What if Washington would have had Charles Garcia?

Here are my notes on the Huskies’ thrilling run to the Sweet Sixteen in the 2010 NCAA basketball tournament.

Round one win over Marquette:

The game falls on the last math class of the quarter. I contemplate skipping it, but no. Later I read my friend Dan’s text. It illustrates what happens in the second half when the Dawgs battle back from a deep deficit and senior forward Quincy Pondexter wins the game with a buzzer beater: “Jesus Christ! I am a f@%!ing wreck after that game, but I’ll take it!”

Round two win over New Mexico:

NM coach Steve Alford wears a hideous red blazer. The Dawgs go buck nutty on the Lobos. My friend Cod takes a nap through the drubbing. Later Cod calls Washington “the new Arizona” (the Pac-10’s previous perennial power hooper). “Romar will keep reloading. They will be better next year, they only lose Pondexter.”

2009 flashback, second round loss to Purdue:

I am at my friend Ryan’s Man Retreat. We watch the game, play beer pong and gulp touchdowns. Even though senior forward John Brockman has decent stats, Pondexter is the lone Husky who can create his own shot. My friend Anthony is beside himself because senior guard Justin Dentmon isn’t hoisten’em up - he barely shoots the ball in the last game of his college career. I feel a sense of responsibility. I picked UW to win the tournament in my bracket.

2010 Sweet Sixteen loss to West Virginia:

I don't want to jinx the Dawgs. I do the opposite of last year. My guy Seamus says it’s a good decision. He knows the situation is delicate. I don’t fill out a bracket. I don’t watch the game at a bar or a friend’s house. I hunker down at home with a glass of water.

CBS broadcaster Dick Enberg calls Quincy Pondexter “Quinton Poindexter.” Cod barks, “It’s PONDEXTER! Why does everyone call him POINdexter?” ESPN’s Digger Phelps pronounces Washington, “Worshington.”

Junior Justin Holiday is the lone Husky who can create his own shot, which is ironic because Holiday is a Nate McMillan type doing all the little things, but not the usual scorer.

Days before my friend Jacob forecasts the problem, “I would definitely settle for just a close win. Gonna be a tough game though. Scares me that people compare WV to USC.”

Tall teams are kryptonite for Washington. Forwards Tyrese Breshers and Charles Garcia were recruited to give the Dawgs more length. Breshers played sporadically this season. Garcia was not accepted into the UW. What If the Dawgs had two more big men?

The Garcia question:

Most Seattle basketball fans know the story. Garcia was a junior college recruit for the UW. Husky basketball coach Lorenzo Romar said, ”Garcia worked hard and it was close.” He was not admitted to UW for academic reasons. Romar’s longtime assistant coach Cameron Dollar becomes head coach at Seattle University, brings over the eligible Garcia. “He is NCAA qualified above and beyond,” Dollar says. “He has his AA.” Romar is quoted in a Seattle Weekly cover story . "Chuck Garcia is one of the nicest young men I've ever met. He's getting national acclaim and getting Seattle U's program national acclaim. As devastated as I was not to get him, I couldn't be happier for him. And I'll leave it at that." The last line from Romar seems odd. “I’ll leave it at that,” implies that there is more to the story, in my opinion.

I found this comment after a story about how Isaiah Thomas and Pondexter agree Garcia is missed.

I'll again throw out what a coach from out of state told me. The coaching staff decided Garcia did not fit their plans, i.e. a finesse perimeter player that is not a banger. Also, every university has an admissions committee that reviews each application. It is not unusual for a person that has marginally met general entrance guidelines to get denied admission. This is what happened to Garcia. It is unusual for this to happen to a highly recruited athlete, which ties in to the theory that the coaches did not fight very hard to get him in.

- Harborhawk, Gig Harbor, WA

A guy I met at a Superbowl party said something similar, “Romar did not want Garcia because he was too thuggish.” I doubt Romar referred to Garcia as a thug, but maybe a hoodlum. The guy said he got his information from a friend of Dollar’s. It’s hard to know what he meant by “thuggish.” He couldn’t have been referring to Garcia’s style of play: A face-the-basket, ball handling big man. So he must’ve meant Garcia looked too streets for UW with his ink sleeves and full chest piece.

Some say Garcia is not a Kenyon Martin type banger so he is not what the Dawgs need. A banger plays physical basketball, like a goon fights in hockey. They protect the star player and set the tone on the court or ice. In basketball sometimes people refer to that style of play as thug ball, but the true meaning of thug has been muddled, for instance, it has become a derogatory code word in some circles. Thug no longer just refers to the English word for violent criminal.

Others say Garcia was a better fit at Seattle U because at UW he wouldn’t have had as many scoring opportunities sharing the ball with IT and QPon. I think his length would have helped Washington no matter what, especially with West Virginia, but we will never know what might have happened.

Who was the one or two persons or how many ever, who denied him entry at the dub. And especially if he had met all the academic requirements? Soooo, why? I really would like to see a full report discovered on this one. What; did he go sleeveless into administrations? Show off his tattoo's? We need some answers here, even though it’s too late. Is there a grunt reporter out there who has the guts to find out? Or does tenure figure in and bar the truth?

-Paperbackwriter, Olympia, WA.

Blackouts in the parking lot, black spots on the field: Football’s symbiotic relationship between fans and players

Took the picture in the north lot.  The guy was looking for the set of Leatherheads.

Paradox: A person, situation, or action exhibiting inexplicable or contradictory aspects.

Football is a paradox.  The game bonds fans and players, but also damages them.  The fans bond by watching the violence.  The players bond by surviving the violence.  Before the game, fans fire up the Margaritaville blender and players dress themselves in metal and plastic.  Fans think they can handle the binge drinking, but many cannot.  Players think they can handle the hits, but many cannot. 

The fan is lucky if he passes out before kickoff.  Otherwise, he could find himself wasted and disoriented.

