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Sporting News, The, Nov 1, 1999 by Dave D'Alessandro

If you ever thought you were neurotic, you ought to try being Vin Baker. He's about to start his third season in Seattle, where they have ... how should we say this? ... an eclectic mix.

There is a Slovenian (Vladimir Stepania) and a Cuban (Lazaro Borrell), neither of whom understands the NBA vernacular too well, much less the language that Gary Payton speaks. There is a kid one year out of high school, Rashard Lewis. There is a genuine wingnut in Vernon Maxwell, who will be the first guard to jump off the bench and the first Sonic to jump into the crowd in hostile arenas. There is a wingnut wannabe in Ruben Patterson, a veteran of 24 NBA games who regales teammates with L.A. stories about how he would make Kobe Bryant disappear in practice every day. And all of this is directed by Paul Westphal, who generally runs a team like a country club.

Phoenix and Portland, which didn't have anything close to the salary-cap space Seattle had this summer, landed Penny Hardaway and Scottie Pippen, respectively. The Sonics got Greg Foster.

And amid this, er, interesting collection of players, there is Baker, the one man who will be held personally responsible for whatever success or failure the Sonics experience this season.

There was more of the latter last season, when Baker showed up roughly 50 pounds heavier than he was the year before, and you know what happened next: Baker went from being dangerous to utterly benign. He lost his mobility, he lost his confidence, he wigged out at the foul line, he lost the prestige of perennial All-Stardom that he had worked so hard to gain. The Sonics, being good eggs, gave him an $86 million contract this summer anyway.

And now, as Baker puts it, "I've been challenged--by this city, the media--to really step up to the plate."

He showed up at 267 pounds when camp opened three weeks ago, which was good news only for the bean counters who are entitled to withhold his bonus money. Still, Baker says he's in the best shape of his life, and he actually likes this team. The Sonics think they have the obligatory number of stars (two, last we checked) required to compete at an elite level. They think they have added the obligatory veterans such as Horace Grant and Brent Barry. They like the athleticism of the younger players. And they think they have the obligatory plan. "I'm going to get Vin the ball," Payton says. "I'm going to set him up more. I'm not going to be posting up like I did last season. That's Vin's territory."

Vin's territory, which should be wide enough to qualify for its own ZIP code, is somewhat blurred, however. He is a rare big man, one with an outside game good enough to match his post game. Long and strong, quick and competitive, he is the kind of kid most teams would be proud to build around. The league is roofing for this guy. Parents everywhere probably are. How could they not? This is a handsome fellow, mature and polite. He is the speaker of complete sentences and sang in the church choir. You can't make up stuff like that. Anyone would regard him as a sturdy investment.

"What did they pay him, $86 million?" Payton asks. "They didn't give it to him for being fat, for having one bad season."

Yet, Baker knows better than anyone that he has a bull's-eye on his back for that one bad season. And for all the moves the Sonics made, he alone will determine whether they can crack the top eight out West again. Payton will do more than his part. But Payton wants to do less--at least in terms of scoring. He's putting it all on Baker's shoulders, asking for 20 points every night from him. We have no doubt he can do that. But we have our doubts that this is a team he and Payton can lead anywhere. And Baker has to know going in that any season ending in April will be blamed on Fat Vin, fair or not.

"I really understood what we were doing," Baker says. "You can talk about the moves everybody else made, but a lot of what we did was predicated on what Gary and I do. It all works, if I play the part I'm supposed to play."

Some part. Some team. Some task.

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