Call it laziness if you want, but sometimes it seems easier to write a few sentences on a variety of thoughts than to develop any particular one of those thoughts into a Doctoral Dissertation. So here's this week's installment:

Pain threshold:
Ever wonder how some guys like Cody Pickett can play a contact sport like football with a separated shoulder, while guys like Vin Baker take the week off with a sore pinkie? This time it's an ouwee on his knee. Maybe the guy IS a "bad machine", I don't know. But it sure seems like he gets sidetracked for the phoniest variety of excuses. I've always thought turf toe was a lame excuse, but I guess if you can't run or cut well,it definitely affects your game. Certainly knees & ankles fall into that category as well. But fingers? Guys play football with casts on for God's sake! True,basketball is much more a finesse game requiring "touch", but what about spray on local anesthetics to relieve the pain? Maybe he wouldn't have quite the necessary "feel" on his shots, but at least he could play & contribute in other areas. The bigger problem would seem to be that Vin is injury prone. Or is he? While ironmen like GP & Karl Malone never SEEM to be injured, one has to wonder if they have problems like everyone else, but just don't whine about it all the time like Vin. Further, one has to wonder since Baker's finesse game seems to preclude contact, how come he become injured so much more frequently than other big men? I guess the only thing we know for sure is that Vin will never threaten Gary's record for consecutive starts.

Point Guard of the future?
Earl Watson has been a pleasant surprise for me thus far. Sure he makes rookie mistakes like the occasional bad pass, or shuffling his pivot foot to get called for a travel. But he has more of an all around game than I expected. He sees the court well, & distributes the ball in a timely fashion as expected; but he also has enough court awareness to surprisingly slip in for a rebound amongst much bigger men now & again; and his shot & defense both seem better than advertised. As the starting point guard in the Sonics' future once Gary retires, it should be fun to watch GP groom his replacement. Have I forgotten Shammond? No, I just feel that because of salary cap restraints as well as defense, Watson will be the guy. As it's now constituted, this team hardly needs another high priced gunner that doesn't play Glove style defense.

Technical/Personal Fouls
Ever wonder why it varies so much from sport to sport what the officials will tolerate in the way of bad behavior? In hockey I've seen the zebras take glancing blows while breaking up a fight with no extra consequences. "Off to the penalty box with you,you lout! And you better change that attitude before you come back Mr.!" In basketball you can literally LOOK at an official the wrong way & get a technical called. God forbid you should laugh at one of their calls -- then you're subject to ejection. In baseball it would seem as long as you don't spit tobacco juice on the umpire or admit intentionally trying to maim someone, you're O.K. Spike someone sliding into second? No problem. Knock the cathcher on his ass trying to score? Again, no problem. Kick dirt on the umpire? I'm a bit confused on this one. I think there's an unwritten rule describing how long your tirade can go on & something about not getting any dust in the umpire's face particularly if he wears contacts -- but it's a bit vague as to when you've crossed the line. In football the field judge can be knocked unconcious & out of the game with nary a personal foul. Try doing that in basketball. I think we need a uniform code of conduct in sports for both players & officials so that casual observers don't become confused by the nuances of the rules in the various games. If you deck an official in whatever sport, that should be a foul; if you laugh at him, that shouldn't.

Kevin Calabro
By now I suppose this is starting to sound like Andy Rooney, which is O.K., because I like ol' Andy. In fact I sometimes imagine him announcing Sonics games rather than the glib Kevin Calabro. "But Andy probably doesn't know shit about basketball," you say. Well it doesn't seem to have hurt Kevin thus far. You don't understand what the referee's signal means? No problem -- neither does Kevin. Great play by so & so -- oh wait, he's not in the game. Nothing but net, cord, twine -- oh, ya mean you're not supposed to say that if it clanks of the rim, or banks off the glass? Last year the PI forum told me I was being entirely too hard on old Kev. But I continue to be convinced that just as any marquee player can get away with steps just as long as he looks smooth doing it, an announcer can say just about anything so long as he doesn't stammer & stutter in the process. If it sounds good, most people aren't paying that much attention anyway. So even though he's a mental midget, Kevin continues to be quite popular. And on a related subject, having talked directly to the parents of our own dear founder & chief contributor, I want to dispell once & for all any notion that SonicsKevin was named after Calabro, or conceived during a Sonics telecast. There simply is no truth whatsoever to either of these rumors.

Well,I guess you'll have to wait 'till next week for my extended conversation on Puss'nBooth with my alter ego, Mittens McIlvaine. Last I knew, he, Ducky Pondscum, & Steve Kelley were out on a bender that started with the Mariners' ouster of the ACS & intensified with the Huskies drubbing at the hands of OSU this past weekend. I haven't heard word one since I threatened to send Laura Vecsey out looking for them.

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