Chugging vodka with an orange juice chaser was my friend Travis’ pre-game ritual.  Once after a long night, he started early the next morning to get ready for an afternoon kickoff.  At Husky Stadium, he passed out in his seat, got up and swan dived down the stairs.  Later, the story goes, he drunkenly wandered along a highway shoulder until the state patrol picked him up.  He ended up with a gash on his face. 

The player is lucky if he rides the bench after kickoff.   Otherwise, he could find himself dazed and confused. 

This is my friend Chad's description of a stinger, “One whole side of my body went numb and they [the University of Idaho coaching staff] took me out of the game for a thirty second breather.”  A stinger is an injury to the nerves that travel from the neck and down the arm.  It happens when the head and neck are forcibly moved or hit to one side - it’s pedestrian to football. 

The up side:

In 2009, my friend Cod hugged his dad for the first time in years when Jake Locker drove the Dawgs down field to beat USC.  Locker’s actions were equivalent to the Pope giving communion.  Cod and I started calling Locker, The Pope, in 2007, after he ran over Syracuse.  Like the Pope, Locker became a symbol.  Even after UW went winless in 2008, it wasn’t his fault.  Seattle’s football czar, Hugh Millen, was critical of his alma mater, but never of Locker.  He admitted (I am paraphrasing), people in chat rooms think I would walk through hell with gasoline shorts on before I would criticize Jake Locker.  When Locker said he was staying for his senior year, Cod texted me, “The Pope is coming back.” 

The down side:

Football culture teaches players to disregard serious symptoms like vision problems, headaches and vomiting.  Malcolm Gladwell compares football to dog fighting.  His argument is convincing.  Players put on pads and dogs don’t cower, even amidst their demise.  After a concussion, a player was game sick, zooking for days, but still suited up.  He saw three opposing players when there was really one, and hit the one in the middle.  The data, Gladwell referenced, alleged that many smaller smacks to the skull caused more damage than the less frequent more violent spine snappers.  A higher percentage of brain injuries were linked to linemen, who get thunder punched almost every play. 

Here are my notes from the Apple Cup: 

In the north lot, Husky fans gather around a pig, roasting in a rusty cage.  Coug fans in cammo hunting jackets watch flat-screen TV’s mounted to a Jamboree.  There is man with a purple Mohawk shot gunning a beer.  “Jake Locker for Heisman” is written on some guy’s back.  Pickup truck beds overflow with cans of Natural Ice.  It’s like Slumdog Millionaire – not enough plastic bathrooms.  People piss everywhere, even the girls.  Old men fight, one with a scraped face sits on the curb and talks to cops.  Three kids’ wheelbarrow a keg past stadium workers and drink a couple red cups in the foyer before they’re thrown out.  No alcohol is served in Husky stadium.  What happens in the parking lot stays in the parking lot. 

The next day the tailgater has a head like a hole.  He recalls swigging off a fifth of Crown and spitting out long chunks of pig fat, but the rest is a blur.  The parking lot has become as sacred as the playing field.  Many fans come for tailgating – and if they make it to game time – it’s a bonus.

Even the Harry Potter of college football, Tim Tebow, was devalued after being knocked out cold for an entire TV timeout.  The only debate was when he could play again, not if he should play again.  Tebow had trouble reading weeks after the concussion.  Sight problems, sensitivity to light, seeing black and white spots, are a few more symptoms that plague the player.  In this game there is a desperate symbiotic relationship between fans and players.  The fan roots for his team to destroy the other.  Glory is all he wants to see.  For the player, the game is fleeting.  Players have a savage window.  The fan knows that.  He knows deep down what the players’ risk. 

The fan needs to peer over the edge in the parking lot.  The player does so on the field.    

Art Thiel and Brokeback

Took this pic in Madison Valley.  It's the 12th Man House.

Pick of the day:  Art Thiel's column in the seattlepi likened the Seahawks new head coach and GM's relationship to Brokeback Mountain.      

Any comparison between the Mike Holmgren-Tim Ruskell relationship and the new regime now running the Seahawks was obliterated when John Schneider on Wednesday described the first hour of his first meeting with Pete Carroll.

"I was sweating like crazy," he said. "I was all jacked up. We started talking and I thought we were going to come across the table at each other a little bit there a couple of times. It was exciting.

"Pete and I, I felt like we could have stayed all night. I didn't want to finish. I thought we could have kept going."

The bromance seemed to stop a little south of Brokeback Mountain, but the principals left little doubt about the professional connection between the two. As opposed to the connection between Holmgren and Ruskell, who missed like the airline pilots who whiffed on Minneapolis.

I was surprised the P-I ran it. That observation was pointless and juvenile. The whole article was a waste of a post. It may have been lazy editing by Mr. Thiel, but whatever the reason - it goes against the way he portrays himself (as Seattle's thoughtful sports guy).

Here is the full story on Pete Carroll and John Schneider.

What you're worth

Took this @ the Gas Works Park benches (facing the water).

Not bad for a cell phone pic

Location: the billboard on the UW side of University Bridge.
Camera: my old Verizon Chocolate.

Blur

My math teacher was taking a nap in his car in Death Valley. A loudspeaker overhead said, "WAVE YOUR ARMS IF YOU'RE ALIVE!" A helicopter was checking up on him. My math teacher said that sort of thing happens all the time in DV. He also said that Death Valley was named after The Greatful Dead. The Dead are from Palo Alto - home of The Farm at Stanford. The Farm is where the Cardinal football team play their home games. The week UW went down to get stomped at the Farm, Dave Wyman said they were going to run into a, "Wine and cheese buzz-saw."

Michael Brotherton took this picture of me in Ryan O'Rourke's kitchen in Ballard. I love the band Blur. Check out The Parklife.

99.9 FM

Today's date is 09/09/09. I worked at 99.9 KISW for the first half of my 20's. A guy named Foley made this "George Bush Loves Reed" sign the morning I found out I was about to get canned. I like that he did it on official KISW stationary.

