THEY’RE GONE … but don’t be surprised if the NBA returns to Seattle
JOHN MCGRATH; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: July 3rd, 2008 01:00 AM | Updated: July 3rd, 2008 06:05 AM
Go ahead and rage against the injustice, SuperSonics fans.
The team built around rookie of the year Kevin Durant, swingman Jeff Green, first-round draft choice Russell Westbrook and a cluster of 7-foot developmental projects was granted clearance Wednesday to take off for Oklahoma City, where it will be seen as a symbol of can-do cowboy spirit as it demonstrates all it can’t do on the basketball court.
No matter that the Oklahoma Stealers – the nickname is imagined; everything is on the table except any version of “Super” and “Sonics” – likely are looking at another 60-loss season. You have been slapped in the face and shoved to the floor. You are the traveling secretary who failed to please Manny Ramirez, the general manager bullied by Shawn Chacon.
The city of Seattle’s 11th-hour settlement with Clay Bennett’s group provides you every right to cuss, stew, wail and whine about the final score of a needlessly spirited court contest: Carpetbaggers 2, Seattle 0. (’Baggers by forfeit.)
While there is no joy in Mudville, something tells me they’re dancing in the streets of Dustville.
But once you have concluded the grieving process, understand this: The NBA is coming back to Seattle, coming back to KeyArena, coming back in green and, yes, in gold.
A franchise owned by Oklahomans who envision the dour, robotically efficient San Antonio Spurs as the model of pro-basketball success is leaving, to be replaced by a franchise owned by Seattle businessmen who’ve got this intriguing notion that the winning and consistently entertaining Sonics teams of the George Karl era might be a more pertinent blueprint.
The Sonics will return because the city of Seattle backed out of a fight that would’ve rendered the “winners” as bloodied and battered as the 1950s middleweight boxer who prevailed over Jake LaMotta in a split decision.
Beyond draining tens of millions of dollars – pocket change – from the bottomless bank account of Bennett and his buddies, forcing the Oklahoma owners to fulfill the final two years of their team’s KeyArena lease accomplishes precisely what?
It sours fans, further poisoning pro basketball’s already toxic climate in Seattle. Two seasons of Spurs Lite was tough enough. Can you imagine two more seasons?
More important, two years of attempting to humiliate Bennett – a man I sense is constitutionally incapable of saying “pardon me” after spilling his coffee on a fellow first-class airline passenger, much less humiliation – forever dooms Seattle’s chances of reconciling with the NBA.
Sure, the league is run by a commissioner, David Stern, whose every breath contributes to a smug alert. When he spoke on behalf of Bennett’s half-baked campaign for a thoroughly modern, $500 million arena in King County, Stern championed the proposal less as an opportunity than a threat.
If the Sonics leave, he said in so many words, Seattle can kiss the NBA goodbye.
The posture was firm, the rhetoric inflexible. More recently, behind the scenes, Stern was quite more amenable to a truce with Seattle: Let this team go, we’ll have your back the next time there’s a franchise-relocation opportunity.
As city of Seattle attorney Tom Carr, speaking to KJR a few minutes after the settlement-disclosure press conference, put it: “Having the NBA pleased with you is a lot better than having the NBA mad at you.”
In other words, suck it up, and try to consider David Stern less as the czar of an evil empire than a friend of the disenfranchised.
Just a hunch, but I’m predicting an NBA team calling itself the Sonics tipping off at KeyArena for the 2011-12 season. It’s a fast track, granted, but local ownership is in place, the funding mechanism for a KeyArena renovation is doable, and the stability of NBA markets is nothing if not fluid.
Look at it this way: Two years of putrid basketball has been exchanged for three years in the dark, followed by a milestone reset – a different team with the same name, same logo, same tradition. Can it work?
Cleveland Browns fans will tell you it works. They set fires in the stands during the fourth quarter of their beloved team’s final home game in 1995. When an expansion version of the Browns took the field in a new lake-front stadium in 1999, the sold-out crowd included 55,000 season-ticket holders.
There’s only problem with an NBA team returning to Seattle as the Sonics: The team most likely will be uprooted from Memphis, or Sacramento, or Charlotte.
The pain Sonics fans feel today is destined to be somebody else’s pain in a few years.
In the meantime, the wait for SuperSonics II will be longer than you want, and sooner than you think.
March 5, 1972: Talented forward Spencer Haywood slips and falls on a wet Seattle Center Coliseum floor. He’s never the same.
Dec. 26, 1973: Center Jim Fox grabs a franchise-record 30 rebounds (and scores a team-high 25 points) in a 129-105 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
March 23, 1974: Fred Brown scores a franchise-record 58 points in a 139-137 win at the Golden State Warriors.
June 7, 1978: The Washington Bullets beat the Sonics, 105-99, in Seattle to win the NBA Finals in seven games.
June 1, 1979: Sonics win their first (and only) NBA championship with a 97-93 win over the Bullets to win the series in five games.
April 15, 1980: 40,172 fans watch the Sonics lose to the Milwaukee Bucks, 108-95, in a playoff game at the Kingdome.
