Remember when Josh Howard's long-known affinity for offseason weed throttled the sports media during the playoffs, basically shutting down ESPN TV for an entire Friday? As the media remains rather quiet on Brad Miller's suspension, Shoals at The Sporting Blog raises an excellent point.

I don't mean to raise any hackles here, but Miller's career has had some serious ups and downs. Howard's, with the exception of 2007-08's troubled second half, has been one big upward trend. Miller beat the odds, but was mediocre for a while; Howard established himself as a force in his first season on a playoff-bound Mavs team. Oh, and Howard came out and admitted this hobby of his unprovoked, just to try and be honest, while Miller's been straight busted.

It's true, I'm something of a Howard apologist. But how is Miller's drug intake not more worthy of condemnation than Howard's?

The traditional basketball byproduct of weed has been believed to be uneven, inconsistent focus. This could be a complete myth, but: Chris Webber, Jason Williams, Keon Clark, Brad Miller. Uneven, inconsistent focus ... that sound about right?

The reported reason for Miller's bad focus in 2006-07 -- and I heard straight from his mouth at media day last year -- was family problems, with the premature birth of his daughter Anniston and a harrowing set of health issues at home. But what about late in 2005-06, when Miller vacillated between vital and awful? What about sections of 2007-08, when Brad shrunk from 'double-doubles animal-style' to 8 points/3 rebounds against the Heat?

I'm not asking the media to go ballistic over this, and I know Shoals isn't either. Marijuana in professional sports should probably be treated with less hysteria, if anything. But the sheer imbalance of coverage in these cases, and the lack of any investigation or analysis as to how the smokers actually hurt their teams is a bit appalling. If Josh Howard deserves weeks of public flogging, so does Brad.

From the NBA:

The NBA announced today that Brad Miller of the Sacramento Kings has been suspended without pay for five games for violating the terms of the NBA/NBPA Anti-Drug Program. Miller’s suspension will begin with the first game of the 2008-09 NBA regular season for which he is eligible and physically able to play.

F*cking beautiful.

According to a cursory review of the CBA, this would indicate a third weed offense.

UPDATE: The Bee has Miller's statement.

"I want to apologize to my family, teammates, fans and entire Kings organization, " Miller said in a statement released by the team. "I made a mistake. It was an error in judgment and I'm very sorry. I regret it deeply. It's something I won't and can't take lightly. I hope to bounce back from this as a better person and I'm excited about the upcoming season."

Chin up, homey. Life's grand. Just stop smoking, or at least ask Josh Howard for advice on beating the tests.

(By the by, Grant Napear ripped Howard to high hell when all that noise went down. I imagine he'll have a softer tone with respects to his buddy Brad.)

As quoted by ZenBaller in the FanPosts, the Washington Post's Ivan Carter:

Also, I heard from a very reliable source that the Sacramento Kings contacted Arenas and said they are willing to do "whatever it takes" to land his services even if they have to "trade their entire team." Guess the Maloof brothers want to matter again.

On a standard six-year maximum contract acquired via sign-and-trade, Gil's 2008-09 salary would be $17.1 million. Brad Miller and John Salmons gets it done from a contractual standpoint. It's unclear whether Washington would want to take those contracts back -- Salmons is fairly priced, Miller can play in Eddie Jordan's Princeton offense and expires in 2010. The only real 2009 expirings Sacramento could offer would be Ron Artest and Mikki Moore (sort-of); you'd assume playing with Artest and Kevin Martin would be the reason Gil would want to come to Sacramento (besides the $124 million, of course). A Shelden Williams, Artest, Moore combination would work financially if Ron's not a requirement, though.

A hypothetical Gil max contract would look like:

2008-09: $17.1 million
2009-10: $18.5 million
2010-11: $19.9 million
2011-12: $21.3 million
2012-13: $22.7 million
2013-14: $24.1 million

That is a lot of money. But Gil is a lot of player. If Arenas regained his pre-2007 production, Gil&Martin would instantly be one of the best backcourts in the Western Conference (perhaps behind only Parker/Manu and Telfair/McCants). The injury creates quite a big if, though. And I can guarantee you right now whichever team signs Gil to a max contract will get murdered in the press and the blogs. Can we handle the jokes?

Right now, it'd appear the Kings are a deep, deep third among reasonable options. Golden State can lock in Arenas without Wizards cooperation. It appears the Wizards would like Arenas for themselves. Dominoes would have to fall for it to happen here. I'm fully on board and in full-on hope mode. How 'bout you?

The damned Lakers have a way of clouding reality, don't they? As the Kings stuck with them through two quarters, I goaded myself into believing the Kings could win. The team's best three players were out. Spencer Hawes was frustrated and awful. Mikki Moore wasn't doing much. Francisco Garcia was a bit off. The team looked tired (understandable, given the fight against San Antonio the night prior). The Lakers had a full assault, and they were at home, and they were on rest.

Against most teams, I would have conceded as soon as the margin hit 10. Good fight, fine season, good night. I hung in until the margin was about 18, though. At that point, it became "watch Quincy run."

Seriously, how perfectly morbid is it that the big take-away from the season's 82nd game was a monster night from Quincy Douby, in which he carved up the opposing defense so effortlessly you almost imagined it was summer league? QD shows us something between little and nothing all year ... and then on April 15, he drops 32. I'd be mad were it not for the closing play -- penetration leading to an and-1 ... with 3.3 seconds on the game clock, down 26. Showing disrespect to the Lakers will always get you points in my book.

So there we are, that's it. "Next Game: No game scheduled," says Yahoo!. I've been ready for the end since March, but it still stings a little. As many noted in response to the most recent poll, a 38-44 season is not typically a success. More than half the mornings-after this season have resulted in something between mild annoyance and downright depression. It's all part of the fan's manifesto, and we all deal with it in our own ways. But it's not the downers which are important -- it's the moments of glee and heartfelt excitement and fluttering pride in something we truly have more than a customer-business relationship in.

The offseason means no more Kevin Martin box scores. No more Spencer Hawes dunks. No more Francisco Garcia mean faces. No more Mikki Moore screeches. No more Ron Artest flyin' fist pumps of doom. No more Beno Udrih lefty kisses off the glass. No more Brad Miller face-flattening screens in the open court. No more cheesy shots bespectacled randoms during Newman Lasik promos. No more Fat Lever or Henry Turner (or, yes, Katye Christensen). No more Jerryisms. No more... no more... no more Peaches. <sniffle>

I miss Kings basketball already. But hey! Only roughly 172 days until the first preseason game!

(As it were, if you just joined StR this season, fear not: We'll be around all summer. In fact, June has historically been our most active month. In the next few weeks, we'll eulogize this season and started looking at what the team can/will do this summer. We'll get our draft prognostication on. We'll discuss the playoffs. We'll post more pictures of Peaches turning up in foreign countries. We'll prepare for free agency, summer league, the Olympics, preseason, and of course the 2008-09 season. Hope you join us, and we thank you for being a part of the 2007-08 season with us.)