sports

You might think I wouldn't care about the fact that Seattle's basketball team is leaving. Seattle's a long drive, for one thing, and for another, my heart belongs to the Pistons (and then to the Suns. Gotta love hippie Canadian NBA stars). But for some reason it still pisses me off that the Sonics (though they won't be called that anymore) are ditching Seattle. Courtesy of The Stranger's Slog comes this beautifully concise response to the team's owner.

Wave goodbye to Luke Ridnour, kids. Go Ducks and all that.

(Speaking of NBA basketball, which I really only do during the playoffs and draft, I'm still cranky that Portland picked up Kansas' Brandon Rush and them immediately traded him ... for Jerryd Bayless and Ike Diogu? Seriously? OK, then. At least my favorite Duck, Maarty Leunen, got picked up by the Houston Rockets, even if in this story they're saying he'll go play overseas first. And, for those who weren't paying attention the other week during the draft, Phoenix picked up Malik Hairston, then traded rights to him to San Antonio. Much as I like Tim Duncan, I'm can't possibly be a Spurs fan until Bruce Bowen is elsewhere.)

A story in the Wall Street Journal March 19 featured an interview with UO Professor Nathan Tublitz and the headline: "Has Serious Academic Reform Of College Athletics Arrived?"

The article describes Tublitz as a neurobiology professor who is co-chairman of the faculty driven Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics.

The WSJ describes theoretically tough new standards on academic progress by the NCAA, but raises the question about whether they will actually be enforced.

Article author Mark Yost writes that the idea that players are "supposed to be students first and athletes second" is "a quaint notion in an era when CBS is paying $6.1 billion for the broadcast rights to the college basketball tournament that will draw far bigger ratings than any of the presidential debates."

Tublitz describes the royal treatment the UO gives recruitment targets with "female chaperones" and "fancy hotels." Tublitz told WSJ that only 3 percent of division 1 players get an NBA career. If the other 97 percent lack an education giving them other job skills, "They're lost."

Shortish because paper goes to press today. But packed with info!

1. Stealin' our postal service? The Nation sends out an alert about yet another corporate conspiracy. (Occurs to me that this might affect every small newspaper as well. Hmmmmm.)

2. If you bike occasionally and you live in PDX, The Oregonian might call you a timid biker. And you might get followed in a study, too. Fun!

3. Think the Mafia is all fun and games? Think again.

4. The Gay in sports: Books, websites and HOTT photos of rugby players kissing.

5. More rats leaving the ship: Little Denny Hastert gets out of Congress. (At least $2 million richer than he went in, of course.)

6. Time to make the oceans work for us, baby. Harnessing the power of the waves ... and not just to surf.

7. The world is going to hell in a handbasket. Museums now encourage cellphone use inside. (Me, personally? I approve. But it will be a cold day in that handbasket before any area art museums get on the ball.)

8. Poisoning our kids, part II. This time, it's AMERICAN companies to blame.

9. Another blow against the Boy Scouts of America: Them Native Amurrican spiritualities don't count in Scouting. (Yet.)

10. The Stranger's Erica Barnett writes for other places? Yes, about carsharing, and with a PDX photo in there to boot!

BONUS: Best British headline in U.S. newspaper Award goes to the L.A. Times for "Have consumers gone wobbly?" (As long as they don't fall down ... )