After a second disheartening loss in a row, this time to the Nuggets in Denver, I had to ask my good friend Ratty Pondscum what was up with these Sonics. "Good lord, we got beat by a bunch of second stringers on the worst team in the Western Conference! What is wrong with these guys? Aside from Gary Payton, they don't seem to play with any heart at all. How can you get outscored by a bunch of nobodies by 21 points as they were in the third quarter of that game, not to mention being out rebounded 55-33?" Ratty stared blankly ahead as if contemplating some profound thought he was unable to put into words. "Can Rashard have had THAT much of an effect on the team?" he finally asked as if not sure himself. "I mean,it was a negotiating ploy, right? How can anyone take him seriously when he starts talking about a max contract of over $100,000,000 & then follows it up by shooting 7-23 in the next two games? Do you think that's causing dissension or something on the team? As good as Gary's been, is he gonna blow if they keep playing this lackadaisically?"

"Ya got me," I responded. "Seems like a lot of money for yet another guy full of potential that doesn't seem able to lift his game or this team up from mediocrity. Unfortunately Wally loves those kind of guys. If he continues true to form, he'll probably give him the money just like Jimmy Mac, Baker, & now Booth. What a mess!"

"Yeah, all these 'FINESSE' guys with no heart & nothing going for them but 'POTENTIAL' which never materializes once they get the big pay day & lose their ambition".

We walked along without saying much as the rain threatened to turn into snow."What the hell was Nate thinking?" Ratty finally said as if he thought I would know what he was talking about. "Vin might be a great low post scoring threat," he continued, "but everyone knows he can't or WON'T play defense. So why make him your center when the guy he's replacing there is the only guy on the front line with any cajones even if he can't make a shot or play five minutes without fouling? With Vin, Rashard, & Mase up front, you're just asking to give up a bunch of second shots. What'd Denver have -- 20 offensive rebounds?Jeez, Hamilton alone had 11; HAMILTON! Who the hell is HE?"

"Yeah, we're pretty soft without Long in there," I agreed.

As we continued walking in silence,it began to get dark. It was going to be a cold & windy night.Finally Ratty began,"The thing that gets me is that Wally was willing to trade half the team & mortgage the farm last year to get us an aging, over-the-hill center in Ewing. When that didn't work out for reasons we all should have seen coming, does he admit he screwed up, & go out & get us a real center like Nazr? No," Ratty continued answering his own question, "because he was afraid of the criticism is he botched it two years in a row. So he waits 'till the end of the summer, afraid to make a move like some pimple-faced adolescent at a jr.high school dance. We wind up with a bunch of bargain basement, incomplete players who together possess the skills of one well rounded big man."

"Center by committee," I chipped in.

"What? Oh, yeah, I see what you mean. Trouble is you can't play them all at the same time, so no matter who you have in there at any given moment, he's woefully deficient in some major & important part of the game. Why couldn't he have just gotten us a top flight center instead of all these flunkies?"

"I don't think we had enough money," I said. "Vin's got so much money tied up, the only way we could have done much better was to have traded him. Of course after his last two years, nobody wanted him, so what else could we have done; McCulloch?"

"Oh God no! That's all we need is him & Vin in there together, 'SLOW,& SLOWER'. No, as long as Vin is here, we're screwed."

It looked more & more like snow now. "Why do you think we can't get it done with Baker?" I asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Ratty snarled. "The guy's a bad influence; he makes everyone else around him look bad. Guys see that he's only concerned with scoring & makes little effort to play defense & yet he gets paid the big bucks. It confirms every inmature thought they've ever had about all they REALLY need to do to become a star & get the big pay day. Lewis is the classic example. Here's a kid fresh out of high school who comes in with a sweet shot & a lot of athleticism, & he sees a selfish incomplete player like Vin pull down the big contract, & he says to himself, 'why shouldn't I be getting paid accordingly? My numbers are as good or better than his, I got more hops, & I'm a lot younger'. And actually he's got a point. So what in the heck is everyone so surprised about when he foolishly comes out at mid-season & says what he's probably been thinking for ages? I mean, Vin got that contract after a HORRIBLE year. Rashard's probably thinking all he has to do is have a decent one & old Waldo is gonna reward him on POTENTIAL alone.Can you imagine this kind of thing going down in Utah? Old man Malone would have a fit. That's why year after year they get so much out of so little; Karl, John & Sloan won't put up with this kind of crap. Gary can't motivate by himself, & he sure don't get much help from the other players. That's not his style anyway despite how they've tried to make him over this year. I thought Nate would make a big difference,but without more veteran help it looks like he's fighting an uphill battle."

Ratty appeared exhausted by his soliloquy. "I wonder how his mother's doing?" I said. "Do you think he's been preoccupied with that situation & that's all the distraction that was needed for these guys to quit functioning as a team?"

"I'm so tired of hearing that kind of crap, I could SCREAM!" Ratty yelled. "First we have too many back-to back games & tough road trips, then too much rest between games, then the refs are screwing us, then Rashard distracts us, now you're gonna tell me it's Nate's mother's fault? Give me a break! These guys have more excuses for being a mediocre team than Heinz has varieties. They're just soft & poorly motivated, plain & simple."

"So what's the solution?" I asked.

Ratty stared at me a minute, lowered his head, & said sadly in a barely audible voice, "There isn't any. As long as we're stuck with Vin & Wally, there isn't any. I'll still be buying season tickets, but we'll probably be into the next decade before we see much of a change in player attitude around here unless we can lose one or both of those guys".

We were almost home now.The weather had turned as nasty as Ratty's mood. I tried to think of something encouraging to say. Booth would finally come back & we'd all be surprised at how much difference he'd make. Vin would find a backbone. Art would learn how to play without fouling so much. James would find the game he left behind in college. Oyedeji would develop a shot. Drob would develop some quickness. Lewis would mature. Bones would pick himself up off the wall. Even Gary would develop a permanent smile like his bobblehead self. And barring the failure of any of those things to happen, surely our fearless leader Wally would find us a way out of this morass,wouldn't he?

A big snowflake hit me in the face like reality; I was really depressed.

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