Sleepless In Seattle

David Stern has entered the no spin zone and has laid the smacketh down on Seattle. "I'd love to find a way to keep the team there," he said, "because if the team moves, there's not going to be another team there, not in any conceivable future plan that I could envision, and that would be too bad."

SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett told the NBA last Friday that he plans to move the team to Oklahoma City. The current lease calls for the team to play in Seattle through the 2009-10 season, but Bennett wants out sooner.

Basketball has been in Seattle for 40 years and no one in the Washington legislature or Seattle's can find a way to keep the team there? The Sonics are set up to succeed with the drafting of Kevin Durant and Jeff Green. They cleared TONS of cap space with the trading of Ray Allen and release of Rashard Lewis. To not keep a team there, especially one that has actually been a winner, is a sad thing for Seattle basketball fans.

East Coast Bias - July 6, 2007

Today's Headlines

- Grant Hill to Suns, Good or Bad?

- All Star Game Voting/ Fans Picks for 32nd All-Star

- Sonics hiring P.J. Carlesimo

Weekly Segment

Prognostications, Predictions, and Picks

- Wimbledon predictions

- N.L. Central picks


On the July 6, 2007 episode of East Coast Bias we discuss the Phoenix Suns signing of Grant Hill, and whether it was good or bad. Next we talk about the MLB All-Star Game and fan voting, plus the fans' picks of Chris Young and Hideki Okajima for the final All-Star spots. We then discuss the hiring of P.J. Carlesimo by the Sonics and end the show with our Prognostications, Predictions, and Picks of Wimbledon and the N.L Central Division winner.

Rashard Lewis Signs With The Magic

Rashard Lewis' new home will certainly be much closer to Disneyland than Seattle was. Yesterday Lewis informed the Orlando Magic that he would sign a max contract, worth somewhere in between $75 and $85 million, with them on July 11th and leave the Seattle Supersonics. Because of this signing it most certainly means that Darko Milicic would become an unrestricted free agent and will be finding work elsewhere. With the departure of Rashard Lewis and Ray Allen it appears that the rebuilding process has begun for the Seattle Supersonics. Many fans hope that Jeff Green and Kevin Durant make Seattle a perennial playoff team again and follow in the footsteps of " The Man Child" Shawn Kemp and Gary "The Glove" Payton who made Seattle a basketball powerhouse in the 90's. Not since the Magic acquired Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady in 2000 has their been such buzz surrounding a Magic offseason. The question is however to what end does a player like Rashard Lewis do to help a team like the Magic? I mean, he certainly in my eyes doesn't deserve a max contract because he's a one trick pony and has never played an entire season in his 7 full seasons as a starter. Rashard Lewis is 6'10" and only averaged 6 rebounds last year.......six rebounds. His RP48 (rebounds per 48 minutes) was less than Kyle Lowry, Mike Dunleavy, and Mark Madsen. A guy with his athleticism and height should at least be pulling down 8 boards a game. It's just a lack of effort on his part, and speaking of lack of effort, let's get into his "defense". The Sonics were to say the least, BAD on defense and get this, were even worse with Lewis on the floor in 05/06 season. During that year Seattle gave up 6.6 points per 100 possessions more when Lewis played, and consider this, his replacement was Vladimir Radmanovic. I'll give you some time to let that sink in. And oh wait, it gets worse! When Rashard Lewis was guarding, and we'll use that term loosely, his opponents were avergaing 18.6 ppg from the small forward spot, and a staggering 23.5 ppg at power forward. Even during this last season the Sonics still struggled on defense although Lewis did improve his defense, all be it slightly. So while Rashard Lewis will most certainly be an upgrade over Darko, this move still doesn't make the Magic contenders in the Eastern Conference.