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!

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.

Twin Cities newspaper the Star-Tribune is reporting that Latrell Sprewell is in fresh financial trouble. Just months removed from the seizure of his yacht, the former NBA star is poised to lose his suburban Milwaukee home as well, thanks to his inability to make mortgage payments. Of course, the the Tubes are abuzz with jokes about Sprewell’s famous “I’ve got to feed my kids,” line–his justification for turning down a 3-year, $21 million contract that he deemed insufficient. (Spree’s agent also said that $5 million a season was a level beneath which [Sprewell] would not stoop or kneel.”)

The amazing and sad thing is that Sprewell’s career earnings from basketball alone have topped $96 million. Granted, his strangling of current Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo meant that he’s never caught on as a product endorser, but he still had other business ventures, including the Washington-state based Sprewell Racing.

I’m reminded of a quote from the currently incarcerated Keon Clark (drug possession, driving on suspended license, etc.), who retired at the relatively young age of 29 and turned down overtures from multiple NBA teams:

“People don’t understand, if you can’t live the rest of your life off one year in the NBA, you can’t live off 21.”

A YouTube tribute to Spree as the self-proclaimed American Dream. He sure was fun to watch:

Warning: video’s lyrics contain some NSFW language

Thanks to Nick for the tip.

Now it’s time for some shameless self-promotion. In case you don’t live in Seattle or haven’t heard, I got the cover story in this week’s Seattle Weekly. Click on the mini-cover below to read it:

As always, should you be inclined, leave a comment (at the Weekly site) and/or use the e-mail the article to a friend feature, so the wonderful folks at the Weekly can see how wonderful I am, too.

My good friend Jason “Reidster” Reid and I also made a video trailer for the article:

And finally, a version of my blog post on Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels ran in the print edition as well.

As the Sonics learned with the arrival of each game in January, you can’t call a timeout on a season spiraling out of control. And as Wally Szczerbiak learned with 15.1 seconds left in last night’s game, you can’t call a timeout when your team doesn’t have any. Channel Z’s error cost the team a technical foul and a shot at winning the game–they were down only one to the Phoenix Suns and had the ball when he made it. They ended up losing 103-99.

Wally’s gaffe obscured a solid effort by the Supes, who kept pace with the Suns from buzzer to buzzer (it helped that small forward extraordinaire Shawn Marion had departed and Shaquille O’Neal not yet arrived–and let’s not forget that it was the also-traded Marcus Banks who killed the Sonics in the teams’ first meeting this year).

Notable performances:

-It looks like Weezy is back to his early season form, knocking out a 22 and 15 double-double in a dunk happy battle with Amare Stoudemire (and the rest of the Phoenix front line). This is his 5th double-double in the last six games–and it’s worth noting that the Supes have won four of those.

-Earl Watson brought a little Steve Lavin-era UCLA flavor with a between the legs, no look pass to Chris Wilcox for the fast break dunk.

-While struggling mightily from the floor, Johan Petro continued to provide energy and shot-blocking off the bench, grabbing seven boards and erasing three shots in 22 minutes.

-Jeff Green hit another three-pointer, making him 4-25 on triples for the season, but 3 for his last 4. Sure, it could be just random statistical variation, but it’d be nice to think that all his work on his shot is paying off.

-Despite a bad night shooting, Kevin Durant had a solid fourth quarter, scoring five consecutive points to get the Supes back into striking distance and showing off his emerging defensive prowess in harassing Steve Nash into a key fourth quarter turnover.

I was talking with a friend the other day about overseas professional soccer and how the bad teams get bumped down to a lower league. At least the Sonics are starting to look like a team that shouldn’t be bumped down.

The D-League ain’t big enough to hold Gelly

Whither Mickael Gelabale? Why, Boise, of course–with the Sonics’ D-League affiliate, the Stampede. Sent down to make room for the Supes’ current crop of overwhelming guards and swingmen, he’s been having his way with the lesser competition, most recently going 10-12 from the floor and hitting the game winning jumper in a defeat of the Anaheim Arsenal.

