The worst aspect of watching your favorite basketball team pack boxes in front of your eyes?
Easy; not having an interest in the games any more.
Once upon a time, individual games meant a great deal to me. Now? Very little. Of course, a large reason for that is the team's ineptitude, but that's not as large a reason as the Bennett/Stern Show.
A mere eight games remain on the Sonics' schedule. Personally, I believe the team will still call Seattle home for at least two more seasons, but there is a strong possibility that these eight games are the final eight games in Seattle SuperSonics history.
So, yes, I'm feeling a bit nostalgic, but not completely "Let's name the All-Time Favorite Sonic Team" nostalgic. Not yet, anyway.
With that in mind, let's take a look at tonight's classic encounter at the Key between the Sonics and the mighty Clippers.
LOS ANGELES
You know, I happened to watch about half of the recent Mavs-Clippers game in Los Angeles and I will say this: If you had not watched a single NBA game this season and went into the contest with fresh eyes, you would be hard pressed to determine which team was the one contending for the playoffs and which was the one headed for the lottery.
Some would say, "Yes, but Dirk was gone." Okay, so was Elton Brand. In fact, after the first quarter, so was Chris Kaman. Is it because the Mavs are becoming that bad, or is it that the Clippers are better than their record indicates?
Yes, they've dropped eight straight on the road, and, yes, they've lost 19 of 22, but when I watched Los Angeles on Monday I was not watching a team that looked to be nearly as bad as the Sonics. Quinton Ross (a future Spur if there ever was one), Thornton, Maggette ... there are plenty of more than just average players in their lineup.
The injuries have killed LA this year. That said, they are still clearly better than the Sonics.
SEATTLE
Give Kevin Durant and Jeff Green credit - they each struggled at times earlier in the season, but both have shown definite improvement as the year has progressed. The Sonics' record doesn't indicate anything positive, but Durant's stellar March is hopeful as is Green's two 20-point games in the past week or so.
Both Damien Wilkins and Donyell Marshall will be sidelined for tonight's game (thanks to Gary Washburn for the information). That means, of course, that the two rookies will see even more time, and that Mo Sene may crack the 7-minute level in playing time.
Nick Collison went crazy in the last meeting between the two teams, finishing with 18-17 on the night in a 95-88 win over the Clippers in a game where the Sonics held LA to 34.6% from the field.
OUTLOOK
Chris Kaman, Elton Brand and Tim Thomas are all going to be wearing streetclothes tonight, which is a strong positive for the Sonics. Of course, those three all sat out that Mavericks game, and the Clippers didn't seem to miss a beat. Wilkins and Marshall being out shouldn't have a huge impact on the game for the Sonics, although the irony of the Sonics going from having Rashard Lewis, Wally Szczerbiak, Damien Wilkins, and Mickael Gelabale all pass through the Small Forward section of the roster does make one laugh a bit.
The Sonics are laying five points currently, up from three earlier. As a Sonic fan, it pains me to say this, but take the Clippers and the points.
FINAL SCORE
Los Angeles 112 - Seattle 102
Wednesday, April 2
Arena Roundup
Here's how others are seeing the proposal yesterday from Fred Brown and Co.:
-Art Thiel, PI: "Brown in his NBA career spent entirely Downtown, never attempted a longer shot."
-Jim Brunner, Times: "[Port of Seattle] Commission President John Creighton said that while he admires Brown, captain of the 1979 NBA champion Sonics team, as a childhood hero, the Port has no interest in even considering the plan."
-Percy Allen, Times: "Brown said he spoke with NBA commissioner David Stern, who told him 'stop bringing me KeyArena and bring me something else.'"
- Steve Kelley, Times: "If you want NBA basketball in Seattle, their dreams, in many ways, are your dreams. But here's the concern ... The last thing we need is competing groups, fighting for the affections of the City Council, the state Legislature, the NBA and the same potential investors."
