To cap off the slew of basketball-related posts I just put up, I direct you to my article on the Boom Squad, the b-boy crew that performs during breaks in Sonics games. As always, if you like it, feel free to leave a comment over there.

Sunday night brought the nascent Laker dynasty to Key Arena, giving Sonics fans and a surprisingly large contingent of Kobe jersey-clad Lake Show frontrunners a glimpse of the team that should be hoisting the championship trophy in June. Though the young, new-look Supes were clearly fired up, they were nevertheless easily dispatched by the Kobe Bryant/Pau Gasol score-at-will juggernaut, with the game essentially decided by the second quarter. (Final score: 101-81)

Kobe was his usual intense self, hand-fighting with Jeff Green and Mikael Gelabale and riding the officiating crew so hard (with a 25 point lead) that he was ejected in the third quarter, producing the loudest Sonics fans cheers of the game.

Gasol, on the other hand, seemed to be just going through the motions, albeit quite effectively. His is a peculiar athleticism, with a physique that’s part Big Bird and part America’s Next Top Model and a vertical jump that would be lucky to hit 24″. He also runs the floor like an awkward JV center. Nevertheless, he dominates his 7′ competition, displaying a a quick first step, a remarkably agile dribble game, and great body control around the basket.

As for the Supes, Mikael Gelabale continues to be a revelation. Whereas before his recent D-League stint, he seemed entirely incapable of hitting a jumper and intensely aware of that fact, he now shoots confidently and accurately, which, combined with his impressive hops and high release, makes him a dangerous offensive player. Moreover, his athleticism makes him a nuisance on defense and an effective rebounder, despite his slender build. More Jelly, this commentator says.

The rooks also showed some progress. Jeff Green was occasionally flustered by Kobe Bryant’s quick hands, but nevertheless kept attacking both Bryant and Lamar Odom, shooting well from the perimeter, continuing to show a nice finishing touch on the break, and finishing with 15 points and eight rebounds.

Kevin Durant faced a Lakers defense that seemed keyed on stopping him, but he played aggressively, getting himself to the foul line and, in the third quarter, providing the night’s Sonics highlights by driving baseline and dunking on Ronny Turiaf and then Pau Gasol in subsequent possessions.

Finally, a big Buzzer Beater welcome to Ira Newble and Adrian Griffin, who made their Sonics debuts tonight, combining for 2 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal, and 1 assist in 14 minutes of play.

A Lakers fan pops his Kobe jersey during a break in play. Note the shooting sleeve on his left arm.

A riveting account of a riveting game between two middling NBA teams.

The Wally Z/Ira Newble interregnum took a turn for the better last night, with your Seattle SuperSonics avenging Thursday’s defeat to the Portland Trailblazers, 99-87. On a night when Kevin Durant and UW alum Brandon Roy both struggled from the floor, recent D-Leaguer Mikael Gelabale stepped into the stardom void, lighting the Blazers up for 12 points in just six field goal attempts in just 20 minutes. No Look Luke Ridnour was similarly efficient, using his only outstanding NBA skill–his court sense–to set up Chris Wilcox for his only outstanding NBA skill–right-handed tomahawk dunks.

In other encouraging news, Jeff Green rebounded and defended well and continues to show an improving left hand. The progress isn’t fast, and it’s clear he has some confidence issues, but he also has the requisite tools, work ethic, and–when he relaxes–instincts to be a good NBA player.

Finally, the Supes recent ten-game stretch of .600 ball has PJ offering some unique musings on semantics, and posturing like the ol’ Zen Master. From Percy Allen’s Sonics blog at the Seattle Times:

When asked if the Sonics are better now than they were at the start of the season, Carlesimo chuckled.

“We’re not better,” he said. “Better would imply that we were good at that point.”

Lest any of you worry that this newfound pseudo-cleverness suggests that PJ’s losing his edge, please know that last night he wore his beige blazer and spent the better part of a second quarter timeout screaming at Kevin Durant, who mostly just looked at the scoreboard.

One last thing: Robert Swift has a torn meniscus in his right knee. It looks like we’ll have to wait at least another few months for the Wild Bobby Ginger era to truly begin.

This one got linked by a bunch of places, best of all True Hoop. Hooray me!

click play for musical accompaniment

Goodbye, Wally Z
Though know you I did not
You had the boy band looks
And a nice looking jump shot
The haters tried to hate
They whispered into your brain
Goddamnit Wally, pass…
To the refs you did complain

And it seems to me that in your head
You’re still prom king number one
Never knowing who to pass to
When the doubles come
But those triples look too good
Too good to resist
Your ankles gave out long before
Your ego ever did

Loneliness was tough
The toughest role you ever played
Miami created a superstar
And pain was the price you paid
When you called timeout
Oh the press, they hounded you
All that PJ had to say
Was @#(*&$#@#($*&@#($*&@!!

