Go Huskies!
Posted on Sunday, March 21st, 2010 at 11:04 am by Brian Robinson
Anyone want to get together somewhere and watch the next game?
I’m not talking about an event. No press releases, no worry about how many people show. If some of you want to pick a place to meet lets all get together, maybe have a beer, and watch a game.
Post your thoughts below. I’m down.
March 21st, 2010 at 4:28 pm
sounds like fun! i’ve wanted to do the same and watch some classic sonics games. what bar?
GO DAWGS!
March 21st, 2010 at 4:37 pm
hopefully we can celebrate 6889 passing the house as well as a Husky game, im in , what bar?
March 21st, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Go Huggie Bear!
March 21st, 2010 at 8:10 pm
So cool to have a meaningful basketball game for the city of Seattle (how long has it been?). Would love to hang out and watch the game with some die hard Seattle B-Ball fans!!!
March 21st, 2010 at 8:31 pm
If any of you can go to this on Tuesday, March 30, it would be good to have as many people in the room as possible to address the future of KeyArena and Seattle Center:
Tuesday March 30th, 6:30 pm. Center House. Meeting with Sally Bagshaw about the future of the center:
http://seattle.gov/council/bagshaw/
March 21st, 2010 at 8:58 pm
…and go Dawgs! Some amazing basketball these past 4 days. Still not a replacement for the Supes, but i do think March Madness is the best sporting event in the world. Leave it at 65. Crazy talk of making it 96 teams. Maybe 72.
March 21st, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Adam - “If any of you can go to this on Tuesday, March 30, it would be good to have as many people in the room as possible to address the future of KeyArena and Seattle Center”
Want me and my fellow childish people come and address the future too?
March 21st, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Today was one of the most heart breaking days for me in the history of sports. I cried for the first time about sports since the Sonics left.
Now I will be cheering on the Huskies full time. Didn’t think they’d last past Marquette though. It’s been a crazy tournament.
I’ll be happy as long as Duke and Kentucky lose.
March 22nd, 2010 at 12:16 am
“Today was one of the most heart breaking days for me in the history of sports. I cried for the first time about sports since the Sonics left.”
Dude grow up. The terps were lucky to make it a ballgame.
March 22nd, 2010 at 7:51 am
…and go Dawgs! Some amazing basketball these past 4 days. Still not a replacement for the Supes, but i do think March Madness is the best sporting event in the world. Leave it at 65. Crazy talk of making it 96 teams. Maybe 72.
- I watched probably 60 hours of basketball over the last four days. Combine that with probably 20 hours the previous weekend…perhaps I’ve achieved the “acceptance” stage of the grieving process.
BTW…Cougar fans amsue me
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:25 am
the more people in green and gold there the better FedUp.
Two brand new Sonicsgate Bonus Features up now:
1. Kevin Calabro on the glory days
–> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6tnKPrz7wQ
2. George Karl on the Sonics leaving Seattle
–> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMBp_5d9Ixk
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:53 am
PLEASE help Sonicsgate get to New York so we can do a private screening for ESPN and international film press!!!! This would be a HUGE step toward getting the story out on a national level.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sonicsgate/send-sonicsgate-to-screen-in-new-york-city
March 22nd, 2010 at 9:17 am
“BTW…Cougar fans amsue me”
I amuse myself. Its good to see all the player payments finally come to fruition. They are looking real tough. Pretty amazing how far they have come this year considering how they started. I wonder if they can set the tone vs WV?
Huggie Bear!!!!!
March 22nd, 2010 at 9:20 am
Not a great match up…after the two UConn losses I hope the basketball gods are on our side this year.
March 22nd, 2010 at 9:28 am
Rivalry aside. Its been a serious transformation for the Dawgs. They look like a completely different team. Since when can Elston Turner stroke it like he has been? MBA started off the season looking like a 0 hoops IQ player. Now he is beating guards down the floor and is a serious presence in the key.
3/4 court pass quick hitters? Imagine if they had been doing that all year. Romar finally figured it out.
WV has size. It will be interesting to see what the tempo is.
