Letters to the Editor.

Dear SS-

The NBA in OK city! Finally! WHOO-OOO! We waited for it, and now we get it! Seattle don't deserve a team anymore, won't even build a new arena for 'em. Bring it on!

OK with the OK City Sonics in Ardmore, OK.

Dear OK-

SS is aware of the financial viability of relocating the Seattle Sonics. This will make money, presumably, because presumably the NBA would not consider a relocation without considering the money it will generate.

SS, however, objects:

SS believes fans in Oklahoma are excited at the prospect of supporting an NBA franchise. Fans in Oklahoma. And that is all. To say that NBA basketball fandom at large is excited by this prospect is surely wrong. It even suspects that a sizeable majority of Oklahoma is excited only by an abstract idea of an NBA franchise, thinking that perhaps it will lend national importance to a region that currently has very little. SS also recognizes the fallacy in assuming that a region with strong links to college basketball programs will automatically forge strong links with an NBA franchise. The Charlotte Hornets (and now Bobcats) will agree with SS, as will the Memphis Grizzlies.

The second objection is infinitely more important. SS believes the NBA is failing. It is failing itself. It is failing to create excitement, it is failing in providing anything of substance on or off the basketball court. Perhaps it has grown too large, perhaps it is making too much money. There is no single or simple reason why, nor is SS seeking one. It is merely enough to note the astounding lack of energy, or inertia, attendant in NBA basketball games. It is merely enough to wonder why SS cannot bear to think of the NBA of the 1980s and 1990s without cringing in remembrance of things past. (Please note, however, that SS is not advocating unnecessary nostalgia, nor will it ever. It strives to look not to the past, nor the future, nor even necessarily to the present, but to sports as they could be, and are in rare golden moments.)

SS does not understand how the relocation of the Seattle Sonics to Oklahoma is a positive step in this context. To conclude, SS will share Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's thoughts regarding the matter (Mr. Cuban provided the sole vote against the relocation, approved by NBA franchise owners 29-1):

"My prejudice is against having a Dust Bowl Division... My preference is that they stay in Seattle. That's my preference."

SS.

..........

Dear Sportsmen's Sketches:

What the hell is this Ty Cobb bulls***?

C. Lueker, NY, NY.


Dear Mr. Lueker-

Better ask Mr. Cobb himself:

Ty Cobb: I kicked your ass once, and I'll kick it again you motherf*****.

SS.