June 30, 1980: Sonics trade guard Dennis Johnson to Phoenix for guard Paul Westphal, who plays only 36 games for Seattle because of injuries.
Feb. 23, 1987: Nate McMillan records a franchise-record 25 assists in a 124-112 win over the Los Angeles Clippers.
June 22, 1987: Sonics trade No. 5 overall pick Scottie Pippen to Chicago for No. 8 pick Olden Polynice and other considerations.
June 27, 1989: Sonics pick Shawn Kemp, 19, with the No. 17 overall pick.
Nov. 9, 1989: Sonics lose in five overtimes at the Milwaukee Bucks, 155-154. Dale Ellis scores 53 points for the Sonics.
June 27, 1990: Sonics pick guard Gary Payton with the No. 2 overall pick.
May 7, 1994: Dikembe Mutombo rolls on the Coliseum floor in glee after Denver becomes the first No. 8 seed to eliminate a top seed, winning Game 5, 98-94, in overtime in Seattle.
April 29, 1995: The lights go out in the Tacoma Dome during a playoff game against the Lakers. The lights soon go out on Seattle’s season as the Lakers win three in a row to finish the series.
June 16, 1996: Michael Jordan and the Bulls beat Seattle, 87-75, to win the NBA title.
July 22, 1996: Sonics sign center Jim McIlvaine to a seven-year, $33.6 million contract.
Wow, I was going to sign on and apologize to the Sonic fans for the loss of their team but after reading all the comments regarding Oklahoma you can FUCK right off! Suddenly all the north/northwest became experts on life and times in Oklahoma??? Now I'm sure you have all stopped in OKC for 10 minutes on the way to a PJ show or have a cousin or grandmother that lives here, which immediately makes you an expert on the city. Seattle politicians and Shulz (sp) is to blame, not Oklahoma. They didn't even allow you to vote on a new arena deal, while they happily supported the Mariners and Seahawks?
We voted on a new arena deal and we supported it. The shit about the south being NCAA hoops territory,,, whatthefuckever. Albeit only for a short amount of time, we supported the Hornets so vigirously that THEY wanted to come here. Sure OKC is less densely poplulated but we only have to support 1 pro team. 1 team for the entire state, city and leaders to get behind. Maybe there were just too many options in Seattle and shitty ass, hicksville OKC had a chance to get a NBA franchise and took advantage of our only opportunity to do so. Seattle is a great city but maybe, just maybe, a little spoiled.
Comments
Insane.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/595/story/403887.html
THEY’RE GONE … but don’t be surprised if the NBA returns to Seattle
JOHN MCGRATH; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: July 3rd, 2008 01:00 AM | Updated: July 3rd, 2008 06:05 AM
Go ahead and rage against the injustice, SuperSonics fans.
The team built around rookie of the year Kevin Durant, swingman Jeff Green, first-round draft choice Russell Westbrook and a cluster of 7-foot developmental projects was granted clearance Wednesday to take off for Oklahoma City, where it will be seen as a symbol of can-do cowboy spirit as it demonstrates all it can’t do on the basketball court.
No matter that the Oklahoma Stealers – the nickname is imagined; everything is on the table except any version of “Super” and “Sonics” – likely are looking at another 60-loss season. You have been slapped in the face and shoved to the floor. You are the traveling secretary who failed to please Manny Ramirez, the general manager bullied by Shawn Chacon.
The city of Seattle’s 11th-hour settlement with Clay Bennett’s group provides you every right to cuss, stew, wail and whine about the final score of a needlessly spirited court contest: Carpetbaggers 2, Seattle 0. (’Baggers by forfeit.)
While there is no joy in Mudville, something tells me they’re dancing in the streets of Dustville.
But once you have concluded the grieving process, understand this: The NBA is coming back to Seattle, coming back to KeyArena, coming back in green and, yes, in gold.
A franchise owned by Oklahomans who envision the dour, robotically efficient San Antonio Spurs as the model of pro-basketball success is leaving, to be replaced by a franchise owned by Seattle businessmen who’ve got this intriguing notion that the winning and consistently entertaining Sonics teams of the George Karl era might be a more pertinent blueprint.
The Sonics will return because the city of Seattle backed out of a fight that would’ve rendered the “winners” as bloodied and battered as the 1950s middleweight boxer who prevailed over Jake LaMotta in a split decision.
Beyond draining tens of millions of dollars – pocket change – from the bottomless bank account of Bennett and his buddies, forcing the Oklahoma owners to fulfill the final two years of their team’s KeyArena lease accomplishes precisely what?
It sours fans, further poisoning pro basketball’s already toxic climate in Seattle. Two seasons of Spurs Lite was tough enough. Can you imagine two more seasons?
More important, two years of attempting to humiliate Bennett – a man I sense is constitutionally incapable of saying “pardon me” after spilling his coffee on a fellow first-class airline passenger, much less humiliation – forever dooms Seattle’s chances of reconciling with the NBA.
Sure, the league is run by a commissioner, David Stern, whose every breath contributes to a smug alert. When he spoke on behalf of Bennett’s half-baked campaign for a thoroughly modern, $500 million arena in King County, Stern championed the proposal less as an opportunity than a threat.
