"What was billed as a lavish NBA affair in the nation's most flamboyant and alluring city turned into an All-Star blowout that featured nothing more than stunning individual plays and nonexistent defense."
And this was different from every single other All-Star Game for the last 15 years?
I'm a grump when it comes to All-Star Weekend. The dunk contest was always kind of stupid, but it's now reached new lows of unwatchability. When the winning entry is a copy of a dunk Dee Brown did 13 years ago, which was probably a copy of an in-game Dr. J dunk in itself there's nothing more I need to see. The NBA dunk contest is their equivalent of figure skating. The only contest that really generates any interest to me is the 3 point shootout and even that's usually a minor thrill. Washburn has an interesting idea:
Since giving money to millionaires would be ridiculous, how about he give the winner a trophy and they exchange the trophy every time there is a chance[sic] in winner. As a Cal grad, I was seething every time Stanford won "the Axe" from Cal, which happened four of my five years there. The award served as a symbol of the rivalry, and that does not exist in the NBA.
Rashard Lewis has fired his old agents the Poston brothers and signed up with Tony Dutt, who is best known for representing Shawn Kemp in his Seattle days. He would be pretty much their only client of note in the NBA.
Sonics are retiring Tom Chambers' number? Oh, yeah Spencer Haywood's ...
“I got heavily into Seattle,†Haywood recalled in his 1992 autobiography. “I bought a piece of a small black radio station, KYAC, and hired a very hip young disc jockey named Spencer Haywood to spin jazz tunes two hours a night on weekends. I took courses at the University of Washington in the offseason – history, literature, political science. I ran a free basketball camp for kids and helped raise funds for sickle-cell anemia research.
“I loved Seattle, loved the people. Many afternoons I got in my car and drove downtown to cruise 23rd Street. Everyone knew me and I’d wind up cruising with a car full of kids. I did have to trade in the big Cadillac for a Mercedes, though. The Caddy was not the right car for this town.â€
On Jan. 7, 1976, Haywood returned to the Seattle Center Coliseum with the Knicks. The fourth sellout crowd of the season jammed the arena, and the fans did not buy tickets to monitor the progress of Eugene Short.
“I would find out,†Haywood wrote, “just how bitter that parting had been. When they introduced me before the game, the fans booed me so hard and long that they had to hold up the start of the game. It was the ugliest booing I’d ever heard anywhere. The team was going bad and the crowd took it out on me, called me terrible names, threw things. My sister and brother were in the stands, crying.â€
Welcome to friendly, open metronatural Seattle Spence ... You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
Don't forget to head out to Willows Run today if you can!