Sorry I’ve been so bad about putting up posts lately. Here’s this week’s column.

This week’s column is up.

In a move that could place him with Curt Flood as a sports labor trailblazer, high school baller Brandon Jennings officially announced that he’ll skip college and instead spend his post-high school, pre-NBA year playing in Europe for money. Ever since David Stern instituted the age limit, I’ve been waiting for this to happen. (As you can see here and here, I’m not a fan of guys having to play for free.) If Jennings starts a trend (and it will be interesting to see if he does, because European teams are system-heavy and may not be excited about integrating, for just one year, young, raw American talent), the NBA will still save money by developing players elsewhere, and may see interest in their league expand abroad. But they’ll lose the marketing machine they wanted the college game to be for them. And the blowhards at the NCAA will worry about their gravy train running out of fuel.

In truth, you could probably slap school names on a bunch of mice running around a court and thousands of alums would get fired up about it. But it’d be nice if the trend started by Jennings’ departure ended up calling the bluff of the “Stay in School” crowd, so we could see how much they like it when college basketball is like college baseball–i.e. a low visibility sport that’s more about its own, small subculture and less about making money for the glorified pimps in the three piece suit. As my friend Nick said, “I just can not wait to see Coach K, Roy Williams, and Lute Olsen freak the fuck out because they’re losing their best players to Italian teams named after jeans and kids candies.

Barring a courtroom miracle from Howard Schultz, the city lost its NBA team today. But the numbers released by the Office of Financial Management show that the city continues to add residents. According to the OFM’s April 1st estimates (released today), Seattle grew by 6,600 people, bringing its total to 592,800. King County added roughly 23,000 residents, for a total to 1,884,200. More numbers here.

It’s official. The Seattle Times is reporting that the amount is $75 million ($45 million if the city gets another team). Rumor has it Schultz won’t drop his suit, so perhaps there’s a glimmer of hope.

Update:

The city gets $45 million up front, rights to the Sonics name, etc., and a “written guarantee” from the NBA that Key Arena, with the improvements proposed last year, is an NBA caliber arena. Also, as Nickles pointed out repeatedly, the city “will be notified” when an NBA team is for sale or the league is considering expansion. Otherwise, we might totally miss it.

If the legislature approves the extension of the Safeco Field taxing authority for NBA purposes and the city doesn’t have a team in five years, Bennett and his cronies will fork over another $30 million. According to Nickels, at that point, he and the City Council will discuss what to do with the money. Subtext: I’m going to be mayor forever.

Finally, when asked if there was a discussion about any NBA teams looking to move or sell, Nickels hemmed and hawed, and said he wasn’t involved in any such talks. Let the Memphis Grizzlies speculation begin!*

*Apologies to Memphis fans, but that ownership hasn’t been looking too committed these days.

ESPN’s reporting that Baron Davis is leaving the Golden State Warriors to return to his native Los Angeles and play for the Clippers. Word is he’ll get five years and $65 million. Seems steep for a dude who’s almost thirty and has a long history of injuries, but the Wiz just signed 32-year-old Antawn Jamison for four years, so I guess oldies are all the rage these days. It’ll be interesting to see what Elton Brand and Corey Maggette decides to do now, since they both just filed for free agency. Regardless, Davis’ signing marks the beginning of the Monta Ellis era in Golden State and gives us an excuse to re-post this sublime video:

Hit the books, junior!

The chickens are finally coming home to roost for Rafaello Follieri, former boyfriend of Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway and alleged defrauder of big-time investors. Follieri used his family’s Vatican connections to persuade capital firms to bankroll a scheme whereby he would buy up Church properties in the States and redevelop them for socially responsible purposes. It seems, however, that he was simply pocketing the cash and using it to fund an extravagant playboy lifestyle.

All in all, not a bad short-term scheme, and Follieri managed to drag it out for two years. It likely reminds fans of French literature of a famous forebear: Andre Gide’s The Vatican Cellars. In that novel (whose plot is partly borrowed from an actual 1892 scam), the scheming Protos poses as a priest to persuade credulous Catholics that the Freemasons and a cabal of mutinous Cardinals have imprisoned the Pope in the Vatican cellars, replacing him with an impostor. Under the utmost secrecy, he collects donations for a holy SWAT Team to free the Pontiff. Donors are warned not to mention a word of the situation to anyone, lest the plans be blown or the faith of the masses shaken.

Might Follieri have been wiser to have used such a scheme? Unlike real estate transactions, top-secret kidnappings and rescue efforts are entirely off the books. And impostor accusations are hard to disprove: we all know that Saddam Hussein had look-alikes. Perhaps Mr. Follieri now wishes he’d read his French classics. It looks like he’ll have plenty of time to catch up.

Save Our Sonics stalwarts Jason Reid and Camp Jones have released Part I of their opus on last Monday’s rally:

Congratulations to my friend Andrew for winning the “Dirt Lip” award in the Nike Mustache May competition. Here he is in all his mustachioed glory:

And here’s a shot of him clean-shaven. Ladies, he’s single!

Scouts have also expressed concern about Lopez’s congenitally misshapen right hand.

DraftExpress’ Jonathan Givony is reporting that, while most Internet sites are predicting that the Sonics will draft Bayless with the fourth pick, most NBA teams with whom he spoke believe the Sonics will draft Brook Lopez.

A month or two ago, this would’ve seemed like a hot pick, and indeed, like any other investment market, the draft contains its hysterias and irrational fluctuations, so it can be hard to know when a rise or decline is warranted. But in this case, Lopez’s predicted drop from the top half of the lottery seems justified for a couple reasons: his college shooting percentage and rebounding numbers were good but not great, and he posted epically slow times in the speed and agility drills at the combine. He’s got some solid skills, but he’s not fourth pick material. And from a fan’s perspective–assuming we in Seattle get to remain fans–I’d much rather the Sonics build around speed than plodders. Anyone who’s watched the Houston offense can recognize that Yao Ming hamstrings Tracy McGrady and the running game, and it’d be a bummer to see the Supes management do the same to Jeff Green and Kevin Durant.

UPDATE
Chad Ford is reporting that the Supes are now leaning toward super-athletic UCLA guard Russell Westbrook, but only if they can’t engineer a trade (most likely Wilcox and the #4 for Mark Blount and the #2) to get Miami’s pick and select Michael Beasley.