March 22nd, 2010 at 9:39 am
Shameless self-promotion follows:
I entered another remix contest at R&R World Arena … Please go to http://randrworld.com/primeloopsvote.php and vote for the International Silver String Submarine Band mix of the VICE song “No Compromise” (and a pretty cool tune it is too)
Voting ends March 31st and you can vote daily, so please pass this along to anyone and everyone you can …
Didn’t win the last one (barely) but if mine gets chosen as the winner same offer stands, we’ll call it the Supersonics Never Die Mix or something similar …. thanks everyone!
March 22nd, 2010 at 11:05 am
Warriors are officially for sale: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AvYc2enVoY8N5Z6EN4nuwi68vLYF?slug=ap-warriors-forsale&prov=ap&type=lgns
March 22nd, 2010 at 11:19 am
Warriors have got Larry Ellison’s name all over them, he’s wanted a team for years.
March 22nd, 2010 at 12:20 pm
kevin, i am a terp fan by virtue of living a long time in maryland. . . besides the disappointment of losing a nail-biter, there is no reason for you to feel demoralized about this year’s maryland team. a share of the regular season title, acc player-of-the-year,24-9, and a loss to an izzo-coached spartan team in the second round — that’s not chicken feed. so, once the sting wears off, look at the season for what it was. . . pretty darn good.
if you need to win it all in order not to feel awful, then sports fandom will be hell on earth. enjoy the triumphs and keep the losses in perspective. . .
i will do the same if and when sonics2 happens. i’ll root for the sonics like crazy, but, if they lose some heartbreaker that has me grinding my teeth, i’ll remember that having a team which loses a game is not as bad as having no team at all!!
March 22nd, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Rivalry aside. Its been a serious transformation for the Dawgs. They look like a completely different team. Since when can Elston Turner stroke it like he has been? MBA started off the season looking like a 0 hoops IQ player. Now he is beating guards down the floor and is a serious presence in the key.
- Trust me some of the things are just as surprising to me. ET is starting to look like a young Tre Simmons and MBA is seriously starting to look like an NBA player. MBA is a total revelation. When you think about it…this would be the third player (Dentmon two years ago, QPon last year and MBA) who showed promised…then took steps back…and then at the end of their Jr year started putting it all together.
Hopefully, over the next few years the Pac 10 tournament will run through Washington/WSU
March 22nd, 2010 at 1:48 pm
“PLEASE help Sonicsgate get to New York so we can do a private screening for ESPN and international film press!!!! This would be a HUGE step toward getting the story out on a national level.”
Maybe you should also contact SI’s Paul Forrester. He left a message for Brian a couple of threads down:
http://sonicscentral.com/blog/?p=2709#comment-593988
SI might be more willing to help than ESPN, since they don’t have any TV contracts with David Stern to worry about.
March 22nd, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Maybe that was what Chris Ballard meant about “hoping to come back to that topic down the road.”
http://twitter.com/SI_ChrisBallard/status/8089171815
Frank Hughes also works for SI’s NBA website now, so you might try contacting him.
March 22nd, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Golden State Warriors are officially for sale.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2010/03/warriors-for-sale.html
March 22nd, 2010 at 2:20 pm
thanks JAS. i emailed Paul when that comment was still in moderation, but no word back from him so far.
our plan is to host two “press only” screenings and two “public” screenings in NYC. we’ll be inviting all the top dogs from SI, ESPN, HBO, etc, even down to Spike Lee. Kenny Mayne has been emailing us a couple times a week to help coordinate this, so hopefully he’ll have some pull to get the big dogs in the room.
any other ideas of who to invite with emails/contact info is much appreciated
March 22nd, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Kemp sighting at Joeys Lake Union
March 22nd, 2010 at 2:35 pm
“When you think about it…this would be the third player (Dentmon two years ago, QPon last year and MBA) who showed promised…then took steps back…and then at the end of their Jr year started putting it all together.”
For that matter, although he didn’t have the troubled early career that those guys had, Brandon Roy made significant strides his senior year too, going from “promising role player” to Pac-10 Player of the Year.
