Peter Vecsey is Still Afraid of Seattle

Sonics fans of a certain age will recall the kerfuffle Peter Vecsey caused during the '96 Finals went he got in a fight at a Shoreline Toys R Us.

Some couple was walking past him, and the wife thought she recognized Peter Vecsey, and the husband said no, and "besides, he's an idiot."

It was Vecsey. Someone who Vecsey was with took exception to the comment, shoved the husband into a display rack--then both Vecsey and the companion took turns hitting the hubby in the face. Or so the alleged victims said at the time.

This apparently spooked Vecsey so much he's avoided Seattle ever since. As he said in a recent New York Post column, brought to light by Bench Ronaldo:

I got into a skirmish in a Seattle toy store in 1996 and I never went back - to that toy store or that city.

Vecsey had drawn the ire of Seattle fans by suggesting--this sounds so absurd, but this is what he said--that Nate McMillan was faking the severity of an injury and sitting out the playoffs so he wouldn't hurt himself before entering free agency. Just like McMillan, right?

Peter Vecsey is, actually, an idiot, just as the Shoreline hubby said. At the time I was just home from college and completely broke, but desperately wanted tickets to game 4 of the Finals, so I made a sign that said "Peter Vecsey Beat Me Up and Stole My Tickets" and brought it down to Key Arena, hoping that some kindly person would recognize my wit and hand me a pair of tickets.

And one man did--well, not so much "hand me" a pair of tickets as "offer to sell me" a pair of tickets "for 150 bucks." That was well beyond my means at the time (though in retrospect seems cheap). Guess I wasn't as witty as I thought.