Memphis Grizzlies vs. Oklahoma City Thunder a sad Pacific Northwest Basketball tale

This year's NBA Western Conference Semifinal series between Memphis and Oklahoma City is a particularly painful one for many NBA afficionados to watch. Not for the quality of the play: the Grizzlies cuurently may be playing the best basketball in the West, while Oklahoma City's roster includes superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined with feel-good role players like Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins. It's hutsome - especially in my current home city - because it showcases two NBA franchises that relocated from the Pacific Northwest to smaller Midwest markets.

In 2008, the club formerly known as the Seattle Sonics bolted town after forty-one years ingrained into Northwest folklore. That span included twenty-two playoff campaigns, three NBA finals appearances and the 1979 NBA Championship where a three-guard rotation of Gus Williams, Dennis Johnson and "Downtown" Freddie Brown were anchored by the outstanding hair (and post game) of young centre Jack Sikma. It rankles Seattle fans so much that many now take no interest at all in pro basketball. Nearly three years since new owner moved the franchise to Oklahoma City, there's still enough ire for the man who sold the team, Howard Schultz, to eject fans from a book signing in upmarket Bellevue. Many of the disenfranchised Sonic Nation now boycott his company, Starbucks, for having the nerve to sell to a man whose known aim was getting the NBA into Oklahoma City.

Even though the city of Seattle refused to relinquish the Supersonics' name and the yellow and green which defined their jersey, Seattleites still seethe at the factors and faces involved in taking a young playoff team (comprising Westbrook and Durant) away from a staunch basketball city. even during periods of basketball droughts, the fans turned up. Key Arena, the Sonics' home for most of their Northwest tenure, is now home only to the Seattle Storm and the Rat City Rollergirls.

Vancouver's is a different story - the city simply wasn't given a viable chance at NBA life. They existed in their expansion form for only six years before Michael Heisley purchased the team and moved them to basketball purgatory, Memphis, home of exactly zero other pro sports franchises. The Grizzlies allegedly haven't been profitable since moving to the Midwest, which led to a series of costcutting moves and Heisley's consistent presence on "NBA's worst owner" lists. That their current roster is successful runs almost in spite of Heisley's ownership as time and again he has failed to pay the right players and forked over for the wrong ones. According to reliable hearsay, the decision to draft uberbust Hasheem Thabeet over almost every other draftee was his, overruling his personnel division. Only recently has he started to dig into his own capacious pockets, realising the only way to be profitable is to win. Even with this new fiscal policy, his lucrative extension to Zach Randolph (while bidding against no-one else) proves he still struggles to get it right.

While it's true that basketball has no chance to be the number one sport in Vancouver, it could well establish itself as a solid second behind a beloved Canuck team which consistently folds in the playoffs. Rogers Arena is a beautiful, state-of-the-art complex which could easily, comfortably and profitably house an NBA franchise (The Vancouver Pacers, anyone?). As someone who is a recent resident of both cities, there's certainly demand enough for pro basketball in both cities: witness the support that both cities' new MLS franchises have so quickly accumulated.

Seattle, however, is a basketball town. The list of great basketball players who grew up in Washington is remarkable: Brandon Roy, Jamal Crawford, John Stockton, Jason Terry, Detlef Schrempf, Doug Christie and Aaron Brooks all attended High School in the state. Shawn Kemp, Fred Brown, Slick Watts and Bill Russell, among others, all still reside on Puget Sound. During NCAA tournament month, bars go crazy with expectation for the Universities of Washington, Washington State and Gonzaga. Now, playoff time in Seattle is met only with the green and blue of Seattle Sounders scarves.

Game One was a typical Grizzly win, as the club rode Z-Bo's inside scoring. To even the series, Game Two saw the Zombie Sonic bench blow up behind young guards Eric Maynor and James Harden. The Thunder, even though they won 55 games this year, lost three of their four games against the 46-win Grizzlies this season, although key post defender Kendrick Perkins did not play in any of those matches. With the teams evenly matched, the series should be an exciting spectacle for the average NBA fans, especially in light of a pending lockout. Here in Seattle, there's a small, sad shrug and hope the Mariners don't suck as bad tonight.

