I convened with Dave and we agreed any time a National Book Award winner joins the site, we will post their first comment on the main page.
Here's the first from Mr. Sherman Alexie. It's a doozy.
Hi, my name is Sherman Alexie, thanks for the welcome
Well, now,
that welcome was filled with the perfect amount of kindness, contempt, humor, arrogance, humility, sarcasm, praise, and suspicion. For now, I'll just say a few things.
1. Ever since the Sonics failed to resign Nate as coach, and let him go to the Blazers, I've been jealous. I love the man. It's easy for me to root for him. And I really miss his playing days, when he was an incredible defensive presence and the all-time NBA leader in three-pointers turned into two-pointers because his foot was on the dang line.
2. I thought, and publicly promoted, the idea that Brandon Roy should have gone #1 in that draft. During his first game here in Seattle, when he played so well, and hit the clutch basket for the win, I almost cheered. I stopped myself and then gave myself a paper cut on my index finger and dipped it in lemonade, as sort of a St. Francis punishment for my sins thing. Roy was a student in my American Ethnic Literature class at the UW. So I decided that I nearly cheered for the student who wrote a pretty good paper on "A Lesson Before Dying," and not a member of the opposite team.
3. I've only got a 10-game weekend package. I'm just a spectator to true Blazers fandom. I love the NBA, and so many of the players, and while I will certainly be rooting for the Blazers, it is a new relationship and I wouldn't presume to be anything other than a secondary, make that tertiary, fan. That said, I'm sure I'll fall quickly in love.
4. I would root for a team composed of Jack the Ripper at the 3, Lee Harvey Oswald at the 2, Saddam Hussein at the 4, Galactus at the 5, and Lizzie Borden at 1 over the Lakers. If the Lakers were playing a team made up entirely of those giant chameleon cockroaches in that movie Mimic, I would root for the insects. Heck, I just rooted for THE CELTICS instead of the Lakers. That's how much I hate the Lake Show.
5. I am devastated by the loss of my Sonics. It will be years before I recover. I would never, ever, never wish this feeling on another fan. There are rumors that other teams--namely Memphis-will be bought and moved to Seattle. Going through what I just did, I could never support that relocated team.
6. Just one player note: Just how many point guard projects does one team need?
If you didn't already guess, Henry the Blogfather orchestrated this one. So be sure to pay your respects.
Feel free to respond to Mr. Alexie in the previous thread (which is getting long) or start up a new discussion here.
Go Blazers.
-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)