E.K. NATION

I blame the Portland Trail Blazers management more than anyone for the travesty that's going on in the Rose Garden these days.

I keep thinking about The Pledge. And how the Blazers' brass has failed monumentally to live up to it. The recent Bonzi Wells mess has been the prime example. The Blazers desire, says The Pledge,

[t]o challenge every obstacle that would prevent us from taking quick and authoritative action for any behavior that compromises our expectation of our players acting responsibly at all times.

Wells in the past few games has, among other things, flipped off a fan and gone on a courtside tirade against Coach Cheeks. So they suspended him for two games and took away his co-captaincy. But how could he have ever been a co-captain in the first place? Well, I guess when Rasheed Wallace and Damon Stoudamire are the other co-captains, you can see what kind of standards are set for that post. Said Steve Patterson,

We will hold players responsible for their behavior and we believe this is the appropriate course of action at this time.

That's it? How much longer will Wells be embarrassing Portlanders with his behavior and getting off with such light sanctions? No, the real appropriate measure would have been to Keyshawn Bonzi's ass. Then maybe we'll be free of distractions and will be able to beat Miami by more than one lousy stinking point, for Chrissakes.

I find myself rooting for the team to lose and for fans to continue not showing up for games. Maybe the management will get the message soon. Attendance is down to 15,000 recently, and entire sections have been left completely empty. For anyone familiar with Blazer basketball in the Rose City, this is unimaginable. This team used to be so loved by the people in this city. I guess we thought that was because it was the only game in town, but now we know that's not the reason.

We used to have guys we could respect. Maurice Lucas, Jim Paxson, Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Jerome Kersey, etc. For the most part they were nothing but strong pillars in the community and set great examples. Now we have punk-ass bitches whose sick exploits overshadow the tough play of the younger guys like Zach Randolph. The Blazer brass needs to take a bold step and dump not only Bonzi but Rasheed and Damon, and then say, no more fucking up, because this is what you will get.

Sammy Says Pujols Should Have Won: I think Sammy Sosa's saying Albert Pujols deserved the MVP was simply a matter of him sticking up for a fellow Dominican and continuing the stupid culture of hate against Barry Bonds. There's no way in hell anyone deserved the award over Barry.

And I think Barry should fill up one hand with his five previous MVP rings, and place his newly-acquired sixth one onto his middle finger, and show it to everyone who dogs him. He's the best player that ever was, and you don't dog a guy for that.

Zebras Love The Lakers: After last night's debacle of a game between the Lakers and Knicks, in which the Lake Show got to shoot 47 free-throws to the Knicks' whopping six, any subsequent comment about how the referees in the Association do not favor the Lakers will be dismissed with a quick "Get the hell on up out my face, loco!"