Post-Sonics Watch

Wilkens willing to help area's efforts to get NBA team

Former Sonics great Lenny Wilkens was in Olympia on Wednesday for a fundraiser to benefit The Community Foundation of South Puget Sound and The Lenny Wilkens Foundation.

Wilkens, the NBA’s all-time winningest coach and the coach of the Seattle SuperSonics 1979 championship team, told The Olympian's Gail Wood he is willing to help bring an NBA team back to Seattle.

The SuperSonics were moved to Oklahoma City on July 1 by owner Clay Bennett when Seattle mayor Greg Nickels surprisingly agreed to a $45 million buyout, allowing Bennett to void the remaining two years of the team’s lease at KeyArena.

Wilkens said he can offer advice to any business group interested in bringing an NBA team back to Seattle.

“I can help,” Wilkins said. “I have a great rapport with the NBA.”

Wilkens said the NBA wouldn’t return to Seattle until after a new arena is built.

“What has to happen first is, you have to have plans on the table to build a building,” Wilkens said. “The sooner you have that, the quicker you will have a team.”

Despite Sonics fans’ perceptions, Wilkens said NBA commissioner David Stern isn’t against a team returning to Seattle.

“David Stern does not have something out for Seattle, he has to run a huge corporation,” Wilkens said. “KeyArena won’t do it anymore. It’s had its day. Go around to any NBA facility, and we are the most outdated building. We need a new building.

“The locker room at KeyArena is smaller than when I played.”

After Bennett and his 15-member group from Oklahoma City bought the Sonics for $350 million, Bennett asked for a state-of-the-art, $500 million facility. The state Legislature and Seattle city officials never finalized a plan to keep the Sonics in Seattle.

About Bennett, Wilkens said there were a few things he disagreed with him about, mainly regarding forward Rashard Lewis and guard Ray Allen.
Lewis was sent to the Orlando Magic in a sign-and-trade deal, and Allen was traded to the Boston Celtics.

“Clay thought Rashard was getting paid too much,” Wilkens said. “Then when they traded Ray, I said, ‘Hey, you’re not listening to me.’ ”

So, Wilkens resigned as the Sonics’ vice chairman.

“We never had a cross word. Just disagreements,” Wilkens said.

Wilkens said he thought all along that Bennett had intentions of moving the team to Oklahoma City .

“Why else would you try to get rid of your overhead?” Wilkens said.

Sonics time warp: March 5, 1972: It's raining in the Coliseum

Spencer Haywood was as formidable in the courtroom as he was on the basketball court. After prevailing in his antitrust suit against the NBA in 1971, Haywood won a $55,000 judgment after suffering a season-derailing injury when he slipped on a rain puddle on the Coliseum floor.

When building an arena in a city that averages 200 cloudy days a year and has accrued a world-wide reputation for its rainy countenance, you'd think a watertight roof would be somewhere near the top of the priority list.

You'd think.

This apparently was not the case for the Seattle Center Coliseum, which came to life in the World's Fair year of 1962 as the Washington State Pavilion.

Pity the poor Coliseum, which soon became as notorious for its leaky roof as its city was for its brooding climate. The Coliseum, which hosted the Beatles in August of 1964, went from the sublime to the ridiculous in just eight years.

On March 5, 1972, 37 years ago today, the Coliseum endured its first memorable water-related pratfall.

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Reign Man alive and doing well in 'Brooklyn Girls'

While the clouds grow ever darker above a cowering newspaper industry and we await word of our fate, we'll keep mailing in these blog posts as inspiration permits.

Thanks to News Tribune staffer Brent Champaco for turning us on to Charles Hamilton, a 21-year-old Harlem-based rapper who has an affinity for Brooklyn Girls and, inexplicably, Shawn Kemp.

Not only does Hamilton represent Seattle by wearing a T-shirt festooned with the image of Shawn Kemp in the video for "Brooklyn Girls," but he goes so far as to allude to the Reign Man in another song. The line "Sonic, my team is where the good Shawn Kemp is" comes up in "Truth Kills Opposition (Love TKO).

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Struggling Stuckey

Point guard Rodney Stuckey, who scored three points and had one assist in a 92-86 home loss to the Bucks on Feb. 17, and the Pistons are in a serious funk, losing seven in a row to fall into a tie for sixth in the Eastern Conference.

Rodney Stuckey is trapped in the merciless grip of a black funk.

And so are the reeling Detroit Pistons.

The Pistons' second-year point guard, who led Kentwood High to a 4A state championship before starring at Eastern Washington, seems to be experiencing a genuine crisis of confidence.