Shoulda voted for him

I found this on MLK and Union.

Twenty thousand Texans' fans can't be wrong

Football season is here again. I have been thinking about the Houston Texans since last year when I saw the red shirts in the stands. The image has haunted for some time. Five minutes ago, I finally found evidence, on Ebay, for what I saw. Ebay won't let me paste the image into this post.

It was almost impossible to find anything on the "paint the town red" t-shirts by Halliburton. I noticed them, while watching Monday Night Football, the shirts were given to thousands of Texans fans, for the franchises battle red promotion, before the game in Houston on December 1st, 2008. The Texans were all red like devils. The crowd in red, a camera panned by a guy in a red shirt with white letters that said, “paint the town red” with “Halliburton” under it. Halliburton is the biggest contractor in Iraq. They really “painted the town red”--with blood. Its possible the irony was lost on thousands who wore them, maybe to who conceived them. But more likely, it was drummed up with precision by a marketing staff snickering all the way to the blood bank.

I wish I had a freeze frame picture of a fan in a shirt, because l wanted to reaffirm what I had seen. I found these comments on the message board of Uniwatch, a sports uniform blog. #148 Chance wrote,

The problem with the red Texans uniforms - aside from the fact that they look like ketchup bottles - is that the whole thing is a corporate sponsorship boondoggle (and the corporation in question also happens to be a war profiteer):

#187 Justin H wrote,

Just thought I would share that the 'paint the town red shirts' the Texans fans were wearing have 'Halliburton' in HUGE letters on the bottom of the shirt. That's not logo creep, that is logo curb-stomp.

Obviously those two saw the problem with the shirts. But not this guy, a blogger at the game:

The "battle red" uniforms looked really nice, and were complimented well with "paint the town red" t-shirts given to the crowd (courtesy of Halliburton) so that we could "red out" the stadium and intimidate the road team. Judging from how poorly Jacksonville played, I don't think we needed it but at least I got a souvenir.

The irony was lost on that guy, who was at the game, rocking the shirt. The point is that those three guys in the comments section of an obscure sports uniform blog was confirmation that I was not hallucinating and actually saw the amazingly ignorant and mean spirited shirts.

I thought that a newspaper, webzine, or sports blog would have popped up with an article about the red shirts. It seemed like a no-brainer, but I have yet to find any traditional reporting on this story. The message board on a niche blog was basically the only way I could prove what I had seen and have some kind of human connection or confirmation that, yes those shirts were fucked up and I was not the only one to notice how insensitive and stupid it was to make them. And who knows what it means that so many Texans fans wore them.

Things that get lost between the lines of news reporting sometimes are picked up by blogs, which is good because without that, important cultural landmarks would be passed by as if they had not happened. But the real point is the organic nature of message boards. I find myself paying closer attention to the comments section than the article it self.

What the future of free will be

I just read Malcolm Gladwell’s review of Free by Chris Anderson, “Priced to sell: Is free the future?” for The New Yorker. Gladwell is best known for his books, The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers. He is a staff writer for The New Yorker. In the 80’s he was a reporter for the Washington Post, his website Gladwell.com says he “covered business and science.” According to Wikipedia his articles, “often deal with the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences.” Anderson is editor-in-chief of Wired. He has two books about the future of free online content, The Long Tail and Free. His Wikipedia page ironically notes that he “generated controversy for plagiarizing content from the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, among other sources, in Free.”

I have not read Free, but the premise is digital content will continue to be free. Recently Steve Ballmer said something similar. Gladwell starts his critique with an example of the state of old content providers. In this case, the negotiations between the Dallas Morning News and Amazon to license the newspaper’s content to Kindle, Amazon’s electronic reader. Amazon wanted seventy percent of the subscription revenue and the right to republish the newspaper’s content on any other portable reader. Old content creators are barely hanging on, going online only, or just simply going away. Newspapers are dying. Anyone invested in holding onto hardcopy newspapers, are trying to figure out a way to save the institutions.

Recently Rupert Murdoch said every Newscorp website will start charging within the year. Gladwell uses Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal as an example. He writes, “a million WSJ subscribers are quite happy to pay for the privilege of reading online.” Gladwell goes on to argue that free network television is struggling while a pay for content cable television is doing well. Gladwell does not like Anderson’s argument. Probably because it hits close to home for a famous writer like himself. Gladwell does not like that Anderson overlooks the cost of “plants and powerlines.” Of course Gladwell is right about that. The delivery system for our electronic world is the expensive component. But I think neither Gladwell, nor Anderson, nor Ballmer know what the future of free will be.

Tech Dirt writer, Mike Masnick, on the Gladwell/Anderson controversy.

The answer to Gladwell’s question is simply one of economic efficiency. You can pay people to write -- just as Encyclopedia Britannica does. Or you can get other people to write for non-monetary rewards -- as Wikipedia does. The latter is a lot more efficient a solution, and the difference in productivity and output is quite evident.” Masnick goes on, “. . . competition happens, and when it does, price gets driven to marginal cost. You might not like it. You might wish it didn’t happen, but arguing against the fact thats how markets work is like arguing that the sun won’t rise tomorrow.

Gladwell ends with a great insight.

The only iron law here is the one too obvious to write a book about, which is that the digital age has so transformed the ways in which things are made and sold there are no iron laws.

I think the latest example of that, is Rupert Murdoch’s forecast of charging for online content across the board. Murdoch would not be the first. There are a few examples. Harper’s is not free, you must have a subscription to the hardcopy magazine to gain a username and password to their web presence, same for Cook’s magazine and Consumer Reports.

So, what is the argument between Gladwell and Anderson? Co-founder of Type Pad and Moveable Type blogging tools, Anil Dash, hits on what this is really about.

I am sure that both of these authors’ books absolutely do lean more towards anecdotal evidence than statistical proof. And honestly, it’s okay that these books don’t necessarily follow the tenets of hard science. In many cases, they’re arguing that a cultural trend is becoming true, or is about to become true, and the reality is that asserting these trends actually helps them come true. In short, these are books designed to create culture, presented in the the guise of reporting on culture.

