Tag Archives: steve ballmer

News, Sports

Lakeside Plays Rainier Beach for City Hoops Championship Tonight

showing directions from lakeside to rainier beach
Lakeside and Rainier Beach are far apart, and not just in miles.

Geographically, athletically, and dad’s-yacht-havingly, it would be tough to find two Seattle schools further apart than Lakeside and Rainier Beach, but the two will contest the same prize tonight: The Metro League Boys Basketball Championship.

At private Lakeside, with its collegiate-style campus on the northern edge of the city, tuition is $27,250 per year, 100 percent of students go to college, and they accept only one-quarter of their applicants.

At public Rainier Beach in the extreme southeast corner of Seattle, the median household income is $26,291 per year, the school was cited in 2011 as one of the 50 lowest-achieving in the state, and while the school can hold 1,200 students, fewer than 500 are enrolled.

This polarity is reversed when you talk basketball: Lakeside hasn’t won a city hoops title since 1991, while Rainier Beach has won eight just since since 2000.

If there’s anything the two schools have in common, it’s that their names are lies: Lakeside is not beside a lake. Rainier Beach is, but behold the “beach” that’s a few hundred yards from the school…. Let’s just say that Kauai is not formulating an action plan to handle this competition.

Lakeside and Beach played for the Metro League basketball championship 22 years ago and Lakeside came away with an upset win, the school’s first and only basketball crown. Since, basketball has not been one of the school’s “core competencies,” to put it in terms your average Lakeside grad — that is, current corporate executive — would understand. (I kid, Lakeside grads! But, seriously, hire me.)

I attended a Lakeside/Rainier Beach game three years ago, and Lakeside — despite the loud and spittle-expressing rooting of billionaire superfan Steve Ballmer — lost by 47 points. I did note at the time, however, that Lakeside played hard and stuck to the game plan of young coach Tavio Hobson.

Three seasons later, Hobson is the Metro League coach of the year. His Lakeside team still plays tough and disciplined basketball, but now they have talent. Guard Tremaine Isabell is one of the quickest players in the city, a slasher in the Allen Iverson mold. Fellow guards D’Marques Tyson and Matthew Poplawski are decent shooters and reliable ballhandlers, while 6’-8” Anand Rajesh and 7’-0” Peter French provide an inside attack teams must account for. I said this a month ago and I stick by it: Lakeside could win state.

Beach could, too — in fact they are the runaway favorites to do so. Along with the typical Vikings complement of speedy, fierce, skilled guards, Beach has talented 6’-7” wing Shaqquan Aaron, the best junior in the state according to ESPN, and possessor of scholarship offers from collegiate basketball powers from coast to coast. Aaron at times struggles to find his place in the Beach offense, but is unstoppable in the open court. Expect at least two thunderous dunks off of steals with Aaron on the floor.

The question for Lakeside will be: Who do we have who can match Aaron’s height and athleticism? And the answer will be — as it would for every other high school team in the state and most college squads — nobody. Lakeside will need to limit Aaron’s chances in the open floor and keep him away from the basket to have a chance of winning.

If you believe that a victory in this game would mean more to upstart Lakeside than to long-dominant Rainier Beach, then maybe the Lions are worth an upset pick. I’m not so sure, though. Rainier Beach makes winning this title a point of pride — the Vikings are 8-3 in the title game since 2000.

Both teams, I expect, will play their hearts out, and the schools’ small but vocal fan bases will be rooting like crazy. Come on out to Garfield High tonight: the game’s scheduled for 8 p.m.

Sports

What Makes Everyone So Sure the Sonics Really Are Coming Back?

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sonicsnodderChris Hansen and Steve Ballmer’s plan to buy the Sacramento Kings and move them to Seattle was presented as a done deal when the news came out earlier this week. However, Sacramento’s efforts to keep the team have dominated headlines ever since. What makes people so sure the Sonics really will come back? I’m here to tell you.

Q: Sacramento is putting together a counter-offer, funded by billionaires, to buy the team and keep them where they are. What happens if the NBA takes that offer?

A: The NBA can’t just “take an offer.” This isn’t an auction. NBA owners will vote, likely in April, on whether to approve the specific sale agreement between the Hansen/Ballmer group and Sacramento’s current owners, the mercurial and nearly-insolvent Maloof family. If the NBA rejects the sale, the team goes back to the Maloofs.

