Tall, skinny and straw-hair blond, Jack Sikma was fresh off his family's gladiola farm in Kankakee, Ill., and thrust into the NBA's summer league in Los Angeles. On the other team was Moses Malone, a human whirlwind who would become one of the most unstoppable forces in pro ball's history.

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The Mariners' self-described theme for this season is "a step back." Not that they plan to use it as a marketing slogan. While the move wouldn't be as embarrassing as, say, former Sonics owner Howard Schultz threatening to run for president, there's only so many tinfoil hats that can be tolerated in a single sports market.

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It is popular these days to bash the Pac-12 Conference for its competitive lameness in football and men's basketball. Relative to other Power 5 conferences in the big revenue sports, the Pac-12 is doing a masterful Jar-Jar Binks impression.

No one is quite sure of the source of the malaise, so the designated target of scorn is Commissioner Larry Scott, who has yet to brick a free throw or drop a touchdown pass.

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If you thought the 2018 Apple Cup was enhanced because the teams were good and the outcome was nationally relevant -- and hugely entertaining because of snow --  you might want get on your giddy early for the 2019 chapter.

Former Eastern Washington University star QB Gage Gubrud won his NCAA appeal Saturday for an additional year of eligibility and will spend his final season as a graduate transfer at Washington State.

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College football recruiting for most schools and fans is like ordering from a menu written in Chinese. Pictures are helpful, and previous experiences of random selections generally turned out all right, even if it was never clear what was being eaten.

For many recruits, however, the analogy is the chef from Seinfeld. For reasons often not clear, they are surprised with a harsh denial: "No soup for you!" More on this later.

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Recall in September that when the points piled up in most outposts of the NFL, everyone was convinced that next-gen offenses had arrived, with 70-percent passers, hyperkinetic pre-snap motion and short-pass orgies. Defense and the running game were quaint but uncool relics.

Then in the season's championship moment, Fred Flintstone clubbed the crap out of George Jetson.

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For the basketball connoisseur, the taking of a charging foul is a sly, tasty morsel of the game, not something fated to take the top off an arena. But as the season's first sellout was ready to rock Hec Ed Saturday afternoon, Sam Timmins executed a flop that popped rivets in the old barn.

"That," Timmins said with a huge grin, "was a moment three years in the making."

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On the July day in 2006 that principal owner Howard Schultz announced he was selling the Sonics to out-of-town buyers, he did something petty that turned out to have significant symbolism.

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At the apex of his national popularity, Ken Griffey Jr. created a huge youth fashion trend by often wearing his baseball cap backward. Griffey also was the subject of a national TV publicity stunt in 1996 that had him running for president (which if held today, he would be far more credible than either Howard Schultz or Donald Trump).

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Cliff Avril was in an exhibition game during his rookie season with the Detroit Lions when he realized he didn't know his responsibility for the play just called. Before lining up, he quickly asked a veteran defensive-line teammate for help. Instead of helping, the teammate told him to do the opposite of the call.

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The easy joke would be that the Mariners in 2019 are planning an anniversary celebration of the Pilots' single year in Seattle 50 years ago by having a replica season.

The expansion Pilots were 64-98, drew 848,000 to hastily remodeled Sicks Stadium and were so bad that they were subjects of a seminal sports book (Ball Four) and a hijacking to Milwaukee.

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As former Mariners manager Lou Piniella put it so aptly, "It was the hit, the run, the game, the series and the season that saved baseball in Seattle."

In honor of Edgar Martinez's selection to the Baseball Hall of Fame -- and for the edification of the many sports fans too new to Seattle or too young to know -- I'm re-publishing a portion from my 2002 book, Out of Left Field: How the Mariners Made Baseball Fly in Seattle that illuminates his signature moment.

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The custom in Seattle sports for projects taking years, if not decades, to complete, usually is reserved for the building of venues and the pursuit of  franchises.

The Kingdome was funded in 1968 and opened in 1976. The Pilots were lost in 1970 and Major League Baseball didn't return until 1977.  Efforts to draw the NFL to Seattle began in the 1960s, and didn't pay off until 1976. The NBA was lost in 2008 and still hasn't returned. Top-tier pro hockey ended in 1924 is booked to return in 2021.

Rarely does a long ordeal in sports here include the pursuit of sports justice for a single individual.

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After what must be recognized as the most entertaining championship Sunday in NFL history, the sporting nation is left not with the afterglow of a great meal/sex/national park visit/drawing to a full house, but with the prospect of another Super Bowl appearance by the New England Patriots.

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The most unheralded, yet best annual event in Seattle sports went off so well Thursday it prompted a tough, square-built retired cop to get all gushy.

"An outstanding deal," said Garth Gaines. "It's been fantastic -- the Washington Athletic Club is a great place in a great location.

"And the award is very meaningful -- voted on by opposing players. That's the cherry on top. Not a popularity contest. It's how you played."

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The Seahawks have added another former first-round draft pick. At quarterback.

No, not Rick Mirer or Dan McGwire. But as with those two long-ago Seahawks first-round busts, Paxton Lynch didn't play last season either.

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As we all know, Russell Wilson says something original about as often as the Mariners succeed with a high draft pick. But late in the season, the Seahawks quarterback did offer up something I hadn't recalled hearing from him, which may bode well for his future in Seattle (and perhaps might be a rare good omen for the Mariners).

"I just want to be known as the greatest winner ever," he said.

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Given that the video herein has been seen more than 34 million times as I re-publish it here, I can be accused of being late to the party. I do not care. I want this video to be on this site's timeline, and to help push it to as many corners of the internet as possible.

One does not have to be a fan of gymnastics, a team, a school or sports in general to appreciate the majesty of exuberant perfection reached by UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi, a native of the Bellevue 'burb of Newcastle, Saturday at Anaheim Arena.

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In a parity-driven season that suggested much competitive balance, the first eight games  of the NFL post-season had a disappointing number of dominant outcomes. If blowouts were wanted this month, we could have looked up online our 401Ks.

However, the Seahawks' one-and-done appearance in the tournament was at least competitive, and  provided a chance the past weekend to look around to see what's working in the NFL.

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Limping off the AT&T Stadium field with a serious injury Saturday was likely the last glimpse the Seahawks will have of their one-season placekicker, 40-year-old Sebastian Janikowski. The club Friday signed free agent kicker Sam Ficken, 26, most recently with Rams, to start a competition for the 2019 roster spot.

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