BTW, the wikipedia article about Brandon Roy says he lives in Renton. As a former resident of Renton, I can only wonder why the heck would an NBA player want to live in Renton? Mercer Island or Newport Shores would seem like more plausible locations. It’s even more implausible than the sighting someone made of Rashard Lewis at the Southcenter Mall back in the day.
March 22nd, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Oops I forgot to add the original conclusion to my post: the experiences of Pondexter, Roy, etc. suggest the value to many players of staying in school, at least when Romar’s coaching. There’s some clear examples of important improvement happening over 4 years.
Which is not to say that Spencer Hawes would’ve helped himself much by staying in school — the million dollar contract was waiting for him as soon as he finished his freshman year. I don’t know if Brockman benefited that much either, pretty much by his sophomore year he was already the classic bruising Brockman. The Huskies benefited greatly by having Brockman for 4 years but he seemed already to have his full game developed.
March 22nd, 2010 at 2:44 pm
6889 passed the House today and is adopted.
March 22nd, 2010 at 3:09 pm
that means new or remodeled Arenas if anyone’s interested. Big news for King County
March 22nd, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Good times…..Let the speculation and dreaming begin. So what do we want? Key Arena re-boot? Or a totally new venue? I like the bus barn near Safeco and Qwest for a location myself. RRWAYIII, I think you initially brought that location up for vetting. And I’m just a tad ahead of myself, but with the Dawgs making it to the Sweet 16 and this passing it’s probably the best local sports related news I’ve had since 2005.
March 22nd, 2010 at 3:10 pm
RE: Roy
Its important to take into account that he was plagued with injury early in his college career. Having a non plagued senior year helped him tremendously. He was always good when healthy. I think too much attention is given to the idea that he “came back” for his senior year. He didn’t really have a choice. Remember this is a guy that declared for the draft out of high school later to opt out. If it was up to him he would have gone to the L a lot earlier. Injuries didn’t make this an option for him.
Remember when Pondexter held a press conference after his freshman year announcing he was coming back? haha. He put up 6 ppg as a freshman.
Romar as a coach? Not really sold on him. If UW didn’t win the pac-10 title or have a good year last year……he was on the hot seat to get canned IMO. How come he couldn’t win with Spencer Hawes? Why did it take them so long to figure out how to break a zone this year? I think a lot of that goes on the coach. But winning cures all…..especially late in the season.
March 22nd, 2010 at 3:16 pm
one great thing about romar is that, being a dawg himself, he’ s less likely to use uw to better deal his way into a more posh hoops position. that counts for something, imho. i like him as a coach, too. i mean, the team right now is pretty much doing the best it’s done in my rooting lifetime, and i’m a 47 yr-old man. . . go, dawgs.
March 22nd, 2010 at 3:16 pm
MBA was laughable last year and the start of this year. The guy was horrid. He was one of those guys that always had size, strength, speed……but looked like he had 0 idea of how to play. He used to be a black hole in the post and throw up awful shots after he had pump faked like 3x and pivoted at least 3-4x. Now he is running the floor and cramming on people. It is night and day. I’m floored watching him play now.
March 22nd, 2010 at 3:28 pm
Great news about 6889. There is a little hope. Lets just hope they use it for what we want.
March 22nd, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Are we saying they are going to pawn off an arena as a convention and trade center? I guess after reading about 6889 I dont see the clear connection to anything having to do with an arena. Can someone explain?
March 22nd, 2010 at 3:33 pm
SB 6889 passed the house with an amendment that clarifies that the state is keeping the money that they took, and to revise the title of the bill.
Senate will have to touch the bill again tomorrow.
So, the convention center will have its tax, the 1% Seattle wanted last year is on that bucket. They will not have enough money to build a convention center and a new arena, even though they will have the power to do so.
If only they had a partner.
March 22nd, 2010 at 3:42 pm
doesnt the County hotel tax go into this also? , if so, i thought that would bring enough for both.
March 22nd, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Though it appears Larry Ellison is the odds on favorite to be the next owner of the GS Warriors, it would hardly be a bad thing if they became Sonics 2.0. Some nice young talent on that team that needs to be rescued from evil clutches of Don Nelson. Curry, Ellis, Randolph, Biedrins (when health). That team is always management deficient. That could change here…
March 22nd, 2010 at 4:22 pm
That is a different bucket of hotel tax money.
