SEATTLE – He comes into the big office building at night to clean the boardroom so the CEO and his vice presidents can have a nice meeting.
He’s at the racetrack before sunup to muck the stalls so the thoroughbred can sleep on a bed of fresh straw.
He’s in the bottom of the ditch with the pick and shovel while four supervisors stand outside grabbing a smoke.
He’s in the garage until 1 a.m. making sure the race car is up to snuff so the driver can drink champagne after his victory.
He’s outside your house before you’re awake picking up your garbage so your place doesn’t smell like a dump.
He’s in the field bent over in the hot sun picking tomatoes so that you can have veggies for dinner.
He does the dirty work that seldom gets the recognition it deserves.
He’s the cop. The fireman. The soldier. The nurse.
In basketball, he is Danny Fortson.
In high school, he was a tight end in football. In the NBA, he’s still blocking, using his big body to free up the shooters on the SuperSonics.
No body is too big for him to challenge.
Fighting for a rebound the other night, the 6-foot-8, 277-pound Fortson floored Brad Miller, the 7-foot center of the Sacramento Kings, before sticking the ball into the basket.
Another time, Greg Ostertag ended up on the floor after making the mistake of trying to wrest a rebound from Fortson, then stuck his leg out attempting to trip the Sonics forward.
Clearly irritated, the 7-2, 280-pound Ostertag then went out to animatedly voice his views to Fortson before a referee stepped in between the two.
Fortson had done what he’s paid to do: Be physical. Get under the skin of an opponent.
This a guy with his hair in pigtails as he stepped on the court to do battle.
Don’t call him a “girlie man,” though, unless you want to be stuffed in the basket.
“It’s me being myself,” he said of his dirt-under-the-fingernails, chip-on-the-shoulder, sweat-under-the-armpits job with the Sonics. “An extra big body. Keep the guy off the glass, even if you don’t get the rebound.”
He got the rebound against the Kings. Again. And again. And again during one stretch of Wednesday night’s game at KeyArena.
In a span of one minute and 33 seconds, he got five rebounds, scored four points, and used his wide body to set screens every time the Sonics had the ball.
He said he knows it’s a perfect screen when he hears the other guy go “ugh.”
It must have sounded more like “boing” when little Bobby Jackson smacked into Fortson late in the first quarter.
The 6-1, 185-pound guard bounced off Fortson like a fly off an elephant.
There were times when Fortson set three and four screens on a single possession. That’s how you win friends and influence people on an NBA team.
Nobody likes to do it. But somebody’s got to if a team is to win.
After a dreadful season-opening loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, the Sonics have won four straight.
They haven’t just been beating teams. They’ve been mugging them.
They whipped Atlanta by 21 points, San Antonio by 19, Denver by 20 and Sacramento by 30.
That’s assault and battery. They ought to be locked up.
Good idea, agree the guys who have had to stand in there and fight Fortson for rebounds.
In 21 minutes against the Kings, the former University of Cincinnati All-American grabbed 13 rebounds – nine off the offensive board – and scored 16 points, his second double-double in three games.
That’s not to mention the aches and pains he handed out.
Yeah, the Kings must have concurred, a pain in the butt.
He’s given the Sonics something they badly needed – toughness and some bad-boy attitude.
It’s caught on. They’re outrebounding opponents by an average of 41-33. They’re aggressive on defense. “We’re playing hard, we’re playing together,” said coach Nate McMillan after the latest win. “It’s a total team effort.”
Will it last? Good question. Which will be answered in the weeks and months to come.
Fortson, who came to the Sonics in a trade with Dallas in July, is certainly doing his part.
He said it took him two years to realize one of his roles in the NBA would be to grab missed shots.
“I said, ‘This (stuff) really works,’ ” he laughed as he sat at his locker before Wednesday’s game. “I like to be able to give guys good looks.”
He said McMillan sat down with him when he came aboard and told him his job would be to rebound and set screens.
“I just wanted the opportunity to get out and play,” he said. “I’m not looking to win any awards.”
Nor any prime-time on TV. Though after the win over the Kings, he was smack-dab in the middle of a media mob.
The stable hand had just won the Kentucky Derby.
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