According to the Sonics Blog from The Seattle Times (link stolen from CSTB), a fan names Sam had the nerve to disturb His Lord Highness while sitting in his box seat watching the Sonics play Sacramento.

Sam: Clay, what’s up? You’re a thief Clay!
Clay: shrugs, smirks and blows me a kiss (I swear to God this is no lie)
Sam: I’ve been a season ticket holder since age 10. Don’t steal my team!!!
Clay: makes a face of mock pity
Sam: Sell the Sonics!!!
Clay: walks to the back of the suite, never to reappear

How rude to hurl insults at someone above your station. The Duke of Sonicsville rightly had ruffian put out on his ear.

I guess it’s a cool enough idea but I’m wondering about the, erm, quality of submissions that Rudy will get, based on a few comments on his video so far:

“u should do 720, between the legs, between the legs twice,jump over one of your teammates,get an ally opp from your teammates,360 windmill,between the legs 360,air canada from sidlines, behind the back dunk good luck sexy”

” dunk with a fosforecent, ball uniform rim and turn off the lights…or with a ball on fire and the rim with alchohol and when the ball goes in, ignites the rim..”

” i like basketball,just like my girlfriend,they are my life. i am a chinese live in nanjing .”

“I’d love to be in the contest, but I’m fat and white and can’t get off the ground, let alone reach a 10 foot rim. I’m still thinkin of a good idea, but maybe I’ll bust out my old blue and orange lil’ tyke bball hoop and try to demonstrate with a brief walkthrough of how it would work.”

The Pistons shot just 30% from the field and missed a franchise low for points scored by one thanks to a three-pointer by Amir Johnson with 13 seconds remaining. I’m hard pressed to think of anyone having a worse night, though Rudi Giuliani in the New Hampshire primary comes to mind.

To be fair, Detroit was maybe a little tired when they reached the Garden to play the last of four road games, but these guys are supposed to be professional athletes who do all that conditioning stuff, right? Or maybe Flip Saunders lets his team just lay around eating Ding Dongs and Ho-Ho’s during road trips.

The worst part about this, though, is that the Knicks might point to this game as evidence that Isiah Thomas is in fact doing a good job and shouldn’t be fired. Not that James Dolan ever needed reason or logic to justify a fucked up decision.

Atlanta won the December 19 game 117-111 in overtime but were just three points ahead when the Hawks’ scoring table personnel incorrectly disqualified the Heat’s Shaquille O’Neal.

It is the first time in over 25 years an appeal on a game result has been upheld by the NBA and the replayed part of the match will be held when the teams meet on March 8 in Georgia.

The mistake came when the scoring official ruled that a foul by O’Neal was his sixth of the game rather than his fifth.

The NBA said the error occurred because the Hawks’ official attributed to O’Neal a foul at 3:24 remaining in the fourth period that was actually called against the Heat’s Udonis Haslem.

Now if Miami head coach Pat Riley could figure out a way to get a do over on the other 28 losses the Heat have suffered, they would be on their way to the playoffs for sure.

Not wanting to carry and dead weight in the U-Hauls to Oklahoma City, that evil bastard no good Clay Bennett agreed today to sell the Storm to a group of well-heeled local gals led by former Deputy Mayor Anne Levinson that includes two Microsoft executives. Women owning a professional women’s sports team? The next thing you know, they’ll be getting the vote.

Money quote from Bennett in the official press release: “We believe the Storm can continue to be successful in KeyArena.” This, I’m sure, he said with the biggest ever shit-eating grin on his face.

French model Alexandra Paressant is going around telling everyone who will listen that she’s been having a secret affair with little Eva’s hubby, basketball player Tony Parker. The Parker’s of course deny it, with the San Antonio Spurs star telling the press, “I love my wife. She’s the best thing in my life, and I have never been happier.” But checking out some photos of Ms. Paressant here [some NSFW] and her MySpace page and you can see why someone might stray.

Now if you’re thinking you’ve heard Paressant’s name before, she was last seen banging Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho during the World Cup last year. At the time she told the gossip papers, “nearly every night he would come to my hotel room and we would make love all night … Sometimes we didn’t even make it into the room, we would make love there and then in the corridor. We are mad for each other.”

“When Isiah Thomas dispatched Jamal Crawford to find out how the players would react if and when Marbury rejoined the team, all of them voted against allowing him to play. Thomas, according to one person who spoke with Crawford, had pledged to hold out Marbury if even a single Knick didn’t want him on the court.

So how did Thomas react to the team’s unanimous vote?

He sat Marbury until late in the first quarter then played him nearly 34 of the game’s remaining 39 minutes.”

While Isiah claimed later that he was just giving the team the best shot to win, you can’t help but wonder if it had more to do with Starbury’s smirking threats of late to go public with assorted juicy details and “bury” Isiah and the Knicks if he doesn’t get the playing time he wants. While we realize the futility in trying to make anything related to the Knicks make sense, that’s pretty much the only thing that makes even quasi-sense, as far as an explanation for Isiah’s decision to so quickly cave in, overruling the entire team’s vote of no confidence in Starbury.

Which makes us wonder just what the hell dirt Starbury actually has on Isiah, that’s worse than the dirty laundry already aired? Pretty much the only thing that might sully Isiah’s sterling reputation at this point would have to involve sex with animals, consorting with minors, or secret Nazi rituals in the bowels of Madison Square Garden at the stroke of midnight.

So come on Starbury, spill the beans…

Stern went on to say (and I’m paraphrasing here), “Seattle can go screw itself. They’re all on my shit list, so no more roundball for them. They don’t deserve it. See my big white ass? Seattle can just kiss it, because my boy Clay Bennett is taking his team out of there and that’s that, end of story. Those fuckers up in Seattle can bitch and moan all they want but it’s their own damn fault.

“Suck it up and deal.”

You can probably imagine yesterday was pretty hard, but I finally did it. I finally told Seattle what I think about out relationship and my true feelings for Oklahoma City and I broke it off. It’s done. What a weight off my shoulders.

You can’t imagine what it’s been like all these months living a lie and carrying on like everything is going to work out in the end when I knew it wasn’t true. There were a bunch of times I almost came out and said it but I knew I had to keep my true feelings to myself for a while longer because I did give Seattle an ultimatum and I meant it. But now it’s official, me and Seattle are through.

Of course right away Seattle started calling all our friends and telling them this was all my fault, that I didn’t try hard enough to make it work and suggesting that I was never interested in a longterm relationship in the first place. What a fat bunch of lies!

I suggested we move out to the suburbs but Seattle said, “No.” I suggested we renegotiate our lease, but Seattle said, “No.” Every idea I had Seattle just said, “No” and then when I asked Seattle for suggestions all I got was silence. Typical passive aggressive behavior. Typical Seattle.

Unfortunately I’m stuck here in this lease for a while so we have to make it work somehow. It’s kinda like that movie with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. I don’t know though how long I can keep avoiding Seattle in the hallway or on the way to the bathroom. I wish I could just move to Oklahoma right now. I can’t wait to start my new life there with someone who really understands me and cares about me.

Well, that’s all for now diary. I think I might do a little shopping today and maybe get a new haircut — I think I deserve it.

Clay Bear out!