I think Dash is right.

We should keep in mind that the best of this new world order is that many people are contributing to the dialogue of ideas because they have a passion for it and are not driven by financial gain. Which is probably one of the reasons for the quality of so much free content to be quite high. It is going against the culture to start worrying about not only compensation for your content or copyright infringement at this point. Most blogs go to great lengths to give credit. Not only by naming the source, but also by posting a link to the original document that was quoted. That is about as transparent at it gets.

One thing I am certain about, is that I disagree with trying to predict where all this will go.

Single payer straw man

Thursday June 25th my friend Robby Stern invited me to sign and deliver two letters to the Federal Building in Seattle. There were twelve of us who signed, urging Senator Maria Cantwell to declare her support for a public health care option. Robby was polite and forceful. He urged the Cantwell staff to come out with a clear statement of support. Recently, Robby said Cantwell is on board. The other letter thanked Senator Patty Murray for her support. There is some speculation for what health care reform might look like. A “strong public health insurance option” seems to be the consensus wording.

Robby chairs a large health care reform group called the Healthy Washington Coalition. In a planning meeting for the May 30th “Health Care For All” march, an older Latino man stood up and asked Robby, "What should I tell folks that ask about documented or undocumented status?" Robby said, "The theme is health care for all." President Obama said something similar after his health care speech on Wednesday July 22nd. Chuck Todd of NBC asked Obama how many people would be covered. Obama said he wants to cover as many people as possible, but clarified it would not be single payer.

Even though Obama's old doctor supports a Medicare type program, single payer has become the Ralph Nader of health care reform. Single payer supporters, much like fans of Nader, have good reason to be mad. In my opinion single payer makes sense and so does Nader. But for whatever reason they are both on the outside looking in. Advocates are pissed that it (single payer) is not an option. Opponents are scared that health care reform secretly means single payer.

On Salon.com bbjohn 83 commented on a David Sirota article about why single payer is not in the debate.

Everybody so far is commenting that it is not possible to pass single payer legislation. Of course it won't be possible if it is completely out of the debate and receives zero media coverage. The point isn't what is likely or "possible", the point is that the Democrats seem to be scared of even letting single payer be mentioned at all. What are they scared of? Maybe if single payer was mentioned in an all-inclusive debate, then some of its features may be adopted into the final product, which emerges from congress. It would only do good.

As Senator Murray spoke at the May 30th march, a portion of the crowd pumped their fists and chanted, “single payer, single payer.” The next day, the single payer straw man was wheeled out in the comments section of Seattlepi.com. It represented a microcosm of the erroneous public perception about health care reform. One side feared the rally was for socializing health care and implementing a single payer system. The other side was mad that the P-I didn’t mention single payer as a viable part of the health care debate.

Senator Nancy Pelosi said single payer is, “off the table.” But a strong public option could be closer to single payer than I first thought. In my opinion Obama knows single payer is kryptonite terminology. The vetted words and talking points consistently exclude single payer, and thus Obama may have a chance to push for more coverage. I hope he is going for something similar to a single payer system, but with a more palatable classification.

In front of the Federal Building on Tuesday July 28th Robby led a good-sized crowd of us in singing happy birthday to Medicare, which turned forty-four, three days later on Friday July 31st. Ironically one argument eroding public support is health care reform’s false threat to Medicare (public health care insurance for Americans over sixty-five). Medicare is popular for good reason – it covers a lot of people. So, this is the catch, people are saying, “don’t touch my Medicare,” and simultaneously fearing more coverage. People love a good public health care option. We should expand it.

Robby has a running debate going with his barber. They have different political views. But as Robby says, "my barber understands about this." On this issue they agree and their differences melt away. Robby brought in two posters for the May 30th “Health Care For All” march -- one in Spanish, one in English and his barber was happy to display them both on the shop mirror. Robby closed the planning meeting (mentioned earlier) with this, "75 years ago first legislation for universal health care was introduced by President Roosevelt, but there was too much on his plate. History could be made this year." This reform would be a first step toward a more humane approach to medical care.

I hope we don't stumble.

First picture is from the May 30 March, "Health Care For All."
Second picture is Robby Stern in front of the Federal Building.

The boy is a fish

In the 1960’s how many women were on acid while pregnant? Who knows and who cares. I know of at least one story where a woman was on acid when she went into labor. Her friends, also tripping on acid, helped her give birth. The embilical cord was tied off with dental floss. The acid baby was a boy. His two year old brother came out and declared the boy was a fish at birth. The kid turned out “OK.” He grew up to become a College Republican and get his MBA at Stanford.

Two winter's ago I painted a house in Ballard and this guy who helped me, told that story. He was one of the dude's that helped the mother giver birth. I was laughing because of the way he told it. I guess he moonlights as a midwife on acid. That would be a great band name: Midwives on Acid. The midwife on acid told me it looked like I shit paint after I accidentally sat in some.

The picture is of the old abandoned Tubs bath house in the U. District.

Who I voted for

Just put my ballot in the mailbox. Voted for Mike McGinn for mayor. Hopefully he will make it through the primary. I like his stickers. He is against the waterfront tunnel. The Stranger said he was silk screening shirts featuring a hybrid Guinness McGinn for Mayor logo. One more black pint for the road. Wait. Make it two more black pints for the road. Another blank ballot was in my mailbox today. Maybe I should send it in and vote for him twice.

The "Mike Bikes" sticker is on the back of a no parking sign in old Ballard.

