Sonics First NBA Team to Hand Out Food at New Orleans Tent City

This is pretty heartwarming stuff. The NBA asks teams who play against New Orleans to do a little community service while they're there. Teams do, often haphazardly, sending a couple of players along to some pre-selected site.

But the Sonics entire staff--coaches, players, security people--showed up to serve food at a New Orleans substance abuse center for 45 minutes, reports the P-I's Gary Washburn.

Then, after that, coach P.J. Carlesimo wanted to do more, so he took the players to a tent city underneath a freeway, where the residents included a woman with a broken left arm who held all the food in her right.

Said one homeless guy: "Man, this is great. The Hornets don't even come over here. Seattle is going to be my favorite team now. Nobody comes over here to help us. And this was one of those days where people were hungry, so we needed this."

Washburn writes that the scene made P.J. Carlesimo emotional: "'Our guys are just good guys,' he said, wiping the tears from his glasses. 'A lot of times you do something like this and it's almost like you've got to make guys come. Our guys, it's the complete opposite. It's a great thing.'"

The Sonics play New Orleans tonight at 5pm, the first game of a four-game road trip. They'll be back in Seattle next Wednesday, the 23rd, against Houston.

Meanwhile, just steps from Key Arena, the Seattle Rep is presenting The Breach, a collaboration between three playwrights that explores the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Maybe the Sonics will check it out when they come back.