Other than the Apple Cup, Garfield High vs. Franklin High is the best sports rivalry this area has to offer. Both are "inner-city schools" (with all that connotes), and the guys on the teams have usually been playing against each other since they were kids. Winning this game means bragging rights in the neighborhood until you die. Unexpected things happen at rivalry games--like when we went last year, and Nate Robinson was there to watch......

We ran across this blog post awhile ago--from a 6-6 Microsoft program manager recounting getting dunked on by Nate Robinson. Turns out the guy, Tim Getsch, also recently founded a pretty cool sports card sales site, CheckOutMyCards.com. We emailed him questions, he emailed back answers. How did you end up playing basketball with Nate Robinson? It just fell into place. I was playing in a summer league at the Redmond Athletic Club, and Jamal Crawford......

SLAM says they don't like Nate Robinson as a basketball player ("he shoots too much, he doesn’t pass enough, he shouldn’t have won the dunk contest") but they do think his attitude is streetball-in-the-NBA. Says SLAM executive editor Lang Whitaker:As we worked to set up the cover shoot, I got to know Nate pretty well, and once you spend time with him you’ll see he’s pretty hard not to like. The way he plays is......

Nate Robinson hit what he believes to be a lifetime-high of eight threes in a game against Portland last week. On his blog, he's unsure what caused this outburst of marksmanship:Maybe it was the music I was listening to on my iPod before the game. I went old school that day, listening to Rick James, Aretha Franklin (R-E-S-P-E-C-T!). You know, stuff like that. Maybe I should always listen to that music before a game, but......

--The P-I has a great feature package about a local guy the CIA recruited to put a surveillance device on one of the highest mountains the world. --If only Jerramy Stevens played as hard as he drinks. --The soft bigotry of low expectations strikes again. --Tonight's Mariners game vs. Texas will be on FSN. Game time is 6:05. --Vista is selling well. --Nike doesn't make Nate Robinson's favorite shoes anymore, so his friends scour......

Former UW (and Seattle high school) stars Brandon Roy and Nate Robinson combined for 55 points last night as the Blazers beat the Knicks 92-86. Where were you guys two years ago this week--we could've used 55 points in the Louisville game! Nate led the way with 31 points, including 8 of 9 from beyond the arc. Those good at subtraction already know that Roy had 24 points. There are many Knick fans who don't......

We had a feeling that, after his 4-16 performance in Portland Tuesday, Gilbert Arenas would do something special at Key Arena last night. We were right. Why, oh why, do we ever make plans? Arenas scored 42, including a fight-through-the-lane scoop bank shot for the winner at the buzzer. Want to see genius at work? Check out the extended highlights on NBA.com (called by the master, Kevin Calabro). See Arenas' effortless, gorgeous jumpshot, the way......

--Sonics Central on the stories about the new owners and their anti-gay-marriage contributions: "Seattle should be f*cking ashamed of itself." --"They were reported running down the middle of the road heading north. Then they were running south, then apparently they were walking because they became exhausted." The ostriches running loose in Seatac, that is. --Did Idi Amin eat a former Sonic? [Via Deadspin] --If you get a DUI, is it hypocritical to be tough on......

--Think twice before heading to Snoqalmie today. "Blizzard-like" conditions have things pretty well messed up in the pass. --The voting climate in the region is not conducive to bilking taxpayers for professional sports handouts. Which we thought had been made clear by now. --Deborah Brandt is out, Derek Wang is in. --The date for the Gates v Jobs cage match you've been waiting for has been set. --Seattle (Bellevue-Everett) ranks 34th in the nation......

The first time we saw Brandon Roy dribble a basketball, we knew he was going to be the first Garfield High guy to make the NBA. His debut, earlier this year with the Blazers, was anti-climactic. Fellow Bulldog Will Conroy's, however, was not. Conroy's too small for the NBA, he doesn't have a great shot. Hell, he started his UW career as a walk-on. Finished it as the school's all-time assist leader. We can't ever......

