The Question????

Sometimes in life certain things are just destined to happen, it’s only a question of when they will occur, not if. Jordan was always destined to return, the 49ers were always destined to rise from the ashes of the NFL, and apparently I was always destined to meet Wally Walker.

I have been a charter member of the “Wally Walker’s a Moron Club” for some 4 years now, but up until last week, I had never met the man. I have instead always watched from afar and cringed every time he decided to use that GM pen to authorize and create front office moves. I won’t go into Wally’s numerous front office screwups, I’ve beaten that drum to death, I’ll just say they’re numerous indeed. So to cut the story short my disdain for the guy had prevented me from meeting him until last week.

I’m a season ticket holder to the Sonics, so I could have met Wally at one of the 30 ridiculous and obnoxious season ticket holder gatherings every year, but being the rebel I am, I always avoid such fluffy booster type gatherings, and instead despised him from afar.

So Saturday night I walk into Key Arena to watch the Utah Jazz act their way to a win (I won’t even go there), and I see Wally Walker walking leisurely along the promenade on the ground level. Now when you attend as many Sonics games as me, you see Wally semi-regularly, but he is normally rushing somewhere, or I’m not in the mood to say anything but this time he seemed to be strolling, so I decided to find out if I could hate Wally as much up close as I do from afar.

So, deciding that today was the day, I walked up to Wally and said, “Hey Wally, how you doing?” After a moment gathering his thoughts, he said, “Fine, and your name is?” I responded by saying my name was Joe, but then I decided to get bold and really see how friendly Wally was. Without hesitation I decided to flat out ask the million dollar question. I asked, “Why did you try to trade GP?” and without hesitation, he responded with a smile by saying, “We never actively tried to trade him, we just explored our possibilities.” The way he seemed not to mind the inquiry and in fact invited it threw me off, so I said “thanks, nice meeting you,” and walked away, but to say I was a little shocked would be an understatement.

I wasn’t rude when I asked Wally about GP, but I wasn’t exactly nice either. In fact, I was kind of accusatory, but he responded by almost expecting the question, and answering with a smile and a somewhat genuine response.

The conversation wasn’t deep, it wasn’t even that new for him (I know at least two people that have asked the same question), but for me it gave me a deeper insight as to why people that meet Wally like Wally. Wally is a smooth operator, I mean a really smooth operator. He is tall, friendly, and gives off a really guy next door attitude.

So as I was walking away I began to figure out why the media in town gives Wally such a free ride, and why Kevin is suddenly a member of the “Wally is the best fan club”. The reason people give Wally a free pass is that he is so friendly in person he makes you forget that he signed Craig Ehlo, drafted Sherell Ford, and brought in a bum named Jim Mcilvaine. The fact is, Wally must have been a used car salesman at some point because this guy could literally sell water to whales.

Thus my opinion of Wally has changed. I can no longer believe he is dumb or even misguided, this guy may be the third most shrewd businessman in Seattle behind Gates (Microsoft) and his buddy Howard Schultz (Starbucks). He is simply a lousy Gm. Wally may make the Sonics money but when it comes to Front Office moves the guy is simply clueless. I am in no way now a Wally fan; I simply no longer despise him. Now I just want Wally to hand over the front office moves to a more capable executive who actually understands front office moves.

The East Coast Swing

I realize the Sonics are 1 and 2 on the East Coast trip, but I’m actually happy with their play and production. The Sonics are not winning most of these games but they are playing good teams and making it a good game by giving solid effort. This Sonics team is extremely young and extremely inexperienced; yet they have knocked off SA and Orlando, which tells me something, and they have went 12 rounds with Miami. All of the youngsters are giving me hope for future seasons, and with a much lighter schedule upcoming, I think the Sonics will be piling up some easy wins in the next few weeks.

Goat of the Week
Karl Malone is my goat of the week for last Saturday. I haven’t done a column since last Saturday, and watching Karl Malone always makes me want to scream, so he is my goat. I have never seen a worse actor convince three zebras that he is being mauled, and the way he sports that self righteous “I’m the man attitude” only makes it worse. Karl Malone may be one of the best PF’s in history, but his attitude combined with his style of play make people despise him.

Back to the From the Cheap Seats Archive

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