This is the convention center’s tax stream, Seattle wanted 1 of the 7% to remodel keyarena. That money would be there.
Enough, potentially to build a convention center and remodel KeyArena. If you still want to remodel KeyArena, raise your hands… I see none.
If, for some strange reason, HB 2912 passed then you could build a brand new arena, or if there were a “jock tax”, or if a billionaire was tired of the bullshit.
The money is a little short on their own, but that is half of what you need to build an arena. The other half is the power and authority. This bill give power and authority to the PFD board to build a sports, entertainment, or convention facility. It repeals a law that prevented them from building anything with their funds for a professional sport. It give power to the King County Council to condem property of the PFD use. The pfd board changes to 3 appointed from the county, 3 from the city, 3 from the governor (1 of those 3 has to be a hotel rep, 1 has to be a labor rep).
The way the game was rigged you could not build a competing arena in Seattle, not without the city saying it was ok.
I think this is a golden opportunity for somebody to partner with the convention center and build something really big.
Time for Seattle Center to get into the arena business, or prepare for direct competition.
Even though the money for a KeyArena remodel is potentially there, I don’t think this is the time to settle for that.
March 22nd, 2010 at 4:40 pm
“The money is a little short on their own, but that is half of what you need to build an arena.”
if we potentially got an NBA ownership group, an NHL ownership group, and we used ticket taxes on an a new arena, we would get close to an New Arena, right? i think it could break down like this:
$150 million=NBA ownersship group
$150 million=NHL ownership group
$100 million=Ticket taxes on the new arena
then we would need about 100 mil of the conv center funds. we need 75 for keyarena. it would probably be there. the hardest part would be finding ownership groups imo.
March 22nd, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Typical comment from a Blue Devil fan. It shall be ignored.
A few hours after the loss had settled, I can look back and think of the season and how good it was. How the team overcame embarrassing losses to Cincinnati and William & Mary. Losing to Izzo on a buzzer beater isn’t that bad. We had some great wins and made it further than I thought we would.
Very excited about next season though. Great recruiting class and won’t have to deal with douche bags like Singler, Scheyer, Smith and Zoubec next year. Terps will be champs in 2012.
I’m so happy about the bill passing the house. I think it’s time to talk to Ballmer and company and have them talk with the Atlanta Spirit Group. Their ownership group is so dysfunctional right now. They hate themselves, hate the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia. None have local ties there and I think if we wanted a team that could be moved easily then the Hawks and Thrashers would be the best to go after. No lease, you could buy them and move them. Plus Atlanta doesn’t support either of those two teams. Hawks are really good and no one shows up to games. Thrashers no one cares about.
Too bad Ballmer couldn’t buy the Hawks and extend Joe Johnson’s contract before the end of the season.
March 22nd, 2010 at 5:18 pm
If the convention center folks needed 770 million for their facility and there was potentially enough left over for most of the public portion of the partnership with Steve Ballmer, then I think it is fair to look at that as a starting point.
Where the combined convention center / arena thing failed was that the price tag got up to 950 million, that, and the legislation.
The legislation part is backing its way into being solved.
I wonder what the King County Exec thinks.
March 22nd, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Duke? Why ruin such a good conversation sir?
March 22nd, 2010 at 7:45 pm
kevin, if nothing else, newcome haukur pallsson gives us reason to ‘go icelandic!”
i like what i’m reading here about the house bill. . . any movement is better than stasis.
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:05 pm
what happened to gary payton? saw a recent pic of him and he looks like he’s but on quite a few pounds! let’s get thi new building and let’s get a team back so we can retire his number and kemps in seattle
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:11 pm
I had no idea who Pallsson was until now. I’ve been more excited about Parker, Stoglin and Howard. I’d love to get Terrence Ross back. I’m sure Calipari has already done something illegal to get him away from us.
Pallsson should help with scoring off the bench. He’s only a one star recruit, but seems to be the type of player Gary Williams loves. Greivis Vazquez was a one star recruit and he was one of the greatest Terps of all time. He passed Len Bias in the game against Houston as 2nd all time scorer.