Goodbye, Wally Z
From the young man in the 25th row
It must be lonely at the top
But to Cleveland you must go

I posted this one on Buzzer Beater after the Huskies’ thrilling win over Arizona on Thursday night. Then they went and got beat by Arizona State. Good thing I boldly declared them back.

Tonight’s Seattle basketball fan was faced with quite a dilemma: the middling Huskies on FSN or the post-Wally Z, pre-Ira Newble Sonics on TNT. While I’ve found that a season of covering the NBA has made it increasingly difficult to enjoy the comparatively sloppy and uneven play of college ball (I know I’m probably in the minority on that one), and while I love watching Brandon Roy (whose Blazers the Sonics were playing), I couldn’t turn down a high energy UW/Arizona matchup at Hec Ed. It was the right decision.

Facing a Wildcat team with three likely first-round picks, the Dawgs played like yesteryear’s shoulder-chipped, Conroy-Robinson-Roy-Jones squads. Particular credit goes to Venoy Overton, the seemingly ambidextrous, left-handed, pint-sized freshman dynamo who pushes the pace like no Husky since Nate Robinson, time and again weaving back and forth on the heels of retreating defenders before finishing with an improbable lay-up. (Tonight’s ‘and-1′, in which he drew contact from an Arizona big man and made a high-arching, right-handed six-footer while nearly parallel with the floor probably takes the cake.)

While Overton set the tone with his forays to the hoop and his harassment of Arizona star Jerryd Bayless, he was hardly alone in the intensity and aggressiveness he brought to the game. Jon Brockman continued his season-long domination of the Pac-10 paint, Quincy Pondexter played smart and not too timid, Tim Morris created plays with his athleticism, and pretty much every other Husky who saw floor time had a solid game. I’m gushing like Chris Matthews after a Barack Obama speech, but I’ll be damned if it’s not fun to watch my underdog alma mater stick it to the Chase Budinger/Jerryd Bayless Zach Morris/AC Slater combo.

One final thing, the Husky coaching staff must be given credit for having turned a bad defensive team into a good one over the course of the season (stellar defensive performances in 3 of the last 4 games). Such a swing is something you’ll rarely see in an NBA team–partly because the season is long enough for a pro team to regress to its mean, but also because college teams, much more than pro ones, are always works-in-progress. Washington’s team defense was superb, with the hedges on and traps of Jared Bayless flustering him and significantly disrupting Arizona’s offense.

I’ve come to the point in the Husky post where it says “insert obligatory/lame ‘dawg’ pun here.”

Why must I chase the cat? Ain’t nothin’ but the dawg in me!

Today, on his 73rd birthday, Longtime Mariners play-by-play announcer Dave Niehaus won the Ford C. Frick award. Every year, the Baseball Hall of Fame gives the award to a broadcaster for “major contributions to baseball.” The award comes with an automatic induction into the broadcasters’ wing at Cooperstown.

Having grown up listening to Niehaus and narrated innumerable childhood wiffle ball home runs with some version of his “swung on and belted deep to left field…this one will fly away…my oh my!” call, I feel the Hall couldn’t have selected a more deserving candidate.

Now all that remains is for his finest color commentator to join him in baseball immortality. Ronald Ray Fairly, you’re up.

“The wind at Candlestick tonight is blowing with great propensity.”

Yesterday, Senator Arlen Specter (R, PA) appeared at a news conference to tell the world that New England Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick had been “illegally” videotaping other teams’ signal communications since 2000.

“We have a right to have honest football games,” said Specter.

On Tuesday, that same Senator Specter had a chance to vote for an amendment to the amended Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The Amendment would strip the Act’s provision of immunity to telecom companies that allowed the National Security Agency to monitor customers’ electronic communications without a warrant. One of these companies is already being sued. Senator Specter voted against the Amendment, but neglected to call a press conference to discuss it. (An avowed opponent of waterboarding, Senator Specter also voted yesterday against a measure that would prohibit waterboarding.)

If you’re wondering why Senator Specter voted against the immunity-stripping Amendment, you can have a look at the statute under which the companies might be liable here; the statute that some (wrongly) say justifies the wiretaps here; and the amendment itself (along with a handy roll call) here. You can find something called the Fourth Amendment here. And you can read about his proposed blame-the-taxpayers compromise here.

As for the rules that Specter alleges Bellichick broke for seven years, they’re in the NFL’s “Game Operations Manual.” You know, the one they taught you about in your high school civics class. As far as I can tell, you can’t find it online. I wonder why.

We have a right to honest football games.

You know that this Sonics team has the stuff of of a feature length movie, but did you know that it has the stuff of a great boy band as well?

