Jones II, Basketball

Yes, I know, more sports bullshit. Deal.

The following is an email from my friend jjsafool:

An Open Letter to the Seattle Sports Fan Community,

I sit down this evening to talk candidly with my fellow Seattle sports fans. I feel I must due in large part to the conversations I have had, and am sure you all have had, about the Sonics. They look so good, we want so badly to believe, but old wounds run deep, the seed of doubt remains. I urge us one and all to listen carefully to those misgivings, to REFUSE TO BELIEVE. And I want to tell you why, starting with some bits of history.

Nobody expected the Mariners to bring us 116 wins. And so they did. And when they did, we all expected the World Series to follow. And it didn't.

A few years ago, we booed Matt Hasslebeck in the PRESEASON, and talked about how he was not the answer. And so he went on to open up the offense and have a Pro Bowl season last year. And then he said it, he said they would take the ball and score, and we believed for just a moment, and so of course they didn't score. This year, we believed, were hyped, were talking Super Bowl. And? It is probably too late to
save the Seahawks with fandom and team in such utter psychological disarray.

Do we really, then, have to ask why the Sonics have been able to mount decent starts before their inevitable collapses the last few years? Each year, they charge out of the gates, and just enough of us start to think they may be pretty good to insure they don't make the playoffs.

It is time to break the cycle, to use our backassward sports karma to our advantage. As Jackie Mason learned in Caddyshack II (I know I wasn't the only one stupid enough to sit through that once), if you're slicing every shot 90 degrees, aim for the out of bounds marker. If we want this Sonics ride to continue, if we want a championship, we must REFUSE TO BELIEVE. We must embrace the bitter irony that seeethes in the heart of every true Seattlelite, the utter inability to get out from underneath the bum side of Mr. Murphy's many laws. We must REFUSE TO BELIEVE. We can cheer every tre', every sweet dish, every rafter-rattlin', chicken-in-the-barnyard slam, but we must always REFUSE TO BELIEVE.

Because we know damn well what will happen if we fail to expect failure.

SOS - RTB
Support our Sonics - Refuse to Believe

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Amen. Hallelujah.

--tbo