I'm on the clock with this entry. I only have an hour to crank it out, let's see how I do. S wants to actually spend some time as a family today (in lieu of taking turns being absorbed on our laptops while the other one entertains Lil' S, as is our usual Saturday afternoon routine), so we're going to walk down to a local cafe and have some lunch. It's a beautiful day (global warming rocks!), and it will force me to do a modicum of exercise (I've been skipping the gym lately because I hurt my wrist), some I'm down, but it really puts a time crunch on my blogging.
Anyway, let's hit a few topics before I have to go.
The first thing is that there's a lot of buzz that the Sonics might be coming back to Seattle. Well, not the actual Sonics who are now in Oklahoma City, but the Sacramento Kings might move to Seattle and become the Sonics redux. In fact early yesterday it looked like the deal was done -- the Kings would be sold to a Seattle-based ownership group -- but since then a prospective buyer has stepped forward who's interested in trying to keep the team in NoCal. The mayor of Sacramento just so happens to be a former NBA player, the great point guard Kevin Johnson (who incidentally is married to the controversial former chancellor of D.C. public schools Michelle Rhee), so he obviously wants to keep the team in the city. We shall see how it all plays out.
I'm ambivalent to the Sonics coming back. It definitely would be cool to see them again. They are still the only major Seattle sports team to win a championship*. I don't remember it -- I was only 1 when it happened (1979) after all, but I grew up watching the solid Sonics teams of the late-'80s with Xavier McDaniel, Dale Ellis, and Tom Chambers, and the really good mid-'90s teams with GP, Detlef Schrempf, and Shawn Kemp. So yeah, it'd be kinda cool. On the other hand it sucks for the fans of Sacramento**, and as I talked about in my last entry, new sports teams and arenas (if this deal goes through a new arena would be built in Seattle, funded in part by tax dollars), simply aren't good financial investments for cities.
Plus, it's fun to hate the NBA. Ever since the Sonics were stolen I vowed to actively root for the misfortune of the OKC team and for the demise of the NBA. It's not always easy -- OKC is one of the best teams in the league, and the NBA is thriving with a new batch of young, marketable stars -- but it's fun. The farce that was NBA lockout last season was fantastic for haters, and I got to watch OKC be denied the championship which was quite satisfying. I'm not sure I'm ready to embrace the NBA again. Hating on it is too enjoyable.
Switching topics... Wow, I don't have time to write about anything else. That was an hour. I can't believe it. Only four paragraphs and a sentence in an hour? No wonder S gets on my case for spending too much time writing my blog. Well, I guess that's it. I was going to give my thoughts on this despicable case in Steubenville, Ohio that has attracted the attention of the "hackivist" group Anonymous, and on the prospect of an actual trillion-dollar coin being minted, but I guess I'll have to save those for another entry... or not... we will see how it goes.
Until next time...
*Unless you count the Seattle Metropolitans' Stanley Cup in 1917, the Washington Huskies' kinda National Championships in 1960 and 1991, or the Seattle Storms' 2004 and 2010 WNBA titles. I don't.
**The Kings leaving Sacramento would not be just as bad as the Sonics leaving Seattle for two reasons: 1) The Kings aren't originally a California team. They came over from Kansas City in the late-'80s, so it's not like they're a storied franchise being uprooted. They haven't even been there for 30 years.
2) The ownership group in Seattle is not making it any secret that they will relocate the team. This is quite different from the shady way the Sonics were moved.
Anyway, let's hit a few topics before I have to go.
The first thing is that there's a lot of buzz that the Sonics might be coming back to Seattle. Well, not the actual Sonics who are now in Oklahoma City, but the Sacramento Kings might move to Seattle and become the Sonics redux. In fact early yesterday it looked like the deal was done -- the Kings would be sold to a Seattle-based ownership group -- but since then a prospective buyer has stepped forward who's interested in trying to keep the team in NoCal. The mayor of Sacramento just so happens to be a former NBA player, the great point guard Kevin Johnson (who incidentally is married to the controversial former chancellor of D.C. public schools Michelle Rhee), so he obviously wants to keep the team in the city. We shall see how it all plays out.
I'm ambivalent to the Sonics coming back. It definitely would be cool to see them again. They are still the only major Seattle sports team to win a championship*. I don't remember it -- I was only 1 when it happened (1979) after all, but I grew up watching the solid Sonics teams of the late-'80s with Xavier McDaniel, Dale Ellis, and Tom Chambers, and the really good mid-'90s teams with GP, Detlef Schrempf, and Shawn Kemp. So yeah, it'd be kinda cool. On the other hand it sucks for the fans of Sacramento**, and as I talked about in my last entry, new sports teams and arenas (if this deal goes through a new arena would be built in Seattle, funded in part by tax dollars), simply aren't good financial investments for cities.
Plus, it's fun to hate the NBA. Ever since the Sonics were stolen I vowed to actively root for the misfortune of the OKC team and for the demise of the NBA. It's not always easy -- OKC is one of the best teams in the league, and the NBA is thriving with a new batch of young, marketable stars -- but it's fun. The farce that was NBA lockout last season was fantastic for haters, and I got to watch OKC be denied the championship which was quite satisfying. I'm not sure I'm ready to embrace the NBA again. Hating on it is too enjoyable.
Switching topics... Wow, I don't have time to write about anything else. That was an hour. I can't believe it. Only four paragraphs and a sentence in an hour? No wonder S gets on my case for spending too much time writing my blog. Well, I guess that's it. I was going to give my thoughts on this despicable case in Steubenville, Ohio that has attracted the attention of the "hackivist" group Anonymous, and on the prospect of an actual trillion-dollar coin being minted, but I guess I'll have to save those for another entry... or not... we will see how it goes.
Until next time...
*Unless you count the Seattle Metropolitans' Stanley Cup in 1917, the Washington Huskies' kinda National Championships in 1960 and 1991, or the Seattle Storms' 2004 and 2010 WNBA titles. I don't.
**The Kings leaving Sacramento would not be just as bad as the Sonics leaving Seattle for two reasons: 1) The Kings aren't originally a California team. They came over from Kansas City in the late-'80s, so it's not like they're a storied franchise being uprooted. They haven't even been there for 30 years.
2) The ownership group in Seattle is not making it any secret that they will relocate the team. This is quite different from the shady way the Sonics were moved.
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