NBA fans and bloggers around the globe: I challenge you to come up with any set of four (or more) players from your team who could make a better boy band than the following Sonics foursome.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, it’s

Coast2Coast!

Kevin D: The youngest Coast2Coast!er does funny impressions of his coach and has a crush on Beyonce.

Mickael G: The shy Frenchmen has a cute smile, is good with kids…and, oh, that hair!

Wally Z: Even though now he has a lot, he’s still Wally from the cul-de-sac.

Luke R: The clean-living kid with the golden locks and voice is ready to dream big!

Big ups to Panamaniac and the rest of the original Coast2Coast crew

Wednesday saw the arrival of the Utah Jazz, a 1st place team and legitimate NBA title contender. For the few of you who don’t know, the Jazz franchise originated in New Orleans (the birthplace of the eponymous African-American art form), was transplanted to Salt Lake City (one of American’s whitest cities), and plays in Energy Solutions Arena (named after a radioactive waste storage company). As Don King would say, “only in America.”

The Jazz roster features, among others, Kyrylo Fesenko, the eminently quotable Ukrainian who currently toils in the D-League, and who on Monday outplayed our own, Van-Damme-loving, Senegalese center, Mo Sene, in a battle of the goofy, likeable foreign big men. The Jazz roster also contains the only two NBA players named Ronnie–Ronnie Price and Ronnie Brewer. Both of them are very athletic.

While Kyrylo couldn’t make it, tonight’s game did feature the Ronnies, who were considerably spryer than their more highly-touted teammates, who knew how to do just enough to dispose of the Sonics. The game seemed close throughout, with the home team deflecting passes, scrambling for loose balls, fighting for offensive rebounds…and, if you looked at the scoreboard, steadily slipping further behind as the fourth quarter progressed. The Jazz were just takin’ care of business: Deron Williams skipped the crossovers and instead just used his bulk to get what he needed; Carlos Boozer stoically got the better of Chris Wilcox; Paul Millsap made everything in the paint difficult, etc.

It should be clear by now to Sonics observers that, insofar as the team has one, Earl Watson is the answer to the point guard question. Luke Ridnour has quick hands and sees the court well, but he’s simply physically overmatched by most NBA point guards (most NBA everythings) and can’t score.

He does, however, help make Sonics roster the most boy-bandish in the league.

Finally, in one of the many lulls in the action created by Jerry Sloan’s hack-happy defensive scheme, I examined, out of relative boredom, the fine print on the back of my press pass. It seems I’m entitled to entry at any regular season Sonics home game as well as to Sonics home games in the first three rounds of the NBA playoffs. But not the finals. Bummer.

Final Score: Jazz 112, Sonics 93

Special thanks to the young girl in the Rashard Lewis jersey who kept up the “DE-FENSE!” chants throughout the game. Way to bring the intensity, kid.

The league Bill Simmons famously called the “No Balls Association” because of its teams’ reluctance to make bold trades has been fairly popping lately, with seemingly few blocks left to bust after Pau Gasol-to-the-Lakers, Shaquille O’Neal-to-the-Suns, and now, it seems, Jason Kidd-to-the-Mavs.

Really, other than Harry Reid’s ongoing disastrous reign as Senate Majority Leader, can you think of a better example of panic button shot-calling than today’s NBA execs? Shaquille O’Neal (Emeritus) is a decent offensive player who can’t guard anybody, and the same holds for today’s Jason Kidd. Meanwhile, the players for whom they were traded (Shawn Marion, Devin Harris) were among the best defenders at their positions. Do O’Neal and Kidd come with time machines? At this point, teams are trading merely for reputations.

Sure, this Laker lineup looks like a Dynasty:

Kobe Bryant (offensive virtuoso, lockdown defender)
Pau Gasol (high & low post master, rebounder)
Lamar Odom (jack of all trades & 6′11″)
Andrew Bynum (along with Dwight Howard, the best young center in the game)
Jordan Farmar (highly underrated PG–quick, good defender, accurate 3 pt shooter)
Ronny Turiaf (Bo Outlaw with braids)
Trevor Ariza (defends like a young Michael Cooper; dunks like a young Vince Carter)
Sasha Vujacic (big guard, shoots threes, can handle point)
Vlad Radmanovic (dresses well, seven feet tall?)

But it’s looking even more dynastic now that teams with relatively young cores (such as Dallas, with Harris, Nowitzki, and Howard) are throwing it all away for the dudes whose posters populated the childhood bedroom walls of today’s better players. Perhaps Portland, New Orleans, or Utah (or, in fantasy-land, the young Supes) can piece together enough of a squad to keep this team from winning three or four titles before it’s done–and of course there are tons of variables that could derail the Lakers–but right now, it looks like the Lake Show for a long time.