Just another Wednesday night at the Comet

Seattle, Capitol Hill, 1981: Ed is a regular at the Comet. It's Wednesday night. He plays the jukebox, drinks beer and talks to whoever sits next to him. A couple of film buffs, a white guy and a petite Asian girl, sit next to Ed. The film buffs are going back and forth about the movie they just saw at the Egyptian. Two girls and a guy walk in.  They are wasted.  The guy can barely stand.  One of the girls bops around and the other puts quarters in the jukebox. “Start Me Up” from the Stones comes on. The girl that bops around, jumps up on a table and starts dancing.  She rip's her shirt off and the bar is alive.  Regulars hoot and holler. The girl that bops around, whips out two matches and places the cardboard tips in her mouth. She nibbles on the tips, num, num, num. They are soggy. They are similar to the consistency of wheat paste. She sticks them on her pencil eraser nipples and lights them on fire.  The petite Asian girl looks at Ed and says, just another Wednesday night at the Comet. 

I worked with Ed at a glass artist's studio. He told me that story one day while we grouted hundreds of glass mosaic pods and listened to 91.3 KBCS. He said it was just another night at the Comet.

I took the picture of the Comet, not too long ago from my car window, as I drove by during the Seattle heat wave of 2009. The RZA concert poster caught my eye.

Crawford and Calabro

4:07 pm I-90 Westbound - I am waiting for Jamaal Crawford to come on the Kevin Calabro Show. I can’t hear the open they play for him because I am in a tunnel. It is a snippet of some kind of game broadcast. I am out of the tunnel. Calabro thanks the New York Knicks, so it must have been from a game when Crawford was in NYC. It was the game Crawford scored 52 points. Jim Moore is in studio too. Moore asks Crawford, what was it like to score 52 points in one game? Crawford says, it was the best game I ever played. I scored 42 straight points.

4:13 pm Rainier Avenue – I can tell they are having a great time. Crawford says to Calabro, you are the best in the business. Calabro says, thanks. You always come up and say hi when I am doing a game you’re in, but Stuckey doesn’t come up to me and say hi. Crawford says, Stuckey isn’t really a Seattle guy. He’s from Kent. Calabro says, yeah Kent is more of an outlying suburb. They talk about Seattle ball players. Moore says to Crawford, I remember picking you up at Rainier Beach and driving over to the P-I Sports Star of the Year dinner. I can’t remember what year that was, but it was between you and Doug Wrenn. Crawford says, yep.

4:17 pm East Madison Street – I am thinking about who played ball with Crawford back in the day. No one mentions where Doug Wrenn is now. Not that they should. Crawford played with my good friend Jacob in middle school and they played with Ronald Preston. Wrenn was like Preston’s sidekick. Yesterday Jacob and I talked about what happened to Preston.

Yesterday – We sat on Jacob’s parent’s front porch. I say, what happened to Ronald? He died 6 years ago, Jacob says. There used to be a sign that was a memorial for Preston that hung at the corner of Union and Martin Luther King. Something happened to Preston between middle school and high school. Something happened to Wrenn between college and prison. What I am trying to say is that Preston was the best at his craft when he was at Meany Middle School, but somehow Crawford became the ten-year NBA veteran.

In 2005 I walked around NYC for a few days. As I walked, I saw these Crawford life-size posters plastered all over.

KryptoNate and Gary Washburn on a plane

Today Gary Washburn posted a story @ seattlepi.com about Nate Robinson. The game certainly seems to be going international. The best players from Europe come here, but now the best players from the U.S. are starting to jump across the pond too. Apparently KryptoNate is thinking seriously about going to Greece.

Is Washburn working for the P-I again? Did he ever leave? Did he get paid for the story? Is the P-I paying their reader bloggers? Their reader bloggers are being featured a lot lately. It seems like they are often placed front and center much like a regular columnist.

Note: Gary Washburn is @ The Boston Globe now. Last June, I sat near him on a Southwestern flight from Seattle to Oakland. Before we took off, he was talking really in-depthly on his cell phone to someone about Michael Jackson. When I got off the plane, Don Wakamatsu was buying a ticket in front of me at he BART station across from the big grey concrete block where the Raiders and Athletics play.

One year later

NBA Draft 2009

I am painting the back deck of a good friend's house at the moment. Coincidentally this friend grew up with Jamaal Crawford. And Crawford may have even lived at this house for a time in his grade school days. Jamal Crawford texted his high school coach: Coach we are in Atlanta now. I think he will be perfect in ATL with Joe Johnson. Crawford was on KJR with Gas for the Andrew Moritz benefit, which was an amazing hour of radio with all the Seattle basketball royalty and overall community support. My girlfriend's best friend does the site for her brother Andrew. It is: year of the comeback dot blogspot dot com. Moritz won a state championship with Jason The Jet Terry and then came back and won another one without Terry. And actually I am painting another good friends' house who coached Moritz when he was playing Green Lake hoops. The circle continues.

Anyhow, back to Crawford. He mentioned on the radio how excited he was to go to Atlanta. He hasn't felt this good about a team since he got to the lig. Jamal is well spoken, I don't have a clue why he got on Nelly's (Don Nelson) bad side. Nelly is a weird dude. He has been doing that run up the score type of offense for 800 years and it has never born fruit. Some call him an offensive genius. I don't know about that. If it ain't working. Try something else. But you know he may just be a bit wacked like George Karl. Karl decided he didn't like Kendel Gil back in the day. Karl has a history of playing mind games with players for no reason. That is what he did to Gil. Gary and Kendel with Nate was a great group of guards. That was a Supe's team to root for. Ricky Pierce, Eddie Johnson, Derrick McKey, a young Shawn Kemp and don't forget Dana Barros and Benoit Benjamin.

Back to Crawford. He mentioned that he grew up playing with Doug Wrenn and Grant Leep before this became the breeding ground/hotbed of NBA talent. I played against/with Wrenn in my middle school days. He was a nice guy and a hell of a player. My friend Chad was real good friends with Wrenn and they had a killer AAU team. Wrenn was just in some kind of altercation -- a road rage thing in Bellingham where he supposedly flashed a gun at a car. I don't know the details, but it made me a little sad. Wrenn was one of the great talents from the Central District here in Seattle and he played with an even better talent back in the day. A player by the name of Ronald and I remember Doug was kinda like Ronald's sidekick. Its weird Ronald was way better than Doug back in the day, but got into trouble and didn't even play much High School ball. And then the same sorta thing happened with Doug. You would probably bet on Wrenn going to the lig over Brandon Roy back in the day, but Roy is the one that made it to the lig and then some.