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Nate great again, drops 41 on Pacers

Seems like no one can stop Nate Robinson these days: The Jumping Jack from Seattle scored 41 points Monday night to lead the Knicks over the Pacers.

Would apologize for letting this blog go vacant for such an unforgivable period of time, but as we have precious few readers on this blog of no very wide circulation, I wouldn't know whom to apologize to.

But while we await our fate in the coming round of McClatchy cost-saving maneuvers, let's return our focus to the NBA, which skulked out of Seattle like a gang of white-collar thieves in early July.

The highlight reel keeps rolling for Nate Robinson. Last time we saw the little Knickerbocker, he was vaulting over Dwight Howard in leprechaun green and winning the All-Star slam dunk crown. That bit of aerial derring-do earned him a spot on David Letterman, where he swapped wisecracks with the venerable host and then recreated his stunt, jumping over stage manager Biff Henderson this time instead of Howard. A look at the late-night hijinks:

Apparently not satisfied with being a human freak show, Robinson scored 32 points in the second half Monday night and finished with a season-best 41 to lead New York to a 123-119 victory over Indianapolis. Robinson made 11 of 18 field-goal attempts, including 4-of-6 from behind the 3-point arc. He also grabbed eight rebounds.

His last basket was his biggest as he intercepted a pass and made a tiebreaking layup with 26 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. It conjured up memories of his days as a Huskies cornerback, at least that's what he told Associated Press reporter Brian Mahoney.

“That interception definitely would have been for six to the house,” Robinson said. “Would have got a flag for celebrating, but it’s OK.”

The Jumping Jack from Rainier Beach High School equaled Bob McAdoo’s franchise record for most points in a game by player coming off the bench.

He's been putting up some pretty heady numbers lately. Over the past six games, Robinson is averaging 30 points, 7.0 assists and 6.5 rebounds. He's averaging 23.6, 5.0 and 5.2 in February and 16.6, 4.1 and 4.0 through 48 games.

Not bad for a guy who stands 5-foot-9 with shoes on and comes off the bench.

Nate the Great upstages Superman

Looking a bit like a leprechaun with a supernatural vertical leap, Nate Robinson, all 5-foot-9 of him, clears 6-11 Dwight Howard on his way to reclaiming the NBA's slam dunk crown in Phoenix on Saturday night.

There's never been a doubt about Nate Robinson's athletic ability, which ranges from the otherworldy to the simply astounding.

Not since he dazzled folks in the Tacoma Dome back in 2002 and won MVP honors in leading Rainier Beach High to a rout of Mercer Island in the Class 3A state final.

And then started at cornerback for the University of Washington football team the following autumn.

The human Jumping Jack was back at it again Saturday, upstaging Superman Dwight Howard in the NBA slam dunk contest. The diminutive Robinson (listed generously at 5 feet, 9 inches) vaulted over the 6-11 Howard in the evening's signature dunk, winning the plaudits of the fans, who gave him 52 percent of the vote.

“Dwight was a great sport letting me dunk over him,” said Robinson as quoted in the Associated Press story.

It was the second dunk crown for Robinson, who also won in 2006.

Howard, the defending champion, slipped into a phone booth (don't see many of them anymore) and returned clad in a Superman cape for a show-stopping early dunk.

“I’m not mad or anything,” Howard told the AP. “He did a good job. I guess the shorter man will win in a dunk contest because it looks real hard for him. It looks easy for me.”

Williams comes home to Bremerton, has number retired

Marvin Williams of the Atlanta Hawks checks out his retired No. 24 during a halftime ceremony at Bremerton High School on Thursday night. Photo courtesy of the Kitsap Sun.

Marvin Williams took advantage of the NBA's All-Star break to come home to Bremerton, where he received a bit of a hero's welcome at his alma mater.

The Knights retired Williams' No. 24 jersey at halftime of the Knights' 51-48 loss to Port Townsend. Williams, 22, is the first former Bremerton High player to be so honored.

"I'm speechless," Williams told the Kitsap Sun. "It's such an honor for my high school to do this. For my city to come out and support me. I've always represented where I was from."

Williams, a 2004 Bremerton graduate who helped North Carolina win a national championship in his only season with the Tar Heels, has a brother, J'Tonn Dale, and a cousin, Andre Coleman, on the current Bremerton team.

The No. 2 overall pick in the 2005 NBA draft, the 6-foot-9, 240-pound Williams is averaging 13.9 points and 6.5 rebounds in his fourth season with the Hawks.

He scored a career-high 33 points at KeyArena on Jan. 25, 2008, in the Hawks' 99-90 victory over the ill-fated SuperSonics.

