Basketball is a game, and when you play games you should give an all-out effort, but have fun, and that’s what the Sonics are doing this year.

Last night, the Sonics won their first game of the season at home in a close contest against the Spurs, and they had fun while they were doing it. The Sonics played aggressive defense, moved he ball around, and gave the rock to GP to win it in the fourth, and you could tell they were loving every moment of it.

GP is an incredible player that has amazing skills. The problem with GP has always been that, like some other superstars, (Michael Jordan in the past) he could become extremely negative after losses, and take the heart out of his own team. The astonishing thing is that this year, GP has done a complete 180. GP has become one of the most positive players on the Sonics, and he is trusting teammates to make a contribution every night.

The proof of that fact is how GP reacted after an initially bad practice Wednesday. On Wednesday, the Sonics were having a hard practice after losing a close game to the Kings, and their effort and concentration were horrible. This provoked Nate to blast them, which is of course something every coach would do. A coach tearing into players for a bad practice is standard coaching procedure; the amazing thing is what occurred afterward. GP called all the players together, talked to them in an even tone, and encouraged them while instructing them how to give the effort the coaches wanted. The fact that GP did that was so amazing, that all three local news stations mentioned it in their newscasts and Sports Radio 950 talked about it all day Thursday.

That same leadership and team unity that GP has shown in practice has been carried onto the court. Against Sacramento on Tuesday, GP dealt out 13 assists, and against the Spurs he dealt out 10. Gary has always been a guy that could get assists, but in the past GP wouldn’t necessarily put undo effort into trying to get teammates involved, they either got involved themselves or they didn’t, but this year GP has taken it upon himself to involve teammates as much as possible while still leading in the fourth.

In the fourth quarter, when the Sonics needed automatic offense, GP took over and dominated the game. Gary took the ball to the rack, hit turnaround J’s in the post, and buried a three to put the game out of reach. Yet Gary did that while still making sure his teammates contributed. GP had 25 points on 9-19 shooting, but Brent Barry had 24, Rashard contributed 22, and Desmond tossed in 15 points.

The Sonics offense in the half-court and on the break was well executed, but their defense against the Spurs was really the story of the game. The Sonics kept the Spurs off balance by playing man to man on a few series then quickly switching to an old fashioned 2-3 zone, to keep the Spurs guessing.

The story of the season is going to be the question of whether the Sonics can play with this intensity every night. The Sonics got valuable contributions off of the bench and inspired defense from Vin Baker and Jerome James, but the real surprises were the contributions from Vladimir Radmanovic and Desmond Mason. Both of these young guys were blasted by various columnists at this website at one time or another in the past few weeks, and yet last night they both contributed huge minutes and big baskets. The key for the Sonics may be the play of the youngsters. If the Sonics can get solid contributions off of the bench from the youngsters, this team could be a big-time spoiler in the West that the powerhouses dread having to play.

Goat of the Week

The Goats this week are SonicsKevin, Sonic Fan Since, and myself.

I’m a goat for underrating Vladimir Radmanovic. I wasn’t calling him a bust, but I was scared he was going to turn out like Vladimir Stephania, and as such was clearly wrong. For that glaring mistake I’m a Goat.

SonicsKevin is a goat for jumping on Mason. Kevin was calling Desmond the most overrated player in the NBA, and he was positive Mason should get buried on the bench because he wasn’t ready. Kevin was clearly wrong because Mason proved he could play well and under control last night, and he even stuck his J (which Dale Ellis deserves a lot of credit for helping him with). So Kevin is a goat this week for writing Mason off too early.

The last Goat is Sonic Fan Since for overrating Vladimir. Rad-man is going to be good, and by next year may be a major contributor on this team, but he is no where near as good as SFS made him out to be, nor will he be a huge contributor early on. I as I already admitted underrated Vlad, but SFS severely overrated him by saying he would be it this year. Vlad has incredible confidence, god ball handling skills, and a nice shot, but his defense still needs work because he has not com close to grasping Nate’s defense, and he still seems to become lost on the court at times. So for overrating Vlad, SFS is my third goat of the week.

I think we columnists here at Sonics Central, myself included, need to take a more wait and see attitude with the youngsters. Youngsters don’t always shine immediately, but that does not mean they are going to suck.

Oh yeah…and summer league performances are obviously worthless and prove nothing because the talent level is clearly inferior.

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All opinions expressed in this column are solely the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of other columnists or staff of Sonicscentral.com