The Good Point: Sonics - There and back again

My latest for The Good Point is about a team that doesn't exist anymore.

Okay, that's a little misleading. This is also about the Sacramento Kings, haunted by arena issues and the ghost of the Sonics. But Seattle is very much in the forefront here, too: from arena talk of this own, an owner willing to spend vast sums of his own money and the green and gold, showing up in the background of games everywhere in the NBA.

It seemed oddly fitting when the Sacramento Kings hosted Oklahoma City on Feb. 9. The former Sonics were playing a team whose owners are looking for a new arena and blogs asking – maybe even telling fans to chant and bring flyers that read “HERE-WE-STAY,” hoping TNT’s national audience would hear it on their only national TV appearance.

The game sold out and enough people wore dark colors that Kevin Harlan called it a blackout. When the Kings roared to an 11-2 lead, the crowd erupted in a frenzy.  It was hard not to think back to the 2002 playoffs. It would be a real shame if the Kings left town. Unfortunately, that’s a real possibility.

Click here to read the whole thing.

Was game six rigged? 82games finds out

The most infamous game of the past 25 years - and maybe ever in the NBA - was played a little over six years ago and prompted allegations that it was rigged by the NBA; even Ralph Nader called for an inquiry (he's gotta keep himself busy between doomed election campaigns, one assumes).

It was game six of the 2002 Western Finals between the Lakers and the Kings. Most remembered for the Lakers 40 free throws and Kobe hitting Mike Bibby with an elbow and Bibby getting the foul.

And it's divided people unlike any other game in the history of the NBA. Mike Wilbon of the Washington Post called it the worst officiated game he had ever seen. Bill Simmons called it the most disturbing subplot of the postseason: "from an officiating standpoint, the most one-sided game of the past decade".

This past post-season, when Tim Donaghy said that this game was determined by company men, it took on a life of it's own.

But now Roland Beech, the founder of 82games.com, has broken the game down, call by call by call, in excruciating detail. And he's found out the game may may have been unduly effected by the officiating. It's a long red but it's worth it.

One unaddressed point, though: as Bill Simmons pointed out in 2002, Dick Bavetta was also involved in several other controversial games:

1999, Knicks-Pacers, Game 3 ... 1999, Knicks-Pacers, Game 6 ... 1999, Spurs-Knicks, Game 3 ... 2000, Knicks-Heat, Game 7 ... 2000, Lakers-Blazers, Game 7 ... 2002, Celtics-Nets, Game 4

Now, if only 82games.com could break down some other games and settle some other debates, for once and for all.