Ex-WSU player Weaver playing more minutes for Thunder

Wednesday was also the return to the Northwest of former Washington State University standout Kyle Weaver, who has been in the Oklahoma City Thunder's starting lineup the past seven games.

Weaver, the 6-foot-6 Beloit, Wis. product, has been starting at shooting guard, and has been assigned to defending the other team's best perimeter player.

On Tuesday, it was reigning NBA most valuable player Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles.

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Bittersweet feeling for Sonics fans watching former team

A couple hundred or so former Sonics fans, probably more than expected, showed up to see their former team, the Oklahoma City Thunder play in the Northwest for the first time since the Oklahoma City-based ownership group relocated the franchise last summer.

Many were bitter about the loss of the Sonics, carrying signs like the one shown above and down below to voice their displeasure.

But also many were resigned to the fact that their team now resided in Oklahoma City, and looked forward to the return of the NBA to Seattle.

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Weaver, former SuperSonics return to Pacific Northwest

Rookie Kyle Weaver, who has started six straight games for the Thunder since Desmond Mason was lost for the season, goes to the basket against the Lakers' Lamar Odom on Tuesday.

They're back.

Well, after a fashion.

The Oklahoma City Thunder, who for four decades traded under the name Seattle SuperSonics, will be in Portland tonight (7 p.m., Comcast) to take on the Trail Blazers. Rookie guard Kyle Weaver, who starred at Washington State, will be in the Thunder's starting lineup when the action tips off at the Rose Garden.

News Tribune reporters Eric D. Williams and Todd Milles will travel to Portland to witness and report on the gala event. Look for stories on the Trail Blazers' Brandon Roy and former Washington State standout Weaver as well as a general roundup of the erstwhile SuperSonics in the paper in coming days.

After seeing limited action in the first two months of the season, Weaver was inserted into the starting lineup after Desmond Mason went down with a season-ending injury. Weaver has started the past six games. He scored a career-high 11 points in a 105-98 loss to the Lakers in Los Angeles on Tuesday night. He had four rebounds.

Weaver played a season-high 36 minutes against the Lakers, shooting 5-of-13 from the field and 1-of-7 from 3-point range. He's averaging 5.2 points and 3.2 rebounds a game.

The ticket to the starting lineup for the 6-foot-6 Weaver is defense, however.

"That’s his strength,” coach Scott Brooks told The Oklahoman. "He’s a defender. He has a body type that can defend a lot of positions in this league. And we want that out of him and we expect that out of him."

The Thunder (13-39) beat the Trail Blazers (31-19) in Oklahoma City, 102-93, last Friday. Roy, the former University of Washington star, scored 32 points in a losing effort. He's averaging 22.4 points, 5.1 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game.

Roy, the NBA rookie of the year in 2007, will play in his second All-Star game this Sunday in Phoenix.

Morrison, mustache bound for Tinseltown

Adam Morrison will try to develop his NBA game in Los Angeles, which has been famously accepting of eccentrics and men with thin mustaches.

It just might be the best thing that's happened to Adam Morrison since he left Gonzaga after leading the nation in scoring and weeping during his junior season.

Besides being the No. 3 overall pick of the 2006 NBA draft, not a whole lot has gone right for post-Zags Morrison, who was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers by the Charlotte Bobcats along with guard Shannon Brown on Saturday in exchange for former SuperSonic Vladimir Radmanovic.

And as Morrison bids adieu to the Bobcats, Larry Brown and Tobacco Road and goes west in search of his AWOL game, we ponder the future for him and his notorious mustache out in the land of celluloid heroes.

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In case you missed it, Vol. I

Kristen Johnson's harrowing halftime experience in Oklahoma City suggests that Harry Houdini's classic water torture routine is best perfected on dry land.

Yes, we are guilty of turning the other way in horror as the Oklahoma City Thunder has escaped from the NBA abyss with an unlikely aplomb Harry Houdini might've admired.

The Thunder, which started the season a hopeful 2-24, has gone 6-5 over its last 11 games to raise its record to 12-38. There are now three teams – the Wizards, Clippers and Kings – who have shown themselves to be more abysmal than the erstwhile SuperSonics of Clay Bennett World.

As the Thunder's fortunes have taken a turn toward respectable climes on the court, where former WSU star Kyle Weaver has become an unlikely rookie starter, they still can't help making curious news off the court.

Take the Jan. 16 home game against the Detroit Pistons, for one. Kevin Durant scored 32 points and the Thunder beat Rodney Stuckey and the Pistons, 89-79, to improve to 8-33.

In the end, all that anybody will remember about the night was the halftime stunt gone awry where 17,000 fans watched as female daredevil Kristen Johnson nearly drowned in the water torture stunt first perfected by legendary escape artist Houdini in 1912.

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