Northwest Sports: In the Morning

Art Thiel drops a bombshell: "NBA sources say that [Steve] Ballmer and Stern have talked within the past couple of weeks." Well that's interesting, but unless somebody comes up with an extra $150 million, the NBA's sure to approve the Sonics move (and they might anyway).

Why didn't the city's proposal even get to the floor? Simple: the votes weren't there.

Rather lost in the Sonics scramble is the fact that the UW didn't get the stadium funding they wanted either.

The Seahawks made a counter-proposal to Marcus Trufant, writes TNT's Frank Hughes. After Asante Samuels signed for $9.5M/year, Trufant reportedly offered to sign for a "hometown discount" of $9M/year. Unclear what the Hawks, who'd offered $7M/year before, are now offering.

Oregon State's search for a new basketball coach has begun with a polite "no thanks" from Mark Few. Had to ask, right?

The new Mariner commercials are out.

Jonathan Stewart had surgery to repair turf toe. Draft analysts don't think it hurts his stock that much, maybe he drops a couple of spots. Enough to fall to the Hawks?

Like Mike Morse, Raul Ibanez struggled to stick with the M's early in his career. He's tried to help Morse stay positive by relating this advice from a 2000 Mariner teammate, writes Larry Stone: "Stan Javier said to me, 'Raul, you're going to play in the big leagues a long time. And you're going to remember I told you that, and you're going to be a really good player. Just relax and take care of the stuff you can control.'"

The 49ers cut Trent Dilfer.

This story, by the Oregonian's Rachel Bachman, of a school with 27 students that won the Oregon state basketball title in the thirties, is really fantastic. Says the last living member of that team: "We'd play basketball and then run [four miles] home. Kept us in shape." Yeah, that would do it...

After scoring 23 points in Wednesday's loss to Cal, Quincy Pondexter said he was more aggressive in that game because he didn't feel he had to defer to Jon Brockman. Brockman says he's ok with Pondexter scoring more, though, telling TNT's Don Ruiz: "When he’s assertive like that, teams have to step up and do something about it. And when he does that, it takes more pressure off other areas. It takes pressure off Ryan’s shooting; it takes pressure off me down low. I think he has to realize that. Everyone can work together.” Ok, but the thing is, Pondexter has no room to drive if Brockman is lodged--along with a defender--in the post. Brockman needs to spend more time out on the perimeter, like he did in 05-06.

The CBI wants host schools to guarantee $60K. Some schools are balking, but the UW says they'd do it.

Fred Couples is leading the Arnold Palmer Invitational.