That he was unable to crack the Sonics’ anemic rotation at the age of 24 does not bode well for his career prospects, but Gelabale’s showed signs, in his short time with the Stampede, of turning a corner. Particularly encouraging are his numbers from long range (45.5% from three in the small sampling thus far). Last year, Gelabale ranked as the NBA’s best finisher around the basket, believe it or not. (Perhaps his success was a result of his remarkable physical fitness.) This year with the Supes the slight Frenchman was less dominant in the paint and also struggled with his jumper–the latter most likely the reason he was sent down. Thus, it’s good to see him knocking them down in Boise. Here’s hoping we’ll see him and Sene back in Seattle before long.

Finally, it’s worth noting that the Stampede lineup is stacked with players of interest to hoop historians and local fans–Randy Livingston, who was robbed of stardom by multiple knee injuries that erased his trademark vertical jump; Cory Violette, formerly of Gonzaga; and Roberto Bergersen, the Decatur High Alum who, if I recall correctly that their schools were in the same classification at the time, battled Federal Way star and future lottery pick Michael Dickerson in what had to be considered a heyday for South Sound basketball.

Perhaps he was avenging his hometown of Kansas City’s 1985 loss of the Kings franchise to Sacramento (we could all sympathize with that), but whatever his motivation, Earl Watson played one of the best games of his career last night, getting his first ever triple double (23 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists) in leading the Supes to a 105-92 victory over a lackadaisical Kings squad.

Besides The Earl’s magic, Johan Petro flaunted his emerging confidence and offensive game in abusing Mikki Moore throughout the second half, even driving to his left on a couple of occasions. (He nevertheless tried to finish with his right.) As Calabro and Snapper noted, at this point, Petro looks to be the most promising of the trio of seven-footers (Petro, Swift, Sene) the Supes drafted in the mid-oughts. And “Sacre Bleu!” is among my favorite Calabro catchphrases of all time. If I had DVR, I’d rewind time and again just to hear him say it.

Don’t look now, but the Sonics have now won four of their last five. Sacre Bleu!

If there’s an NBA team that most resembles the Sonics, it is unfortunately not our immediately Southern neighbors, the similarly youthful Portland Trailblazers, whose front office has spent the last several years running circles around ours. Nor is it the fellow bottom-dwelling Miami Heat, who at least have a championship to show for their current train wreck. Nor is it the tragic Memphis Grizzlies, who would have been booted from a fantasy league for collusion after their last trade. No, the team that most resembles ours is the Minnesota Timberwolves, that sad bunch in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Like us, Wolves fans have been beaten senseless by a senseless front office. While Wally Walker (with some help from Rick Sund) signed Jim McIlvaine, traded Shawn Kemp for Vin Baker, and drafted Robert Swift over Al Jefferson, Kevin McHale signed Joe Smith to an illegal contract that cost his team $3.5 million and five 1st-round draft picks. For this and other mishaps, McHale’s been pilloried across the land, most memorably by “The Sports Guy” Bill Simmons in his hilarious Atrocious GM Summit.

Since True Hoop published an e-mail from a fan who got booted from Key Arena for voicing his displeasure to a luxury-boxed Clay Bennett the other day, I figured it was time to share some similar stories I received from a deep Minnesota source who was not eager to go on the record. So consider these accounts unsubstantiated:

1) There’s an unwritten directive within the Wolves organization to crack down on fans carrying anti-McHale signs. If a fan is found with such a sign, not only is it confiscated, but the fan is kicked out. By contrast, a fan who brought a sign mocking Ruben Patterson (a convicted sex offender) with the following text “Ruben the rapist Patterson” was allowed to stay, because, as Celebrity Jeopardy’s Sean Connery has taught us, the terms “the rapist” and “therapist” are easily confused, so the fan may have intended the latter. “The space between them was small enough,” according to the Wolves.

2) Just to give a sense of McHale’s skills as a talent scout, there’s this tale of one of his former first-round picks: Ndudi Ebi was selected by the Timberwolves in the first round of the 2003 draft. While Ebi didn’t stick around the league, he did manage to lose badly in a game of one-on-one to a 6′2″ Target Center security guard.

Somebody sign that security guard!

There you have it, Sonics fans. Misery loves company, so I hope it helps to know that you’re not alone.