Well, it was bound to happen eventually. I actually thought it would be far sooner. Yes, that's right. I, your fearless leader here at SonicsCentral.com, have run out of ideas to write about.

That was only partially the reason I, of all people, failed to write a column for myself last week. (As you might imagine, I gave myself quite a tongue-lashing and fined myself $500. I would have made out a check, but I think the people at the bank would have looked at me funny.) In addition, there were finals and the fact that my server was not allowing me to update the website for about half a week.

So now that I'm out of ideas to write about, I've been on the lookout for gimmicks. Gimmicks are the best friend to a weekly (even more so to a daily) columnist, and I found a few over the summer when Sonic news was light at best. I've always wanted to do a column where I just answered e-mail from my readers, but seeing as how neither of you e-mail me, that's pretty difficult. One thing I did find that worked well was reading a book that involved the Sonics at least tangentially and then discussing it. Over the summer, I read the book Black Planet, by David Shields, a professor at the UW. Someone who doesn't read the column but does e-mail me once wrote to me, "kev, you could've wrote that book. The first basketball book written about a season without the author interviewing any of the principals." Although it wasn't my favorite book in the world, I got a whole column out of Black Planet, and I can't argue with that.

Today, I turn to a contemporary of Black Planet, Curt Sampson's insider account of the turbulent 1993-94 season, Full Court Pressure. As you may recall, the 1993-94 season was a bit eventful for the Sonics. And perhaps that's the most disappointing part of the book for me. Perhaps my standards are too high, but I think the playoff series against Denver could sustain an entire book, and doesn't get enough play here -- I especially would have enjoyed more from Karl on the playoffs, given that Sampson and Karl are quite clearly fairly close, but Karl doesn't appear to want to talk about it.

What we get instead are a number of recaps of columns from various writers, both at the P-I and Times and elsewhere around the country. A beat writer from Charlotte is quoted as saying, "It was just obvious everyone had their own agenda on that team . . . ." Gee, it must have been pretty obvious for you to tell that from 3000 miles away, seeing as you saw the team play in person twice? It seems very cocky and modest to think that you can tell from such a superficial glance what's happening with strangers.

Actually, this is evidence of a larger problem I found with the book, in that Samson frequently quoted writers both national and local. Now, I obviously don't have a problem with the media getting play, but what is somebody paying for this book for? I can get the P-I for a quarter -- now for free, thanks to the magic of the internet -- I'm turning to a book for new, unique analysis (you know, like what you get here at SonicsCentral.com).

There was one particular humorous, unique, and insightful anecdote regarding writers. In the tense time prior to the start of the playoffs, Gary Payton and current P-I beat writer Jim Moore have the following conversation:

Moore: Well, [Dikembe Mutombo] talks to you, you guys say stuff to each other, don't you?
Payton: NO.
Moore: What does he say?
Payton: Well, if you blocked eleven shots a game, you'd say somethin'. Like on the playground when someone blocks your shot. Oh, I forgot, you've never been on no playground.
Moore: We've got playgrounds in Redmond.
Payton: Yeah, and when someone blocks your shot, you say 'frick,' right?
Moore: F--k you.

This exchange highlights a problem which, from the outside, I would guess is quite prevalent in the NBA in the relationship between writers and players. Let's screw political correctness for a second. Most writers are caucasian. Most players are african-american. I'd guess that most writers come from at least a middle-class background in the suburbs. Most players come from the inner cities. Most writers are over 30. Most players are under 30. This difference would seem likely to cause problems, wouldn't it?

I suppose this is a chance for me to push myself into the picture. If you hadn't already figured it out from the picture, yes, I am white. However, while I don't want to overdramatize my situation, I was hardly born in the lap 'o luxury, and live between White Center and Tukwila (obviously, that means nothing to non-Seattlites, but what the heck?). I grew up playing on playgrounds, not in the health club my parents belonged too. In fact, I played at the playground yesterday. Obviously, the talent where I play can't even be compared to the places where today's NBA players are schooled, but the experience is more comparable in my opinion.

I also found the section on assistant coaches, who don't really get much attention from newspapers, interesting, especially the conclusion, "Nicoolo Machiavelli wrote 500 years ago that only great princes have strong advisers, and a number of people in the NBA conceded that this was the case with the Sonics. 'The coaches are the strength of that team,' said Bucky Buckwalter of the Portland Trail Blazers."

I couldn't agree more with the sentiment about the importance of having assistant coaches, but it also underscores one of the moves that Karl made as head coach I really disliked. On page 177, the reason senior assistant Bob Kloppenberg left after the season is made clear. "Karl liked Kloppy, but he hadn't hired him, he'd inherited him, and he made it plain he wanted the older man off the bench next season."

In my opinion, the role of Kloppenberg in the Sonics' early-90's success was very underrated. For whatever reason, after he was reassigned to the position of scout after the 93-94 season, the Sonics' defense was never quite as tenacious.

The Sonics did get an excellent coach to replace Kloppenberg in Dwane Casey, whose tenure with the Sonics may well be winding down. It's strange to think that when Casey was hired back in the summer of 1994, he was marginalized with the description that he was here to babysit Shawn Kemp -- who Casey had recruited to Kentucky before being ousted (read: taking the fall) in the UK recruiting scandal of the late '80's.

Now, it seems very possible -- even likely -- that Casey ends up a head man . . . somewhere. His name has been mentioned prominently in the local papers as a possible successor to Bob Bender as the UW's basketball coach, a prospect I like as a Husky fan but don't like as a Sonic fan. If not UW, Casey may well receive an NBA head coaching job.

If so, George Karl certainly can't complain that Casey, as an African-American, was 'anointed a head coach', a practice he derided in a recent Esquite magazine. Karl later claimed he was just upset that his right-hand man, long-time assistant Terry Stotts, was not yet a head coach. But this explanation is dismissed by the analysis in Full Court Press of Karl's opinion of former Dallas Mavericks head coach Quinn Buckner. "But then Karl was not likely to be favorably disposed to Buckner anyway. . . . To Karl it was a mind-boggling thing that someone could debut as a coach at the very top of the profession . . . ." So this goes far deeper than just an unheralded assistant; it seems to me that Karl should have just come out and explained that this was his problem, and left any crap about race to the media.

I think what Karl fails to understand is that he's not helping Stotts get a job whatsoever with his comments. Rightly or wrongly, it's my perception that the rest of the NBA sees Stotts as an extension of Karl, and when Karl does something to draw criticism -- like this -- it reflects poorly on Stotts as well.

What we see in the book of Karl -- while generally a flattering portrayal; as I recall it, Sampson was quite friendly with Karl -- is a man who doesn't know when to turn 'it' off, whether 'it' is his competitiveness, his fierce loyalty, or perhaps even his mouth.

Two stories in Full Court Press really illustrate Karl's inability to turn off his competitive instincts. First, early in the book, a story from February 1993 is recreated where Karl gets a technical foul from Bennett Salvatore in the final minute of a blowout win. A year later, he is pictured as dejected after losing -- of all games -- the All-Star game.

To conclude, I leave you with what I probably found the most fascinating info out of the entire book. Who did George Karl want to hire as GM after Bob Whitsitt quit/was fired in 1994? None other than Rick Sund . . . it's a small world after all.