Bobbito-Marching Band Moozak? from Alan View on Vimeo.

Last weekend I flew out to Seattle to spin the Resident Media’s RING THE ALARM jam. I arrived early that afternoon and spent some time building with promoters Tina and Alan, then slid to the club early to hear DJ Spinja get down before my set started. Time and time again, heads would share, “Man, Bob, we know you love basketball, so you’ll feel me when I tell you how much this town misses the Sonics . . .” I heard stories of fans crying at the last game, how petitions went around to try to get the Seahawks owner to purchase the squad, how cats still got their Payton and Kemp jerseys from back in the day, on and on. I wondered how Minneapolis felt when the Lakers bounced to Los Angeles way back in the day.

I also thought about the Seattle squad that went to EBC America chip at Rucker Park in 2006 that featured Nate Robinson, Jamal Crawford, Spencer Hawes, and Brandon Roy. They only had five players, and played two games in one day. According to my Bounce partner Sean Couch, Nate Rob was doing “ninja turtle crossovers” as he was so low to the ground Kareem Reid could not do much to stop him. They took an L in the Final, even though Crawford dropped 25+ in the second half alone, and heads Uptown still talk about them with reverence.

I also thought about announcing the 2008 Elite 24 Classic at Rucker Park, and watching HS freshman Tony Wroten Jr. from Seattle getting it in trying to guard Lance Stephenson, and just going hard the whole game even though he didn’t score much. Kid had heart. So does Seattle. Gary Payton left the town with a nice playground that many of the local talent still get down on to this day. And Tina told me that Crawford will show up at any moment to the Sports Club and call next regardless of whether there are fellow pros or gym scrubs on the floor. That’s real. That’s Seattle.

Oh, the party was off the meat rackazoni! When I played House of Pain’s “Jump Around” 7″ I thought the floor was gonna cave in! Ha ha! Peep Luis Ongpin’s photos of the all dancers and flavors rockin’ out here. Big up everyone out there including my Rock Steady Crew family Fever 1 and DJ DV1. Hopefully I’ll be back soon, this time round I gotta play some ball!