NO MORE MR. NICE GUY / HEART OF A DOG?

Heavy was really mad. Was it because Howard had intoned during a sideline interview in the Dallas fiasco that this Sonic team had overachieved? Did he think that would somehow make everyone feel better? That self-satisfaction was the emotion & motivation this young, inexperienced team now needed to be feeling That everyone could puff up with as much pride as Howard obviously felt, & say to themselves, "I didn't even think we had a shot at the playoffs this year with this youth movement management has substituted as the annual excuse for failure." And then all those injuries! My Lord! Could anyone but the coach of the year have coaxed a 7th, er 8th seed out of this lot? Well,the east coast biased media would probably have robbed Nate of the honor anyway, so this little swoon heading into the first round matters little. As soon as Radman & Lewis get their wind back & their legs under them again, whomever we play will be quaking in their boots. Yeah,right -- quaking with laughter; all the way to the next round. Guess they're lucky they aren't getting us at full health. Question: when exactly would that have been this year?

Was Heavy mad because Coach McMillan had said, "Whoever we face, regardless of who we're playing, we'll be swept"? No, not really. Might as well try a little reverse psychology on this self-satisfied team. After all, nothing else has seemed to give them a sense of urgency, or made them realize the importance of peaking for the harder-fought games of the playoffs. After all, this has been a team that has felt all year that it had the talent to turn it on & off as they pleased. This has been a team that has always felt that it could win when it really mattered, & they really wanted to. This has been a team so short on experience that it apparently harbors the illusion that a playoff series against a superior opponent is nothing to worry about; nothing different. Home court advantage? We don't play that well at home anyway. Yes sir, this team has an answer for everything, & a solution for absolutely nothing because they don't understand the questions.

Was Heavy mad because Rick Sund had proclaimed about the lack of a first round draft choice, "I'm glad. We have an awful lot of young players. We would have gotten like the 18th, 19th, or 20th pick. And it would be difficult for that player to beat out any of our younger players anyway. If I had my druthers, I'd rather be in the playoffs than have a draft pick"? Nah, who listened to that goober anyway? Note to Rick: when were Drob & EJ drafted? Are you really being straight with even yourself in rationalizing that we're so much better that no one out there that we could pick up in the draft would have a chance to crash the lineup of this abundantly talented team? Uh, Rick, isn't it possible that we MIGHT have two guys on our playoff roster currently on the team who just last month were in the CBA & the Developmental League? And these guys are so good, as is the rest of the team, that there's no hope of finding another diamond in the rough Yeah, right!

Boy, just exactly how DO you guys do it? How do you find talent where no man, not even the Starship Enterprise itself, has gone before? How can you find a way to be so happy about limping into the playoffs thusly? How can you put such a positive spin on absolutely everything & expect us to swallow it whole without a prayer of digesting it? I guess that's why you're a "Yes Man" GM & I'm just some poor schmuck writing for free what very few people see. But you know what? At least I have my integrity & self-respect. I'm not blinded by the company mantra. I don't look at myself in the mirror in the morning & say, "Woof!" However unexciting & uneventful it might be, I can live with my undeluded self. Instead of playing the part of some chicanerous carnival barker, I'm honest with myself. I tell it as I see it. If you are so foolish as to believe your own words, & you expect us to believe them as well; boy, does Wally have you under his spell.

Speaking of the devil, was Heavy mad at Wally? Well, yeah,b ut that would be the subject of another column. Besides, Heavy was always mad at Wally, so there was little of news value there.

Was Heavy mad at Vin for recording yet another triple-single in what had become a common place occurrence since his return from injury? Nah, he'd long since given up on Vin. When WAS the last time he'd scored more than 10 points anyway? (Editor's Note: April 3 against San Antonio. What do you mean, that's a 'rhetorical' question?) If Heavy was mad at anyone, it was the people who continued to see Vin as a low post savior; the second coming of Dr. J. who, like manifest destiny, would assert himself in the half court game of the playoffs. As time wore on, the rationalization was wearing increasingly thin. Vin simply didn't matter any more; no use beating a dead horse. He had been a scapegoat long enough. The whole subject of Vin gallantly returning to form in the playoffs & leading us to victory after amazing victory was moot as far as Heavy was concerned.

Was it the spurious logic & imperious attitude of duped fans ecstatic with the team's success & giddy with anticipation over the return to the playoffs? Nah, they deserved some happiness, however misguided. They would come back down to earth soon enough. Let them enjoy their moment in the sun.

No, Heavy was mad because he had come so close to prognosticating perfection only to have the team fail him in their final moments. Just a short time before, Heavy had wondered on numerous occasions whether or not he hadn't underestimated this team as they continued to succeed beyond all expectations. They had won the last two games in March victimizing the unlikely duo of San Antonio & Portland in back-to-back games to realize Heavy's monthly prediction of 11 victories. Heavy was as ecstatic as everyone else. The only question now was would they finish the season at 47 or 48 wins, & remain at 7th seed in the West, or move up to 6th? Heavy regretted having predicted a 4-4 split for the final month of April, & envisioned some prognosticating interloper usurping his crown. But, megalomaniacal to a fault, he obdurately resisted all inclinations to revise his prediction upward, & steadfastly stuck with his 46 win total for the victorious season. Surely they would falter somewhere along the line in the final month, once their object had been achieved. But fall apart? Nah, 46 wins was a LOCK! The only question was, could the team be held back from loftier aspirations? Who could have foreseen the team losing 6 of the last 7? And who could have foreseen them losing to Houston, New York, & the Suns in the span of a week? Certainly not Heavy. Yes, it was a glorious time to be a Sonics fan again. And then the bottom dropped out. So why was Ginny so happy today, anyway?

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