Well I have to say with it being this late in the season and both teams pretty much sucking all year (although both have been playing better as of late), Mr. Sonic's first return to the Emerald City seems like it'll be pretty low-key. I expect Nate will get a standing ovation from most of the fans with most of the bitterness and shock of his defection pretty much having dissipated by now (at least it has for me). With the exception of a few vieled 'I told ya so' statements http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/basketball/257505_sonx30.html we all seem to have moved on. In any case, Nate's back, two teams with some promising young talent starting to show some signs, 1-5 rivalry and so on and so forth, should be a fun game tonight.
I noticed Reg Evans just goes everywhere on defense, switching and chasing guys at the slightest whim - seems to throw the other guys off, and his man got a wide open 3 at the end of the half.
I think that the apathy in this forum and for the Sonics in general is completely evident by the fact that Mr. Sonics returned last night and the only one that seemed to have cared was Ro' Hood. Now granted everything Seattle related has focused on the the Hawks being in Detroit to face the hapless Steelers on Sunday but you would think after nearly 2 decades worth of service (albeit mediocre service) to a franchise the loyal followers of the Supes would have some sort of feedback as to what happened. Now I haven't seen the game yet (or even the highlights for that matter) and I group myself totally with those who should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this event to be swept under the rug like it has. Not only did Nate come and go, but he also added insult to injury (injury I guess meaning that we are supposedly crippled with out him) by beating us on our home court with one of the worst teams in the league this season. No wonder there are so many JBB folks that are calling for my head right now. And this is the sh*t that drives me insane about this team. The moment that we develop a little bit of moment it gets completely stunted with a loss against a team that everyone had anticipated us winning. There is no excuse for this loss at all. Any type of favorable press that this team receives should be met with poptimisism. That is how I feel right now. When 3 out of 4 wins preceding a horrible loss allows me to combine pessimism and optimism to invent a word such as poptimisism. With the Academy Awards approaching the Sonics with the NBA Oscars for the WTF team award this year. The only team that has fired a head coach may end up losing to not one, not two, not three, but four former coaches this season...Nate, Duane, and possibly Bernie and George. I wonder how many times that has happened in a season.
By the time I turned the game on, it was pretty much over. Sad as it is to say, I have no faith in the Sonics competing when they're down by 10 or more.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Iron Shiek:</div><div class="quote_post">Any type of favorable press that this team receives should be met with poptimisism. </div> What in god's name does that mean?
Shiek hit it on the head. I had the chance to go to this game and didn't, I really should have. I didn't feel like going to the game when the opposing team didn't have anyone worth watching (Randolph sucks this year), and I've already seen the Sonics a million times this year. I should have gone simply because it was Nate's return, but I stayed at home and watched 24 instead, lol. The Sonics are in a bad state of affairs.
I went to the game, though I was late and missed the tribute which some other STH said was really nice. They played a montage and Nate walked out to center court in the middle of it to a rousing ovation. I was concerned about the defense by the end of the 1st quarter...Portland shouldn't be able to even see the number thirty at the edge of the horizon by the end of any 1st quarter. I was concerned about the offense by the middle of the third quarter. Luke looked a half step slow and Flip could not spell him. Flip made one nice play in his limited time, 1 bonehead play and a bunch of who cares minutes. That won't cut it. Cleaves will be playing tonight. I guarantee it. Or I will eat that hat that no one has. Reggie got the biggest noise out of the crowd simply for getting up off the bench and taking off his warm-ups.
Flip's time in Seattle is done. Bob Hill basically said that the experiment of Flip at the point is over and that the only minutes that Flip will play will be at back up shooting guard--which essentially means that he will be getting 10 minutes a game at the most. Bob Hill has essentially weeded out every player in his contract year with the exception of Vlad. This makes for a very unhappy locker room and Rick Sund will have to make some moves in order to create an environment that is conducive to winning. Reggie and Flip have tried to be as professional as they can about their roles on the team but when the team is losing and you are being treated as an outsider it is hard to remain a team player and be totally supportive of the coach and his philosophy. Flip has been a major disappointment this season but at the same time it has to be hard to remain as hungry as he was early in his career when the team in general shows you little support. I hope that he can regain that fire b/c otherwise he is nothing but a fringe player whose inconsistency will relegate him to inconsequential minutes. He is a tough kid who has proven his skeptics wrong his entire life. At this point I am becoming one of his skeptics and I am hopeful that I will be proven wrong as well. He just has to start playing with passion again to regain my confidence in him--which is something that I've seen very few times this season.
