Over at Ballhype, Jason created a Google Maps mashup that shows the birthplace of every NBA player. Is Seattle represented? Yes, oh yes. Seven players are born in Seattle. That, ladies and gentleman, is more than any single city north of Los Angeles (14) or west of Dallas (9). San Francisco proper has as many NBAers (1--Jason Kidd) as Edmonds (Martell Webster). Ha! Eat our dust, Golden Gaters! Overall, 10 NBAers were born in Washington......

It was a terrifying night for former Garfield and UW basketballer Tre Simmons, who's playing in Israel this year. Israeli basketball fans are notoriously crazy, but the fans--or at least one fan--got a little too crazy yesterday at a contest between Holon (Simmons' team) and Jerusalem. A Jerusalem fan (presumably) threw a firecracker at the Holon bench. An alert security guard who tried to pick the explosive up and toss it away got his hand......

Big Sonics fan Dave Dederer of the Presidents expresses a rather Emmett Watson-esque opinion in an interview with ESPN's True Hoop. Asked what he thinks would be a fair arena deal for the Sonics, Dederer says:Our major sports franchises need the city and county much more than we need them. Frankly, my fantasy is that the Sonics, Seahawks and Mariners all move away and we're left with Husky football and a AAA baseball club.......

True Hoop's been running a fascinating serial written by Gregory Dole, who was Leandro Barbosa's interpreter when he worked out with NBA teams before the 2003 draft. Part IV talks about Barbosa's work out with the Sonics, wherein he wowed the top of the Sonics' org chart, including then-poobah Howard Schultz. Barbosa had a great workout, hitting his shots, blowing past defenders, and unleashing a nasty crossover that caused Kirk Hinrich to fall on his......

Via True Hoop, the News Tribune's Frank Hughes reports today that the Sonics' organization is "enveloped by a cloud of paranoia, mistrust, distrust and, now, anger." The lowlights: --Clay Bennett fired Bob Hill just two hours after Hill returned home from having hernia surgery. --Bennett didn't have a news conference to announce the firings because he's "mad at the media." --Bennett believes he was misled about the Sonics' chance of getting an arena--that then-CEO......

Over at Supersonics.com, Kevin Pelton's compiled a fascinating oral history of the 1986-87 Sonics. We tipped True Hoop to it, because they'll run anything NBA-related, but we hadn't yet read it for ourselves. Turns out it's really fascinating and worth a look if you're a Seattle basketball fan of a certain age. Learn the answers to these compelling questions: --Why did the Sonics play a playoff series in Hec Ed Pavilion? --Why did Xavier McDaniel......