The seventh pick. Stephen Curry will be perfect for Oakland/Sanfran.

The third pick. I am pissed that Harden went to the Thunder because he was my favorite player in the draft, but went to my arch nemesis. Now I am worried that things will start to really come together for this young team. Kevin Durant is about to be in the Kobe/Lebron conversation, Westbrook is half Chris Paul half Drunken Master (John Krolik coined that) and then Kyle Weaver is from Washington State and that sucks. So what I am trying to say is that they could be a nice little high flying team next year. James Harden is the guy I have been asking people about leading up to the draft. Some people seem to be uneasy about him, but can never articulate why. They say there is just something about him that won't fit into the NBA game. I completely disagree. He gamed the Huskies twice this year. He is the type of guy who can take over a game. He is tough and long. Not soft and short. Which is I think important to be a guard in the lig. Elise Woodward said he tried, but never really took over any games against the Huskies. Francis Williams said he may actually be way better in the lig because he will be supported by 3 or 4 peers instead being the only guy with maybe help from 1 and a half dudes. I seem to remember the second game toward the end of the season before the PAC 10 tourney where Harden balled the Dawgs -- playing a sort of one on one a la LeBron/Nail Offense from the last two games against the Magic this year's Eastern Conference Finals. The Cavs called it the Nail: LeBron at the top of the key and everyone else spread around the perimeter. Shaq went to Cleveland today. Like a modern day Magic and Kareem or Stockton and Malone. I wonder if LeBron will wear Stockton shorts.

The fifth and the sixth. Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn should be a dynamic duo in the Twin Cities.

I see everything through Sonics colored glasses. Obviously I am going to hate that my favorite player besides John Brockman (Harden) went to the team that used to be my team.

Best SuperSonics of all time

Pearl Jam made a crowd wait as they watched the end of a Sonics game in the 1996 Finals backstage before a show. And as I look back at the Sonics I think about the history of and people around the Sonics. Once I sat next to Eddie Vedder at a Howard Zinn talk, Zinn said he is not one of those historians that gets lost in the library. He meant that history is not all academic and statistics and that is what this piece is about: a people's history of the Sonics embeded in a top ten list. The first year they were gone, the 08'-09' season, I named my fantasy team Sonicsless in Seattle. Obviously what's done is done, but for die hard Sonics fans, we are grappling with being out of the mix. If you are like me and grew up dribbling a basketball everywhere you went -- well I am talking to you. Even if you are not a Sonics fan, you hate to see the tradition cut off. We support classic uniforms and logo preservation. We are sucker's for nostalgia and fans of tradition. We got the love. The love is shooting hoops until the sun goes down. The love is playing after dark by the light of a street lamp. The love is for the game. That is how a franchise can become something more than corporate. More than a product. More than pro. Here are some quick graphs about the team I remember as if they are still here. This is not a list of Sonics in an academic or statistical sense, just my memories and a few I ripped off from other crazed Sonics fanatics. Here are my top ten Sonics.

SHAWN KEMP
Last winter, I was at The Duchess (a Seattle institution) with a couple friends, I looked up from my beer and there he was -- "The Reign Man." It was a quiet night, he was with a few friends. He looked good, like he could still get up and throw it down. As I sat there, a voice flashed through my head. Nobody can do the voodoo like you do. It was former voice of the Sonics, Kevin Calabro's, trademark description of Kemp acrobatics. Kemp was the most powerful game-time dunker I have ever seen. The fact that he couldn't replicate his greatness in the dunk competition added to his legend. He had to be in the he heat of battle to communicate with the basketball Gods. The last time I saw Kemp in a Sonics uni, I was at a Beastie Boys concert in 2004 at Key Arena. Mike D, MCA and Ad-rock wore green and gold Adidas track suits. A gigantic flat screen repeated Kemp dunks in slow motion. Shawn was known for playing pick up ball at the Belltown and Greenlake outdoor court's. Last summer, Kemp talked about the Sonics move on KJR-AM and said, "back in the day no one expected a new arena if they were losing."

GARY PAYTON
In 1999, Charles Barkley called him, "the best player on the planet." In 1996, Payton and the Sonics lost the Finals to Jordan and the Bulls. The Supe's never had a chance due to the goofy new logo and awful brick colored uniforms they wore. Ten years later, in 2006, "The Glove" got his ring -- with the Heat. Although, geographically Miami is about as far from Seattle as one can get within the mainland borders of the country, a picture of Gary Payton hugging the trophy was above the fold in Seattle's oldest newspaper. The biggest GP fan I know, Pistol Peach Cobbler, framed the front page of the Seattle Post - Intelligencer the morning after. Even though, Gary didn't win a championship with us, he will always be a Sonic. At last year's Save Our Sonics rally in front of the Federal Court House, Payton said he would retire his number in Seattle -- no matter what.

DETLEF SCHREMPF
I grew up with a kid whose family rented a mother in law apartment to Schrempf when he was at the University of Washington. He led the Husky team that won a co - Pac-10 title in 1985. "Det" played at the Montlake community center courts. Once in 7th grade, after school I walked out with a basketball ready to play on my home court to find a bunch of my class mates crowding around Detlef. He was there to do an Adidas commercial. I remember how impressively maintained his mullet was. It was shorter than most mullets. It was sort of an elegant mullet. I never really paid attention to him when he was an Indiana Pacer, but once he came to the Sonics, it was obvious how valuable he was. Many times he carried the bulk of the load on an off night for Kemp or Payton. He was consistent. It was painful to cut Nate McMillan officially off this list, so I must give him a piece of Det's real estate. I am sure Det won't mind. McMillan never scored a lot and didn't play a ton of minutes. But Magic Johnson said Nate McMillan was the toughest one-on-one defender he ever faced. Nate was Mr. Sonic and in a weird way -- still is. I don't know how that is possible since he coaches the Portland Trailblazers, but that is the feeling. The Sonics started to disintegrate when "Mac-10" left.