What would you do if your salary was suddenly slashed to only $1.1 million??? Fire a bodyguard or two? Heat the pool only to 85? Drink Bollinger instead of Cristal? The mind boggles at the indignity of it all. Thankfully, former UW star and current New York Knick Nate Robinson didn't have to face too many of these excruciating decisions during his 10-game suspension for on-court fighting, which cost him $108,000 of his $1.2 million......

So. The Huskies. The team that's our city's best chance at a 2007 championship trophy, and they can't even beat the Cougs. Historical fact: No team has ever lost to Washington State University and gone on to win the championship of anything. But here's the good news: because the Huskies are in the nation's best conference, they have six more games against ranked teams, and three against teams ranked in the top 10 (Oregon, Pittsburgh......

When you lose 108-87 and the recap writer feels compelled to point out that the game "wasn't nearly as close as the final suggests," something has gone very wrong. The Zags, who beat then-#2 UNC and then-#8 Washington earlier this year, have lost four in a row, capped off by last night's loss at Virginia where they trailed 60-26 at half. John Blanchette, writing in the Spokane Spokesman Review, asserts:They're overscheduled. They're undermanned. They're expectation-heavy.......

--The "War on Christmas" is a blogger's best friend. --Bill O'Reilly is also a blogger's best friend. --Weren't we supposed to be a smart city, or something? What happened to all that? --Pot may be the new #1 cash crop in the U.S., but here in the Northwest ever green holiday materials have got to take over, at least for the season. --"I want it! You aren't helping me find something I want. You......

--We were feeling like sort of a dork for spending our Friday night at the Garfield/Franklin football game, but less so when current NY Knick Nate Robinson sat down about fifteen feet from us. Robinson's brother Jacque is a senior running back for the Bulldogs. Older brother was there with a few friends. For the most part, people left him alone. We snapped a few clandestine photos of us with the Great in the background.......

Nate Robinson, Brandon Roy, Jamal Crawford and Spencer Hawes on one squad. Our fantasy basketball team circa 2008? No, fucking reality--if you were watching the Entertainer's Basketball Classic at the Rucker courts in the Bronx yesterday. It's a two-on-two tournament. Seattle played L.A. in the first game, going with Nate Robinson and Spencer Hawes exclusively. [Pause while we cream our pants] They won that game, then the Seattles went with Brandon Roy and Jamal Crawford......

Who opens against the Sonics at the Key? Why it's the only locally-owned NBA franchise! Also the only one that: Features two players who attended Seattle high schools Is coached by one of the city's most beloved sports figures We decided to back even before Howard Schultz took a shit on the city that made him rich That team, the Portland Trail Blazers, kickoff their 2006-07 regular season here in Seattle on November 1st. That's......

A quick rundown on where our beloved Husky basketball types are now. Brandon Roy: Averaged 19.0 ppg for Portland's Vegas Summer League team. That's 8th in the league. Here's video, and a podcast interview with Roy and Jarrett Jack. Want to smile? Here's Roy swatting Jordan Farmar in last year's UCLA-UW game at Hec Ed. Marques Johnson's comment: "Woooooooooo! Get down, young fella!" Bobby Jones: The Philadelphia media is making much of Jones' similarity to......

Legendary local baller Nate Robinson went to the White House Correspondents Dinner in May, courtesy of MSNBC. How this slipped our notice until now, we don't know. Well, we do know, it's because we failed you, the reader. As penance, here's a link to more pics of Nate posing with stars--including Ludacris. There you'll also see his fair and balanced assessment of the event: "What a great opportunity to meet some great people. I......

Roosevelt High's Marcus Williams, now at Arizona, has decided to stay with the Wildcats for at least one more year. (If you happen to pay $75/year to subscribe of ArizonaAthletics.com, you can watch the press conference. College athletics--exploitative? Not at all...makes sense that the university makes money off of a fantastically-talented ballplayer telling the media he'll stay in school.) The announcement means there will only be one former Metro Leaguer drafted by the NBA this......

