| Does Seattle Even Need You Anymore? Authored by Jean-Luc Nicolas - August 22, 2006 - 8:48 pm
| Current Featured Columns | | Howard's Role In The Gold For the first time in eight years, there won't be any talk of failure, or the world catching up, only praises for the Olympic champions – that is unless your name is Dwight Howard.
Grading The Deal: Williams To Cleveland In Three-WayMo Williams just barely outperformed the first year of his new contract, but he gives Cleveland's offense a few more teeth.
 |
Auditing Cleveland's 2007-08 Season
The Cavaliers took the Celtics to a seventh game of the Eastern Conference semifinals, but couldn't score enough points to extend their run as they did a year ago. The Cavaliers were ranked 13th in team FIC per game and had a dip of 6.4 from the 06-07 season.
|
 |
Is It Time To Worry?
Training camp is less than four weeks away, and the Pacers still haven't signed Danny Granger to an extension or gotten rid of Jamaal Tinsley.
|
 |
Auditing Miami's 2007-08 Season
The Heat came out of the season in an immediately better situation to compete, turning Shaq into Shawn Marion and a 15-67 record into Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers.
|
|
More from RealGM's Columnists
|
| |
And really, who cares?
Over the past few years, Washington’s best basketball has been played either in Spokane or the state’s high schools, not in Key Arena.
Marvin Williams, Martell Webster and Nate Robinson of the 2005 Draft preceded Brandon Roy and Adam Morrison of the 2006 Draft, all players who have recently made the jump from the courts of Washington to the NBA. They followed Jason Terry, Jamal Crawford, Luke Ridnour, Michael Dickerson and even Brian Scalabrine.
What explains this recent trend of a state not known for basketball producing such talent?
Maybe you can credit Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, who, along with Ken Griffey, Jr. owned Seattle following the demise of Kurt Cobain, when the town really needed something that wasn’t self-loathing and depressing. The Sonics and Mariners filled that role while the Seahawks were hectically attempting a move to Los Angeles.
The Glove is long gone, as is Junior and A-Rod and Ichiro-mania has lost its steam as batters 2-9 in the Mariners’ lineup offer little behind him. So with the Seahawks coming off their first Super Bowl in franchise history and a new wave of sincere bands without the nauseating self-serving egomaniac cartoon characters of grunge, the priority for 41 NBA games year has become a rather low one.
The 2004-2005 edition of the SuperSonics was one that excited the city, myself included, as they played a brand of basketball similar to Phoenix, but with a 35-47 record last season, it proved to be a fluke.
So load up the covered wagons and head on down to Oklahoma, if you must, and I’ll simply go to the local high scool gym and watch the next McDonald’s All-American.
Feedback can be sent to nicolasjeanluc@yahoo.com |
