A Grip on Sports: Another trade shakes up the NBA and another couple jerseys rise to the McCarthey rafters

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Sure, there was one of those blockbuster NBA trade-deadline deals last night. But we’ve seen those before. What we haven’t seen happens this weekend at Gonzaga.

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• Put yourself in Mat Ishbia’s place. You’ve just spent billions to buy the Phoenix Suns. You want to make a splash, especially the during a week in which the Valley of the Sun is hosting not only the Super Bowl but the PGA Tour’s most raucous event. What do you do?

You greenlight forfeiting your franchise’s future, that’s what. OK, that’s the negative way of looking at Wednesday’s blockbuster-of-all-blockbuster trades, Kevin Durant leaving the Brooklyn Nets for the Suns. But we see it that way a bit. C’mon, four first-round picks and three players?

The 34-year-old Durant is a unique talent. An overwhelming one? We’re not sure. He’s shined wherever he’s played, including that long-ago rookie year in Seattle, but he’s only won a couple titles. And it took playing with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green to make those happen.

Everywhere else, Durant has lived an unrealized dream of dominance. Now he is Phoenix. He’ll team with Chris Paul, Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton in a lineup that should cause shivers through the rest of the NBA.

If they all stay healthy. Not a given, not with Paul’s age (37), Booker’s recent history and Ayton’s physical nature night in and night out.

We’ll see how it plays out. But if you gave us the field in a bet, we would take it and not quibble about giving you good odds.

• Dan Dickau played on enough NBA teams there is odds-on chance any name we would have thrown out above could have qualified for the descriptor “former Dan Dickau teammate.”

But before he began his seven-team, six-year NBA odyssey, Dickau was an All-American point guard for the Gonzaga Bulldogs. The first of a chosen few who have helped elevate the Zags from mid-major oblivion to a national brand. And tonight, he will become one of the chosen few who has his number in the McCarthey Athletic Center rafters.

Frank Burgess. John Stockton. Adam Morrison. Kelly Olynyk. And now Dickau. The Kennel’s rafters are getting crowded. And will become even more Saturday, when Courtney Vandersloot’s jersey will be elevated as well.

What a weekend it will be for Gonzaga. Though there is one oddity, at least as we see it.

Tonight’s game, against USF, will be broadcast on ESPN2. What? Doesn’t it seem more appropriate that it be on KHQ? With Greg Heister, Dickau and Richard Fox describing the ceremony in detail? And arguing, jokingly, that Dickau’s number, if not his hair, seems out of place?

After all, it’s as one of the color analysts on the local GU broadcast that a new generation of Zag fans have come to know Dickau. His basketball exploits? Ancient history.

That’s not the case with Vandersloot, the first (appropriately) women’s player to be honored. She’s still toiling in the WNBA, an all-star point guard who just left her original team, the Chicago Sky, after 12 seasons to join Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu to form the league’s first super team in New York.

With her addition in the Kennel rafters during the Portland game this week, that group is a truly super team as well.

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WSU: Around the Pac-12 and college basketball, USC’s visit tonight to Oregon is key for both team’s postseason hopes. … Play better, play more. It’s simple for one Oregon State player. … Rebounding has become one of Colorado’s strengths. … Defensive intensity is Jaylen Clark’s strength for UCLA. … Arizona is at California, which is the least-challenging road game in the conference. … We can pass along a power ranking for the women. … Oregon has fallen in those and needs to regroup if it wants to make the NCAA Tournament. … Utah will be in and may win the conference title. … Stanford and Arizona meet this week. … In football news, Jon Wilner rates the quarterback position for each conference team in the Mercury News this morning. … The Athletic looks at the recruiting classes around the conference. … Michael Penix Jr.’s success attracted another quarterback to Washington.

Gonzaga: We mentioned Dickau’s jersey ceremony tonight above and linked Theo Lawson’s story, which we do again here. … The opponent is San Francisco, who came awful close to winning in the first meeting. Theo has the preview and a look at the key matchup. … It’s still award time, with Julian Strawther making the Julius Erving Award list final 10 and Yvonne Ejim the same with the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year list. Jim Meehan has the first story and Jim Allen the second. And, we assume, Mark Few a couple thoughts about Gonzaga and a mid-major award. … Elsewhere in the WCC, Saint Mary’s seems headed to the NCAA tourney no matter what.

EWU: Lynn Hickey may be retiring soon but she won’t be leaving Cheney before she accomplishes a little more. Dan Thompson has more in this story. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, though the Eagles are off tonight, Montana has a key game – and stretch – on tap. … Montana State has lost a football player to the portal.

Preps: There were basketball games to report last night and Dave Nichols does so in this roundup.

Seahawks: Jamal Adams’ return from injury is expected to improve the Hawks’ safety play. But for how long? … Jason Myers is back as the kicker, which is good news. … There are ways for the Hawks to free more cap space. … Prop bets are a big deal with the Super Bowl. … Luke Willson is at the Super Bowl, though not as a player. He has new athletic-oriented goals. … The ads could be fun. Or tedious. … Russell Wilson’s foundation may not be what it seems.

Mariners: From mailbags to the new rightfielder, we have M’s news to pass along. … Dylan Moore could be crucial for Seattle.

Kraken: Don’t expect Seattle to drop much in the standings during the second half of the season.

Storm: The Seattle franchise is worth more than any in the WNBA. That seems a little off, unless you’ve sat in Climate Pledge Arena during a game.

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• Golden State won an NBA title last summer, its first since Durant left. That had to hurt. He looked around, saw how dysfunctional Brooklyn was and wanted out. He got his wish. Now he needs to win it all to show his stature. At least that’s our CliffsNotes version of the trade. Until later …