XAVIER MCDANIEL
My friend Cod grew up going to the Pro Club on the Eastside. He saw "X-Man" there a few times. Once someone threw X a can of soda and when he caught it -- the can looked the size of a golf ball. It's ironic, I had the brew she had the chronic. The Lakers beat the Supersonics. -- lyrics from Ice Cube's song "Good Day." The Lakers beat the Sonics a lot in the 80's. But we had good teams too, just not as good. My dad and I went to game three of the Western Conference Finals in 1987 (May 23: Sat, Lakers 122 @ Seattle 121). We had good seats that night, a few rows back at half court. I clearly saw McDaniel shoot and make a three in the last moments of the game, but the refs did not count it -- it was ruled after the buzzer. Instead of losing by one, we would have won by two. My dad and I walked out of the Coliseum and talked about the last shot, we were certain X-Man got it off in time. Even though we lost, there was a confident certainty we settled into -- that X had prevailed no matter what the official outcome was. I had a six foot X-Man poster in my bedroom when I was a kid.

TOM CHAMBERS
He won the All - Star game MVP in 1987, was in the dunk competition that year, and a dunk comp. judge this year. Chambers always looked like he had two black eyes. Maybe he was a vampire. All those late nights, big black circles around his eyes. I don't know, he coulda just always had a bit of a broken nose. Banging around catching elbows from Mark Eaton and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Chambers was a great scorer with no defense. A big part of me wanted to give this part of the list to Dale Ellis, but Ellis wasn't here long enough to be considered a classic Sonic. Ellis scored a ton from behind the the arc. We called him "D3." He averaged 27.5 points a game in the 88'-89' season. Ellis got a DUI getting off the 520 Lake Washington Blvd. exit and I guess due to that -- ended up leaving the team on bad terms.

FRED BROWN
Growing up, I heard many stories about "Downtown" Freddie Brown and how many deep bombs he made. Nobody knows the number he drained. He played without the benefit of the three-point line. He led The League in three-point shooting percentage in the 79'-80' season -- the first season the line was adopted. Brown retired in 1984, so he only had a few years at the end of his career to be counted in the books. Of course guys didn't loft them up at the same rate as today. Brown was on the forefront to save the Sonics. His group was trying to build an arena in Renton. Renton is a little south of Seattle and the community would have supported the team there. That is my belief. The geography between Tacoma and Seattle is where the bulk of NBA talent has come from in the area. Doug Christie, Jamal Crawford and Nate Robinson all went to Rainier Beach High School which is at the southern tip of Seattle. Jason Terry went to Franklin, Brandon Roy is a Garfield High guy and those are central to south end schools. It is important to know where the community support lies. Our best talent grew up watching the Sonics -- no doubt.

GUS WILLIAMS & DENNIS JOHNSON
A poster of Gus Williams and DJ still hangs in a friend's basement 30 years after the championship they quarterbacked. Supersonicsoul.com said that most late-seventies Sonics games came down to, seven seconds left, Gus Williams with the ball -- he would sink the winning shot in traffic or at the free-throw line. Willams' nickname was "The Wizard" and Johnson's was "DJ." DJ was the Finals MVP in 79'. My knowledge wanes with the players from the championship team. I was born in 1980, so I can't rely on my own memories for this stuff, so I consulted with some tribal elders for further info. DJ was only here a few years and became a prima donna after the 79' season. When DJ hit a game winning shot, one local newspaper writer said, "Its too bad and A-Hole had to take it." I know in later years DJ was a beloved Celtic and Larry Bird said, "he was the best he ever played with." DJ was from the same place as N.W.A., Compton, CA.

JACK SIKMA
Sikma was the guy with a tight white guy jerry curl. He had great numbers and a turn around fadeaway soft touch in the paint jumper a la Patrick Ewing (who later became a Sonic, which is kinda weird to think about -- he was a shell of his former self). On a side note I wanted to name myself Patrick after Patrick Ewing, but my dad said that would be too many ck's and years later I was grateful for his advice because I don't think Paddy Wacker would have worked out too well. Sikma was that second tier center that is so crucial for a team like the 79' Supe's that had the great guard play of Downtown, DJ and The Wizard. I think of Sikma as a Zyrdrunas Ilgauskus type for Cleveland -- and he is quite valuable to the Cavs. I think Lebron would confirm that if asked.

SPENCER HAYWOOD
In 1971, Haywood v. N.B.A. broke down the barrier that said, you have to have four years of college to join The League. Early entry is not even given a second thought these days. When Kevin Garnett won the MVP in 2004 he said, "I would like to thank Spencer Haywood." In an interview with The Starting Five blog, Haywood said he almost fell out of his chair when KG gave him props. If you google Haywood, most articles are about his problems and persecution. He is one of those guys that became more known for controversy surrounding him off the court that what he did on it. What he did on it was nothing short of remarkable. He probably had the best statistical individual season in the history of the SuperSonics. Haywood averaged 29 points and 13 rebounds a game in the 72' - 73' season.

LENNY WILKINS
He has been here for the highest high's and the lowest low's. From championship to jumping ship, it has been a long strange trip for Wilkins. He was a player, then a player-coach and then went on to coach the team that won Seattle's only professional championship. It must have been weird when he became Vice President of the franchise under new owner Clayton Bennett. It just dawned on me, as I am flushing out the the Sonic memory banks, I wonder if Bennett named the new team in Oklahoma City after "Thunder" Dan Majerle? In the 90's Majerle was a Sonic killer, with his ridiculously frequent half-court bombs. He was a long range weapon in the Sonics' Suns' wars of the 90's. If "Thunder" Dan is who the Thunder are named after, I have to give Bennett credit. That would take some sinister smarts and conniving creativity to come up with that. A rumor has been surging that Clay Bennett will get our championship banners rehung in OKC. I heard a group of fans are ready to go in, to Key Arena, pose as painters and take them down, so they don't go to OKC. They couldn't bear giving our history away. Those banners are all we have left.