- Greg Johns, PI: "Bean and Brown began talking about their idea last summer, but waited to see if other plans gained traction first. They wanted to go public now before the upcoming NBA Board of Governors meeting in mid-April to let the league know there are other viable arena projects in Seattle, even though they admit their own effort isn't aimed at stopping Bennett from relocating his team to Oklahoma."
- Eric Williams, TNT: "More to the point was [Pete] von Reichbauer, who has been working behind the scenes to keep the Sonics in Seattle. "But just as in the advertising world, you have to ask, ‘Where the beef?’ Where is the revenue stream?”
-Art Thiel, PI: "Brown in his NBA career spent entirely Downtown, never attempted a longer shot."
-Jim Brunner, Times: "[Port of Seattle] Commission President John Creighton said that while he admires Brown, captain of the 1979 NBA champion Sonics team, as a childhood hero, the Port has no interest in even considering the plan."
-Percy Allen, Times: "Brown said he spoke with NBA commissioner David Stern, who told him 'stop bringing me KeyArena and bring me something else.'"
- Steve Kelley, Times: "If you want NBA basketball in Seattle, their dreams, in many ways, are your dreams. But here's the concern ... The last thing we need is competing groups, fighting for the affections of the City Council, the state Legislature, the NBA and the same potential investors."
- Greg Johns, PI: "Bean and Brown began talking about their idea last summer, but waited to see if other plans gained traction first. They wanted to go public now before the upcoming NBA Board of Governors meeting in mid-April to let the league know there are other viable arena projects in Seattle, even though they admit their own effort isn't aimed at stopping Bennett from relocating his team to Oklahoma."
- Eric Williams, TNT: "More to the point was [Pete] von Reichbauer, who has been working behind the scenes to keep the Sonics in Seattle. "But just as in the advertising world, you have to ask, ‘Where the beef?’ Where is the revenue stream?”
Tuesday, April 1
$75 Million Reasons
I’m sure the same thought is running through the head of every Sonic fan these days:
The only thing separating us from losing the Sonics forever is $75 million.
Don’t get me wrong, $75 million is a vast sum of money, especially to regular people working 50 or 60 hours a week struggling to make a mortgage payment. $75 million could feed tens of thousands of people in Africa, build homes for hundreds of people in America, or fund the Iraq War for about ten seconds.
But in the NBA, $75 million is chicken feed, bubkus. Heck, David Stern probably spends that much in a month on smugness lessons alone.
Let me illustrate further just how insignificant is $75 million in NBA-land. I’ll give you five words:
Calvin Booth and Jim McIlvaine.
The Sonics spent $67.6 million in salaries on those two bums, and when you figure in inflation, travel costs, health insurance, athletic tape, and the rest, they easily spent $100 million in 2008 dollars on BooMac.
To think that the Sonics would spend the next 40 years in Seattle, if only the city could come up with the amount of money the team spent on two players who contributed absolutely nothing to the team’s fortunes.
Of course, the team could just not spend money foolishly on ridiculous contracts and then plow that savings back into a stadium, but that’s just a silly notion, right?
The only thing separating us from losing the Sonics forever is $75 million.
Don’t get me wrong, $75 million is a vast sum of money, especially to regular people working 50 or 60 hours a week struggling to make a mortgage payment. $75 million could feed tens of thousands of people in Africa, build homes for hundreds of people in America, or fund the Iraq War for about ten seconds.
But in the NBA, $75 million is chicken feed, bubkus. Heck, David Stern probably spends that much in a month on smugness lessons alone.
Let me illustrate further just how insignificant is $75 million in NBA-land. I’ll give you five words:
Calvin Booth and Jim McIlvaine.
The Sonics spent $67.6 million in salaries on those two bums, and when you figure in inflation, travel costs, health insurance, athletic tape, and the rest, they easily spent $100 million in 2008 dollars on BooMac.
To think that the Sonics would spend the next 40 years in Seattle, if only the city could come up with the amount of money the team spent on two players who contributed absolutely nothing to the team’s fortunes.
Of course, the team could just not spend money foolishly on ridiculous contracts and then plow that savings back into a stadium, but that’s just a silly notion, right?
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