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:16 pm
(smiles)
March 22nd, 2010 at 9:41 pm
HTC is coming out with a new 4G device called the “Supersonic”.
http://androidandme.com/2010/03/news/htc-supersonic-is-a-groundbreaking-device-announcement-coming-tomorrow/
March 22nd, 2010 at 9:45 pm
The Thunder lost to the Spurs so they are in the 7th seed. Hopefully the Trailblazers can pass them (1 game behind) so The Thunder have to play the Lakers.
This would have been the last year of the Sonics, if Nichols hadn’t sold out, correct?
March 22nd, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Double (smiles) Camp…
This is a rare post for me…although I read the forum constantly. I felt inclined to write tonight because I think we have some great opportunities to have our voice heard and put the pressure on our local politicians, particularly the City of Seattle, to get something done in regards to renovating KeyArena and fixing the Seattle Center.
I think everyone should come join myself & some of the Sonicsgate team at Sally Bagshaw’s event, a week from tomorrow (Tuesday March 30th 6:30pm) at the luxurious Center House at the Seattle Center.
I met Sally and talked with her last week (and gave her a copy of Sonicsgate) and she invited me to come to the meeting…
So I, in turn, am inviting all of you:
http://seattle.gov/council/bagshaw/
This is a chance to make our voices heard to the City Council about the future of the Seattle Center. People will be expecting to talk about Chihuly, but instead let’s give them a strong showing of Sonics green & gold!
Remember what we did at the Gregoire Rally?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-JFiD5_D1I
After talking with Sally Bagshaw, she seemed genuinely engaged and I believe that she will listen to our cause. She’s a big fan of green public space and from how I gauged it…NHL (along with NBA of course). She’s also not to hot on the glass museum…If we can brainstorm some ideas with her that about how to accomplish those goals, I think it would be a very good thing for our cause. She might be the perfect person to work with us to push the issue onto the City Councils plate.
If we let her know why having a renovated KeyArena (and anchor tenants such as NBA and NHL teams) is the best thing for the Seattle Center and how powerful of a voice Sonics fans have, I think she will respond favorably.
Also, I talked to Dow Constantine, Rob McKenna, Sam Reed, and Norm Rice the same night and gave them all copies of the movie. Dow told me he’s been trying to get the authority from the state all session, so it looks like he’s doing what he said. He hadn’t seen Sonicsgate yet, but he told me he was going to watch it.
BTW, I was talking to him while watching the Husky game…Perfect platform to talk about what we’re missing by not having the Sonics here…Serendipity!
Last, we’re trying to raise some money to go to screen Sonicsgate in NYC. We’re going to try to get as much media attention on the film and the issue as possible while we’re out there. Hardly anyone on the East Coast even know the Sonics no longer exist, let alone that they became the Oklahoma City Thunder! We want to let them know!
I’ve been in contact with Kenny Mayne and some other higher-ups at ESPN and we really feel that being there when the ESPN/Tribeca Sports Film Festival will make a great platform to have our story heard on the national stage. We don’t need much money to pull it off, so anything you can donate will help us greatly (plus you can get cool prizes like shirts and DVDs!).
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sonicsgate/send-sonicsgate-to-screen-in-new-york-city
Ice Cube’s new movie about the LA Raiders is playing there, so we’re going to try to get him to come as well.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/movies/18arts-MOVIEBYICECU_BRF.html
With Ice Cube on our side, how could we not get a team back?
Stay Gold SonicsCentral, Stay Gold!
-Reidster Reid
March 23rd, 2010 at 12:19 am
Also, Brian…where are we watching the UW game on Thurs?
March 23rd, 2010 at 7:44 am
Ya Brian, where are we watching the Husky game?
I don’t know that I can escape my back yard to be there, but you just never know.
March 23rd, 2010 at 8:34 am
Time for Ballmer to get involved, if he isn’t already in some backroom meetings.
March 23rd, 2010 at 4:57 pm
what time is the Huskies game on at? and NBA Will be Back in Seattle, Have Faith!!!