Pro basketball's dead to this city. It's why all in Sacramento fear the Anaheim Royals. They should.

Image courtesy: http://www.thearch-info.com/Sports/Basketball/White_HOF.html

NBA trade deadline shenanigans

Good grief, what have we here? The single most apocalyptic trade deadline perhaps in NBA history as over the past two days thirteen trades were consummated - yes, thirteen - including seven All-stars, three members of Team USA, the third pick in last year's college draft, last year's Most Improved Player, probably the best Point Guard on the planet and the second pick in the 2009 draft. In total, so far confirmed hirty-eight players and fifteen-plus draft picks have changed teams, a figure The Sporting News' Sean Deveney tweeted that about 10% of NBA players have or are calling realtors. More surprising than anything though was the minutes-to-midnight deal which sent Boston Celtics starting Center Kendrick Perkins to Oklahoma City for swing Forward Jeff Green.

You can find a list of the deals here.

It's not too long a bow to draw to suggest that the NBA's balance of power has not just shifted eastwards but earthquaked that way by this week's shenanigans. By securing a young tweener in Green, the Celtics gave away possibly their greatest playoff asset - size - in releasing Perkins. Perkins, whose NBA Finals knee injury last year torched Celtics' chances of taking out the NBA championship, has in playoff series past whupped Orlando's Dwight Howard, his now replacement Shaquille O'Neal and Laker Andrew Bynum. Popular punditry has him as Dwight Howard's biggest fear due to his combination of defense-first mentality, strong widebody and fearlessness.

Perkins - with a scowl like no other - finds himself in Oklahoma, where he'll start (when healthy) alongside Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in a squad formerly labelled a "donut" team. They've lacked an enforcer and rim defender, the two things that Perk does best. The Thunder, had to give up an asset - and were disclined to pay Free Agent-to-be Green - have acquired perhaps the piece which turns them from Playoff team to Potential contender.

The Eastern Conference - though giving up talent in depth in Harris, Wallace, Favors, Perkins, Gallinari & Felton - actually acquired the high-end abilities, with three of the four best players shifting addresses into their conference. Anthony will combine with Amar'e Stoudemire to form a very potent offensive New York Knicks team; their cross-town rival Nets used most of the package they had offered for Anthony to sign the best point guard in the league, Deron Williams, who'd apparently malcontented his way out of Utah.

The clubs not considered contending for the title were also active as sleeper deals - trades which could bring immense benefit without garnering the same uproar - improved all of the Atlanta Hawks, Portland Trail Blazers, New Orleans Hornets and Houston Rockets. The Blazers' acquisition of former All-star Gerald Wallace to combine with LaMarcus Aldridge, Nicolas Batum and the shell of Brandon Roy's knees forms a potent small-ball rotation, further reinforcing notions that no matter how chaotic their back office, their impressive list of assets allow them to remain difference-makers. The Rockets, in signing 7'3 uberbust Hasheem Thabeet and last Spring's playoff hero, Phoenix's Goran Dragic, rebooted by ridding themselves of a potential headache in Aaron Brookes. As bait, despite being last year's Most Improved Player, Brooks played terribly this season backing up the more defensive-minded Kyle Lowry but could be, with Polish Hammer Marcin Gortat, the first step in the Suns' post-Steve Nash era. Nash remains with the team but voices suggest he's likely to be moved before the Suns being their next campaign.

In seasons past, deadline day has been an irrelevancy, notable for who didn't move rather than who did. This year, with the NBA lockout looming, the league has put together perhaps the best season since 1997 and has topped it off with the Best. Trade. Deadline. Ever. As they face an offseason of doubt, the league has certainly done its part to put itself to the forefront of the imagination. All that remains is for him to facilitate an Owners/Players deal which equally dissatisfies all parties.