Ridnour Relocation

For the entirety of his Seattle Sonic career, Luke Ridnour bore the designation of "bad defense."

Merited or not (and, towards the end, it's safe to say that his poor defensive reputation began to become a bit overdone), ask any Sonic fan which player - Earl Watson or Ridnour - deserved to be the starting point guard, and the answer invariably came back "neither." Instead, we wanted a hybrid of the two: Watson on defense and Frodo on offense.

So, it was with a chuckle that I read this quote from Scott Skiles in the aftermath of Milwaukee's acquisition of Ridnour last week. When asked how the former Sonic will impact the Bucks, Skiles said:

"One way or another, we are going to be a much better defensive team."

Really. I'm not making this up. You can read the whole story here, courtesy Charles Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

It's slightly stunning, to say the least. Acquiring Ridnour for his defense is a bit like buying a Hummer for its gas mileage or marrying Kim Kardashian for her high moral values.

Or, looked at another way, just how bad was Mo Williams on defense that Luke Ridnour is an improvement?

Local Updates

The Howard Schultz lawsuit against PBC has now been set to begin June 15th, 2009, according to the Seattle Times. Given that that date is still 10 months away, there's plenty of time left for all sorts of emails to surface, on both sides of the courtroom.

In other news, the 3 season ticket holders suing the PBC have turned to an innovative solution to the situation - free tickets to see the Oklahoma City Thunderballs. As reported by Greg Johns in the PI today, the three wish to retain their "priority seat" number, and as the expense of traveling to OKC is greater than the value of the tickets, they want free ducats from the PBC.

If his hair were long enough, I'd bet Clay Bennett would want to pull it out after hearing this latest ploy.

Il Uomo di Reign

After weeks of rumors and speculation, Shawn Kemp officially became a professional basketball player - again - on Sunday, signing with Italian team Premiata Montegranaro to a two-year, 1.5 million hamburger contract.

A few quick notes about Premiata Montegranaro:

1. Team photo here (and, guys, that look was old in 1987)
2. In addition to Kemp, the Montegranarians have also signed former Duck Bryce Taylor
3. Kemp will wear number 40
4. The team's first game will be October 5th against Bologna
5. The population of Montegranaro is about 12,000, a number which may increase exponentially with Kemp's arrival, given Italy's views on birth control
6. Montegranaro is about 2 1/2 hours south of Bologna and 3 hours north of Rome

Hey, the Sonics are gone, is it really that bad of an idea to visit Italy and get a chance to see Kemp dunk for one last time?

"Honey, remember how I was always promising you a trip to see Rome and Florence? Well, let's do it!"