If the Sonics leave, he said in so many words, Seattle can kiss the NBA goodbye.
The posture was firm, the rhetoric inflexible. More recently, behind the scenes, Stern was quite more amenable to a truce with Seattle: Let this team go, we’ll have your back the next time there’s a franchise-relocation opportunity.
As city of Seattle attorney Tom Carr, speaking to KJR a few minutes after the settlement-disclosure press conference, put it: “Having the NBA pleased with you is a lot better than having the NBA mad at you.”
In other words, suck it up, and try to consider David Stern less as the czar of an evil empire than a friend of the disenfranchised.
Just a hunch, but I’m predicting an NBA team calling itself the Sonics tipping off at KeyArena for the 2011-12 season. It’s a fast track, granted, but local ownership is in place, the funding mechanism for a KeyArena renovation is doable, and the stability of NBA markets is nothing if not fluid.
Look at it this way: Two years of putrid basketball has been exchanged for three years in the dark, followed by a milestone reset – a different team with the same name, same logo, same tradition. Can it work?
Cleveland Browns fans will tell you it works. They set fires in the stands during the fourth quarter of their beloved team’s final home game in 1995. When an expansion version of the Browns took the field in a new lake-front stadium in 1999, the sold-out crowd included 55,000 season-ticket holders.
There’s only problem with an NBA team returning to Seattle as the Sonics: The team most likely will be uprooted from Memphis, or Sacramento, or Charlotte.
The pain Sonics fans feel today is destined to be somebody else’s pain in a few years.
In the meantime, the wait for SuperSonics II will be longer than you want, and sooner than you think.
John McGrath: 253-597-8742; ext. 6154
john.mcgrath@thenewstribune.com.
SONIC BOOMS (AND BUSTS)
March 5, 1972: Talented forward Spencer Haywood slips and falls on a wet Seattle Center Coliseum floor. He’s never the same.
Dec. 26, 1973: Center Jim Fox grabs a franchise-record 30 rebounds (and scores a team-high 25 points) in a 129-105 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
March 23, 1974: Fred Brown scores a franchise-record 58 points in a 139-137 win at the Golden State Warriors.
June 7, 1978: The Washington Bullets beat the Sonics, 105-99, in Seattle to win the NBA Finals in seven games.
June 1, 1979: Sonics win their first (and only) NBA championship with a 97-93 win over the Bullets to win the series in five games.
April 15, 1980: 40,172 fans watch the Sonics lose to the Milwaukee Bucks, 108-95, in a playoff game at the Kingdome.
June 30, 1980: Sonics trade guard Dennis Johnson to Phoenix for guard Paul Westphal, who plays only 36 games for Seattle because of injuries.
Feb. 23, 1987: Nate McMillan records a franchise-record 25 assists in a 124-112 win over the Los Angeles Clippers.
June 22, 1987: Sonics trade No. 5 overall pick Scottie Pippen to Chicago for No. 8 pick Olden Polynice and other considerations.
June 27, 1989: Sonics pick Shawn Kemp, 19, with the No. 17 overall pick.
Nov. 9, 1989: Sonics lose in five overtimes at the Milwaukee Bucks, 155-154. Dale Ellis scores 53 points for the Sonics.
June 27, 1990: Sonics pick guard Gary Payton with the No. 2 overall pick.
May 7, 1994: Dikembe Mutombo rolls on the Coliseum floor in glee after Denver becomes the first No. 8 seed to eliminate a top seed, winning Game 5, 98-94, in overtime in Seattle.
April 29, 1995: The lights go out in the Tacoma Dome during a playoff game against the Lakers. The lights soon go out on Seattle’s season as the Lakers win three in a row to finish the series.
June 16, 1996: Michael Jordan and the Bulls beat Seattle, 87-75, to win the NBA title.
July 22, 1996: Sonics sign center Jim McIlvaine to a seven-year, $33.6 million contract.
Sept. 25, 1997: Sonics trade Shawn Kemp and receive forward Vin Baker.
Oct. 2, 1997: Sonics reacquire Dale Ellis from Denver for Greg Graham, Steve Scheffler and two second-round draft picks.
April 16, 2000: The News Tribune reports Baker is getting treated for depression.
Feb. 20, 2003: Payton is traded to the Bucks in a nine-player deal involving three teams, with guard Ray Allen coming to Seattle.
May 23, 2007: Sonics get the No. 2 overall pick in the draft lottery. Seattle takes Kevin Durant on June 28.
Jan. 27, 2008: Sonics lose their franchise-record 14th game in a row, a 103-101 home loss to the Sacramento Kings.
Victor Yoshida, The News Tribune
We voted on a new arena deal and we supported it. The shit about the south being NCAA hoops territory,,, whatthefuckever. Albeit only for a short amount of time, we supported the Hornets so vigirously that THEY wanted to come here. Sure OKC is less densely poplulated but we only have to support 1 pro team. 1 team for the entire state, city and leaders to get behind. Maybe there were just too many options in Seattle and shitty ass, hicksville OKC had a chance to get a NBA franchise and took advantage of our only opportunity to do so. Seattle is a great city but maybe, just maybe, a little spoiled.