Here is some cultural heritage for you. The morning the Sonics left, I ran into Sonic historian, Rod Guevara, at the Sonics team shop. We were both milling around licking our wounds. I was looking at some Supe's socks, but was not going to buy them because the line was too long. Rod balked at getting anything, said he was thinking about it. He ended up bringing home armloads of stuff. Rod sent me six pairs of socks. Men in Rod's family have called each other every year on the anniversary of the 79' championship. They play pieces of the broadcast to each other over the phone. That was their tradition. I was recently at Rod's birthday party and he was wearing Sonics shirt that had big black letters over the logo that said, M.I.A. I drove by Key Arena after the party. The comedy club closed across the street, it was boarded up and covered in amateur graffiti art. It looked like a ghost town. Of course the economy is bad, but the businesses around the Key depended on the Sonics. A lot of fans that have sworn off the NBA are just a little more hurt than me. I still watch because I like the dynamics of different teams, their players' style, coaching philosophy, and geographical attitude. I watch from the outside looking in.

I hate Oklahoma

Nobody can do the voodoo like you do. - Kevin Calabro (former voice of the Sonics) talking about Shawn Kemp

In January a women was doing a Houdini-like underwater trick and nearly drowned during an Oklahoma Thunder halftime show. Luckily she lived. But it is further evidence that the curse of the Sonics is real. A long-time Sonics' season ticket holder actually did the research and claims to have put a curse on the new franchise, he traveled to Oklahoma City to sprinkle green and gold dust in the foyer of the Ford Center -- home of the Thunder. I believe in the curse, because it makes me feel better. I hate Oklahoma for taking my favorite team. From the moment Howard Schultz did the dirty deal with Clayton Bennett they were a doomed franchise. It has been a weird season in Oklahoma City and a sad one in Seattle.

First Clay Bennett and the rest of his group, Professional Basketball Club, lied about trying to keep the team in Seattle. Then when Bennett brought the team to OKC, he went against his own instincts about what makes a good team name. Originally he said plural was important, like, the Suns, Spurs, and Sonics, but he pulled a 180, and named the franchise Thunder. Thunder sounds like a defunct arena football team. He coulda given it a little historical value with a name like Thunderbirds, but he is an aggressively ignorant meat head.

The next step was predictable. Pick the trendiest most overused color in pro sports - teal. Then approve a boring ass logo - a basketball with a couple swoosh marks. They are devoid of character - white washed. Who are they? Recently OKC's mayor complained about the city's lack of identity. But that is not true. OKC is known for being hell on earth. AskMen.com compiled a list of the top ten hells on earth , Oklahoma City was #5 (Baghdad was #10). It's the worst city in America for tornadoes. Its in the middle of Tornado Alley.

OKC is hell for Seattle. When Hearst announced the Seattle Post-Intelligencer would no longer be in hardcopy form, I texted friends, "the P-I is moving to OKC." My friend Anthony wrote back, "Damn!! They're a boom town. What next?" Good question. Maybe the space needle, Pearl Jam, sheesh send Bill Gates too. Might as well box up the pike place market and ship it out with an OKC sticker on it. Seattle in my rearview mirror. Oklahoma is where Seattle goes to die.

Bennett was officially honored for killing the Sonics. He was named person of the year in Oklahoma. Thunder watchblog Bend It Like Bennett had this to say about that. "Yes, bringing the 2-24 shell of a basketball team to OKC at the expense of another region's fan-base, civic heritage and cultural identity is quite possibly the most important achievement in our city's history . . . they (Seattle) weren't "Real America" anyway."

Here is some cultural heritage for you. The morning the Sonics left, I ran into Rod Guevara, at the Sonics team shop. Rod is the biggest Sonics fan I know and its in his blood, his whole family is Sonic crazed. I was looking at some Supe's socks, but was not going to buy them because the line was too long. Rod balked at getting anything, said he was thinking about it. He ended up bringing home armloads of stuff. Rod sent me six pairs of socks.

Men in Rod's family have called each other every year on the anniversary of the day the Supersonics won the whole damn thing. They play pieces of the broadcast to each other over the phone. That was their tradition. A rumor has been surging that Clay Bennett will get our championship banners rehung in OKC. Rod's family plan is to go in (to Key Arena) posing as painters and take them down, so they don't go to OKC. They couldn't bear giving our history away. Those banners are all we have left.

"This would never happen in Europe," says my friend Cod referring to the death of the Sonics. Cod was hurt so badly that he swore off the NBA. If he detaches himself, he risks nothing. He has a safe place as a European soccer and U Dub football fanatic. Fans literally buy into the futbol club and vote on the coach and management's future. Stadiums are not built with public taxes. Its kind of a crazy concept, to not be held hostage by a franchise - thats the American way. College football will not betray him either. The Huskies may have lost every game last year, but they will be back for this season. There is community tradition in that.

A lot of Americans help define themselves by scoffing at the Superbowl, by not giving a rats ass about the value of sports and what teams mean to a community. But for many, sport is part of the fiber, especially a franchise that is 41 years old. Now, I know that little bit by little bit when you lose a piece of your culture it does not repair itself and you lose a bit of your identity and that turns into anger and bitterness towards the enemy - whoever took it from you.

Looks like Kevin Durant is the nail in the pine box. He was the second pick in the draft for the Seattle SuperSonics a couple years ago. Last year he was rookie of the year as a Sonic - their last year. Now he is unconscious with the Thunder, he had 46 points the other night, pushing his season avg. up to 25 points a game. It hurts to hear about how good your ex is doing and dream about what could have been. Reality burns. All we can do is look from the outside in.