B. Jones: The Wisdom of the Bennett

Fuck Howard Schulz! Kill Wally Walker!

All right, with that out of the way, I have to confess that watching this year's team has been akin to a war of attrition on my enthusiasm. Gads, I haven't seen a waste of talent on this scale since Woody Allen's Celebrity.

Look, I've been bleeding green and gold for such a long time, so my guard is way up. Which is why I can't help but be leery when I read that Clayton Bennett, the new owner, is giving ultimatums, even if I do believe it might be for the general benefit of the team. Well, except for talking about trading a star player...that never works, and yet it's been an old standby for numerous general managers over the ages. You'd think people would look at Wally Walker's history to see how well that works. grumble grumble

Thing is, watching the team, it has become quite easy to be retroactively cynical about the events of the past. I've become convinced that Schulz/Walker have been planning to dump the team for at least Schulz' tenure, if not longer. How else to explain the current malaise: Poor coaching.

Not that I'm about to let the players off the hook; their play can best be described as dispirited and lazy. The fact that no one moves off the ball, though? Or that the defense is pretty much non-existent? Yeah, that's coaching.

Don't get me wrong, I was as relieved as the next guy when Hill took over for Weiss early last season. And his performance was such that it gave the promise of possibility at the end of last year. However, it's become obvious that the problems that plagued the team in the latter portion of the 05-06 season are still here, and that Hill has no idea how to go about fixing it.

(Omitting the token paragraph wherein I wax nostalgic for Nate McMillan, and place a jihad on Wally Walker's head for the umpteenth time.)

But, is gutting the team the answer? Is firing the coach mid-stream the way to go? Frankly, the situation is not unlike Damocle's Sword, and I can't give a sound answer, just ask further questions like: Who're we gonna get for Lewis? What's out there that could possibly be seen as an equitable trade for this talent at the moment? Who in the hell would replace Hill halfway through the season? Jack Sikma, Wally Walker's buttboy?

Yeah, no.

Anyway...At this point I'm starting to fantasize that should the current ownership succeed in moving the Sonics to Oklahoma City, Paul Allen will uproot his team from Portland and bring the Jailblazers and the former Mr. Sonics up here. I can dream.

Oh, and I'm aware that not many of my regular readers care about sports or the Sonics, so please spare me the reminder if you were thinking of mentioning it again. Thanks.