Pat on the Back from Winnipeg

My first instinct on seeing this story at sportscolumn.com was, "Great, some twit from Vancouver thinks he knows what it feels like to lose an NBA franchise, and he expects me to appreciate his condolensces."

But, instead, Scott Gilmour has penned a thoughtful piece on the common language of despair and frustration now shared by fans of the Seattle Sonics and Winnipeg Jets. Normally, I'd look askance at someone telling me they "know how it feels" to lose your favorite team.

But when that someone is from Winnipeg, a city where 40 below is a high in mid-January, and where the only thing to look upon with pride was yanked away to a bunch of unappreciative retirees in Arizona, well, I think that someone knows from where he speaks.