Q: Couldn’t the Maloofs then sell the team to the Sacramento group for the same price?

A: They could, but why would they? Now they have the leverage of a bidding war. They could drive the price up further and keep the franchise in a period of uncertainty–the last thing the NBA wants.

Q: Has the NBA ever cancelled a sale agreement?

A: They have, actually. In 1994, the league blocked the sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves to a group that intended to move the team to New Orleans. However, the league’s decision had less to do with the possible relocation of the team than the fact the new buyers — headed by a boxing promoter — didn’t actually have the cash to buy the team; their financing plan relied on unknown investors, unsigned loans, and future revenue from an unbuilt arena. Even so, the NBA’s rejection of that deal was called “stunning” at the time.

Q: If the sale is approved, won’t the NBA owners still have to approve the move?

A: Yes. And NBA commissioner David Stern has promised Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson the opportunity to argue that the team should stay before NBA owners vote. But NBA owners typically like to support the rights of their fellow owners to move their teams wherever they want. You may remember a team called the Seattle SuperSonics that wanted to move despite a massive outcry from fans, protests from two U.S. Senators, and a proposal to keep the team in Seattle by one of the richest men in the world. The NBA approved that move 28-2.

Q: So it’s a 100%-absolute-sure-thing?

A: Of course not. The NBA could find that Chris Hansen’s wealth is entirely tied up in risky Somalian goat futures. Steve Ballmer could be revealed as the true identity of Jack the Ripper. Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson could have compromising photos from the Annual NBA Owners Nazi Dress-Up Orgy. Nothing is 100 percent, but barring some unforeseen circumstance, the Kings will play here as the Sonics this fall.

Q: Is it fair that Sacramento fans are likely losing their team?

A: No, it is terribly unfair. It was also terribly unfair when the Kings left Kansas City for Sacramento under shady circumstances. It was unfair when the Sonics left for Oklahoma City. It’s unfair that society says we have to wear pants to work. If you’re going to wait around for life to be fair, you’d better bring a book.

You can buy that Sonics bobblehead for $75 from Gasoline Alley Antiques.

Business, News, Politics, Sports

Ballmer and Nordstrom Brothers’ New Triangle Offense May Get NBA’s Attention

Detlef's fast break on Twitter

Yesterday a buzz started building that something new was afoot in the attempt to bring the NBA back to Seattle via a new stadium. Insiders were whispering about a game-changer. This morning, it’s clear what that is: Hedge-fund manager Chris Hansen revealed three big investor names on KJR Sports Radio: Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, and Erik and Peter Nordstrom.

Geekwire explains why Ballmer might have wanted to let Hansen take lead on the project.

In retrospect, Mayor Mike McGinn’s visit with the NBA’s David Stern doesn’t look so hat-in-hand, though Hansen’s people claimed no knowledge of “Loose Cannon” McGinn’s plans. King County Executive Dow Constantine, an early political supporter of the effort, released this statement: “The names of Steve Ballmer and Peter and Eric Nordstrom add additional strength and credibility to this proposal, and even greater assurance of the financial stability of the investment team that is working to bring the Sonics back to Seattle.”

“Financial stability” is the key phrase in that statement, since the new stadium plan has been getting pushback, notably from the Municipal League of King County, who released a broadside of criticisms largely focused on financing assumptions and congestion mitigation issues. As summarized in the Seattle Times, the League’s argument referenced the speed at which KeyArena became “unsuitable” for NBA economics:

KeyArena didn’t deteriorate, the report says, so much as it was no longer big enough to accommodate the space deemed necessary for the new standard of arenas. If a region has to replace its arena every 10 to 15 years, it suggests that the new arena’s improvement fund should require annual deposits of at least $20 million. Are investors prepared, the League asks, to provide funding at that level?

If the investor group include Steve Ballmer and the Nordstroms, the answer to that question is suddenly less worrisome for people who’d like to see the Sonics return.

That leaves the concern, still, of the Port of Seattle and Mariners that two stadiums is company and three is a crowd. Yet the Port and the Mariners have different interests, I think–while the Mariners are fighting for market share, the Port may simply be looking for help (in addition to the $73 million in tax revenue they project to receive in 2012) paying for SoDo transportation infrastructure that is needed whether there’s a new stadium or not.