Being Fans of the Game

It's customer input time.

I love our movement and I am proud of everybody involved but I think we can only talk about it for so long.

We are going to be making active efforts to build a sustainable discussion that does more than hero-worship Chris Hansen and relive stories of my valiant near misses.

How do we move forward from the Kings saga and refocus on love of basketball and a passion for the NBA?

On this site?

In real life?

I know it is harder for me to watch as a fan right now but that is largely just because I have such a backlog of work and family obligations that have been set aside for the NBA over recent months. If my choice is to watch Meerkat Manor with my little girl or Indiana VS Miami I don't feel comfortable choosing the NBA over family time right now. It's happened too often in recent months.

I know that when it all settles we will make a greater effort to interact with and follow players with local ties. It has just been tough to find the time recently.

While it is admittedly not the same thing we need to help build enthusiasm for local basketball events such as the Storm season opener this Sunday evening and the UW Alumni Game that I will be pretty involved with on June 23rd. We need to have some basketball conversation that gives us a some taste of what it is all about.

In addition I'm going to really encourage every member of this forum to pick team, and player that you want to adopt and follow.

I'm picking the Golden State Warriors not only because they are an amazingly fun team to watch but also because I lived in the Bay Area for 3 years and first became a hoops junky watching the Sonics/Warriors Series in 1992 when my man Shawn Kemp was a young kid and would come visit us in the dorms at WWU.

I haven't decided on the player yet but am thinking I may go with Ty Lawson of the Nuggets. Before watching the playoffs I don't think I was really aware of how good of a player he is. After all he came into the league after the Sonics departed but since I like talking hoops with my buddy Jeff Morton at Denver Stiffs and love following George Karl's PG mentoring skills and clubhouse drama it feels like a good fit.

I'm going to select those guys and follow them closely, talking about them in the board the way Kevin Nesgoda has done about Trey Burke. It took some time but Kevin got me interested in Burke more than I ever would have been otherwise if it were not for his tireless effort.

This process is going to take longer for some than others. Some attempts may work while others fall flat. Lets get the process moving.

Ideas welcome, participation badly needed.