Former Rainier Beach and UW basketball star Nate Robinson scored 34 points last week against Philadelphia. Pretty good, huh? Robinson's coach, the legendary Larry Brown, didn't think so. Brown's not happy that Allen Iverson burned Robinson for 78 points in two games. And he's not happy with what he perceived as showboating by the mighty mite. Here's what Brown told Newsday: "To me, to be [showboating] when a guy who you're guarding is having that......

Basketball has been good to Seattlest recently. It provided the impetus for a weekend trip down I-5, where we watched the Dawgs obliterate Oregon State, surprised ourselves by spending only $50 at Powell’s, and had a fantastic dim-sum brunch. In other news: Brandon Roy’s 21 points against Oregon and near triple-double vs. the Beavers won him Pac-10 player of the week honors for the second week in a row. The last Husky to do that......

The Cougar men are for real. They beat the Huskies Saturday night, but it didn't feel like an upset to us. It felt like a pretty good team getting some timely shooting and capitalizing on foul trouble (Brandon Roy's) to beat another pretty good team. The Huskies are 1-2 in Pac-10 play. Not encouraging. But the renaissance of WSU basketball is good for the state. We could have three state teams in the tournament this......

The Huskies beat #6 Gonzaga last night, ending a seven-game losing streak to the Zags and proving that, despite losing three top scorers from last year, this year's Husky team is worthy of national attention. No thanks to the Husky student section, however. The rabid students, some of whom camped out for two days to get tickets to this in-state rivalry, chanted "take a shower" and "shave your moustache" at Gonzaga's funny-looking junior forward Adam......

Sonics Lose Opener: The season got off to rather poor start, after the Sonics did everything wrong in the final few minutes of last night's opener, and lost to the Los Angeles Clippers of Anaheim 101-93. Not very promising, it was of course only the first of 82 games, and last year the Sonics started their season by getting blown away by the same Clipper squad. Steve Kelley, however, says it is time to panic.......

Three Washington natives were picked in the first round of yesterday's NBA draft, an all-time record. So the Seattle Times asked the question: when did Seattle get to be such a hotbed of basketball talent? More summer camps, the emergence of Gonzaga's basketball program, and a growing population are writer Bob Condotta's reasons, but he misses the obvious one: the diminshing percentage of Scandinavians in the state. Scandinavians can't play basketball. We know, we......

Brandon Roy will return to the Husky men's basketball team for the 2005-2006 season, he announced at a news conference this afternoon. Roy, who in Seattlest's eyes was the most talented player on last year's top-ranked squad, considered going to the draft after graduating from Garfield High, and considered going after his sophomore season. No doubt he'd prefer to enter the draft this year, but a knee injury suffered early last season kept Roy from......

Toward the end of this season's home win against Arizona, University of Washington radio voice Bob Rondeau posited that no Husky athlete had ever done as much to improve a program as Nate Robinson. The influence ended yesterday. Robinson, the Lord of Leaping, won't be back to play his senior season. He's going to enter the NBA draft instead. Steve Kelley of the Times recaps Robinson's UW career, one of the most memorable in......

Seattlest never thought it would say this, but here goes: Thank you, Jeff Cirillo. The Mariner free agent bust and municipal whipping boy, a complete stranger, handed us two excellent seats to Thursday's UW-USC men's basketball game while we were standing in line at the ticket booth. Inside Hec Ed, USC was as helpless against the UW as Jeff Cirillo is against any pitcher with …no, we can't. After he gave us those tickets, we......

The Washington men's basketball team continued their consistent, poised play with a split of two games in Arizona over the weekend. Even Thursday's 92-81 loss to the Arizona Wildcats demonstrated how good this team is. Despite their worst shooting performance of the season, the Huskies stayed close, in a hostile arena, against the 11th-best team in the country. I don't know if there is a phrase to describe the opposite of a Pyrrhic victory,......