A Grip on Sports: As football practices roll on in summer’s heat, we contemplate a new choice as the world’s best basketball player

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Impatience isn’t a virtue but it is a way of life for football fans this time of year. Preseason practices are important, sure, but more important is what they are preparing the players for. And, after the past year and a half, it’s hard to wait.

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• No matter who you root for, from the Seahawks to the Vandals, from the Cougars to the Eagles, your calendar is telling you the football season is nigh. And, if you are really into it, you also can take a trip to watch practice.

It’s harder with some than others, with the Hawks a tough ticket this time of year – all times of year, actually – and Washington State practicing in the early hours of the morning, but the dedicated football fan finds a way, right?

What do you see? We’re glad you asked because if you’re a novice at watching preseason practice (in-season practice as well) you might be a little overwhelmed. Most practices are divided into short sessions, some just a couple minutes, others longer. There is a lot of activity throughout the practice facility, sort of like a track meet with a lot more contact. The quarterbacks are always working on some aspect of their craft, from dropping passes into trashcans in the corner of the end zone to whistling quick outs to receivers trying to break free of their good friends, the defensive backs.

In between the sessions – most programs sound an air-horn to let the players know it’s time to move on – players and coaches are sprinting between spots, all guided by a practice plan that looks something akin to Hannibal’s battle plan at Cannae. And don’t forget to appreciate the efforts of those in support roles, the managers, video folks and training staffs. They never seem able to stop and smell the heat balm, as someone always needs something.

All in all it looks like organized chaos, which it is. Funny thing. Good programs seem to lean heavily on the first word, poor ones on the second. And it shows down the road.

• For the U.S., this was the Olympics in which the women shined. In every sport. Female athletes won 58 percent of our country’s medals and captured at least that much of the interest, including mine.

Sports like water polo and volleyball have always been on my Olympic agenda, mainly because UC Irvine was great in one and OK in the other four decades ago when I spent almost all my time in the athletic complex. It’s a habit that’s carried on through the years. And, of course, basketball is always worth watching.

This Olympics, though, I discovered something about women’s basketball that I didn’t know. It has to do with one player, Breanna Stewart.

Look, I knew Stewart was good. Really good. But I wasn’t ready for how good. All it took it was her playing on the best team in the world against the best in the world.

We all know the Seattle Storm is the best team in the WNBA. And Stewart is the key player for the Storm. Stop her and Sue Bird, Jewell Loyd, Katie Lou Samuelson, et al, have a tougher time winning.

That wasn’t the case with the U.S. team. It had too many weapons. Which allowed Stewart to show her versatility. And talent. After watching almost every minute of every U.S. game, I came away with unmistakable conclusion: Stewart is the best basketball player in the world, male or female.

Wait, before you start yelling, hear me out. You have to rate athletes in how they relate to their competition. Babe Ruth couldn’t play today, but he was so far ahead of his competition a century ago, it’s easy to say he was an all-time great. Same with Michael Jordan or Jim Brown or Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Compare them to who they were playing against. It’s that gap that tells all.

Stewart is so much better than her peers right now. She does it all. At 6-foot-4 she is an exceptional ballhandler. (Heck if she were 5-4, she would be an exceptional ballhandler.) She was the best 3-point shooter the U.S. could put on the court. She was the team’s best rebounder. She was a willing and solid passer. But most importantly (to me, anyway), despite being 6-4, she was the best defender the U.S. had, able to guard a big in the post or a quick wing in space. She was also near-perfect in help, getting to the right place at the right time consistently.

She was quite simply the best player in Tokyo. And the gap was larger than any gap on the male side. Which makes her, right now, the best in the world. 

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WSU: If you had been in Pullman yesterday, you would have seen the Cougars in pads for the first time this preseason. Theo Lawson was there and he has these notes from practice. … Theo also took some time to look ahead to the schedule, which begins in a few weeks. He picked out the most dangerous opponent in each game. … You want to hear the thoughts of the players? Theo adds video of interviews with not only Nick Rolovich but Calvin Jackson Jr., Dallas Hobbs and George Hicks III as well. … We will get into this more tomorrow, but do not miss this ESPN story on Paul Wulff’s mother. If you know the history of it – and most Cougar fans do – than this will hit hard. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college sports, Jon Wilner makes an argument the conference has to keep USC happy in this latest period of realignment. He’s right. … Either David Shaw or Kyle Whittingham is the dean of Pac-12 football coaches. We’ll go with Shaw because he coaches in the Bay Area, thus has a bigger microphone. So we need to listen when he talks about conference reshuffling. … If there’s one position at Washington that seems more loaded than any other after four practices, it would be running back. … Oregon State had some players missing yesterday. … Tight end seems to be a position of strength for Oregon. … Colorado’s new coordinator is working to improve the Buff defense. … Running back is one position in which a junior college transfer can make an immediate impact. … Utah is viewed favorably by its peers. … This is a year USC’s defense has to play better. … Two more Arizona State assistants have been put on leave. What the heck is going on? … Ball security is a priority at Arizona. … In basketball news, a Colorado newcomer is fully dedicated to hoops.

Gonzaga: We were going to delve into Jalen Suggs’ summer debut in more detail but decided we’ll be writing about Suggs a lot over the next few months. Especially if his regular season is anything close to his first game in Las Vegas for the Magic. Jim Meehan has all the details about Suggs and other Zags in this story but here are the rookie guard’s raw numbers: 24 points, nine rebounds, three blocks and two steals. … Jim spent part of his morning talking with Larry Weir for the latest Press Box podcast.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, Montana begin preseason practice this week. … Montana State is nearing a 90 percent vaccination rate.

Preps: Dave Nichols has a notebook covering a couple of changes in the Greater Spokane League coaching ranks. … We want to pass along Chuck Hafner’s obituary from Colin Tiernan because few people in the Spokane Valley had a bigger impact of prep sports with less notice. Behind-the-scenes, Hafner played a huge role in helping kids succeed in athletics.

Mariners: The M’s had a day off to travel back from the East Coast, which makes it a good day to focus on their long-suffering fans. Which the Seattle Times did. … We believe it might be a good time for the Rockies to change their mascot’s name. Homer would be better. Just saying. Think of the Simpsons tie-ins. And the near-zero chance of a misunderstood word.

Seahawks: It has been two weeks of practice already. What have we learned?

Sounders: Seattle plays Tigres UNAL in an international matchup tonight. It should be interesting. It airs on ESPN2 at 7.

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• As the pandemic rolled on last year, I thought about this subject myself. What happens to gyms in the future? Also, on an unrelated note, anybody in the market for an only slightly used treadmill? Until later …