game? I say we limit it to guys who have retired at least 5 years ago. Imagine this roster:

Michael Cage, Barkley, Hornacek, Ricky Pierce, Sedale Threatt, Buck Williams, Mark Price, Dominique, Alex English, Nate!, Joe Dumars, Brad Daugherty, Isiah Thomas, Magic!, Bird!, Kurt Rambis!

Seriously, isn't everyone more interested in seeing these guys than the ACTUAL all-stars? Plus, you've got the added bonus of Rick Barry trying to crash the game and causing a scene. That's worth a show in and of itself, don't you think?

Season half empty, or half full?

picture stolen from Sonics.com

I can't believe it's the freakin' All-Star break already. Despite the last couple of lousy games, I think every Sonics fan can agree the first half exceeded everyone's wildest expectations. (Hell, being above .500 would've exceeded MY expectations!)

So, what does the second half of the season hold for our beloved Supes? A 60 win season? A big trade? A total collapse? Discuss amongst your funky selves...

And if you have cable (unlike me!), don't forget to check out Lil' Frodo in the Rookie Whatever Game, tomorrow night at 6pm PST on TNT.

Around the Rim

After giving us the highlight of this incredible season - back-to-back wins over Phoenix and Sacto - the Sonics fell on their face in the 4Q against the Mavs. Normally, people would be foretelling the impending doom of the Sonics, but thankfully everyone knows that this game was nothing more than a hiccup on a tremendous year (Ed. note: can a year hiccup?). I look at it this way, if Ray Allen plays his absolute worst, the Sonics are still better than the Mavs, as evidenced last night. You'll get no worries from me on this one.

In other news, Sam Smith wonders if Eddy Curry could be heading for Seattle, in exchange for Flip Murray, Collison, and a 1st-round pick. Geez, Sam, why don't we throw in the Space Needle and Q-13's Double Doppler Weather Tracker? ... Elsewhere, Frank Hughes makes a good argument - in fact, the best I've heard - for why the Sonics need to hang onto Ray Allen.