Bennett Now Begging For OK Cash

Not satisfied with extorting money out of the pockets of Washingtonians, Clay Bennett has now shifted his attention to the good people of Oklahoma.

According to the AP, at a sports business conference (theme: "Finding Effective Ways to Get Government to Pay") at Oklahoma State University, Bennett stated that it did not make any sense for private individuals to pay for sporting venues, in that they are going to provide "such dramatic public return."

Unless, of course, they are in Seattle, in which case they have no affect on the local economy. This guy, he's killing me.

But if you want a real laugh, check out part of Bennett's rationale for why building these palaces for the wealthy are so economically relevant.

"... you've got players coming that are purchasing homes, buying vehicles ..."

Hey, we all know that NBA players are all about buying big cars and bigger houses, but would anyone with even a remote knowledge of economics agree with His Clayness on this point? Asking for $150 million from the state, then using the homes and cars of 12 individuals as an offset?

Man, when it comes to ridiculous, you can't top these guys.

Wally's Out

According to Gary Washburn at the PI, Szczerbiak will be sitting tonight's game against Cleveland out. His sprained right ankle injury has not healed as expected, so Damien Wilkins and Delonte West will get some extra minutes tonight.

Again, the irony of watching Mickael Gelabale sitting all season because of a minute crunch, seeing him sent to the minors, then within 48 hours seeing his team actually in need of his services is somewhat frustrating. Considering that Wilkins is still recovering from the flu, Gelly could have gotten 10-20 minutes tonight. Instead, he's in the D-League.

Oh, well, at least Delonte will get a chance to prove (again) that he deserves minutes.

Which leads to the question: Assuming LBJ is healthy tonight, who on the Sonic roster do you feel is best-suited to guard him, one on one?

Minimum Wages

From Wages of Wins, here are the total Wins Produced (WP) for the Sonics’ roster thus far this season.

Player, overall NBA rank, WP, WP/48 min.

Kurt Thomas (38), 5.0, .302
Nick Collison (48), 4.4, .201
Chris Wilcox (129), 2.0, .097
Earl Watson (144), 1.5, .066
Wally Szczerbiak (161), 1.1, .055
Delonte West (263), 0.1, .004
Luke Ridnour (325), -0.2, -.019
Johan Petro (355), -0.3, -.036
Robert Swift (383), -0.4, -.250
Damien Wilkins (386), -0.4, -.020
Mickael Gelabale (395), -0.5, -.127
Kevin Durant (424), -1.0, -.037
Jeff Green (442), -2.1, -.100

Out of 446 players, Jeff Green ranked 442nd. Of the bottom five players, three are from Europe (Bargnani, Nachbar, Pavlovic) and two attended prestigious American universities (Green/Georgetown and Jason Collins/Stanford). The moral? Don’t bother saving your pennies for putting your kid into a private university or sending him to Europe!