Oklahoma City Thunder
Gmoney
Posts: 1,618
So sad. To all my basketball loving friends in the upper northwest, im so sorry about this. I was a young kid living in Cleveland when the Browns moved. If you love the team it's a really weird and horrible feeling. I met many of great PJ fans who were Sonic fans. I feel for you, total bullshit!
Further back and forth a wave will break on me, today...
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MSG 1+2. 2010
Wrigley. Brooklyn 2. Hartford. 2013
St. Louis. Denver. 2014
Global Citizens Festival. 2015
MSG 2. Fenway 2. Wrigley 1. 2016
Safeco 2. Missoula. 2018
http://timesunion.com/ASPLib/Enlarge.asp?Location=/Shared/Graphics/NewsDB/AP/Oklahoma+City+Basketball+d23091c3-46c4-48ab-b773-8c1bb4d16f94.jpg&Caption=Damien+Wilkins,+left,+applauds+as+the+name,+logo+and+colors+of+Oklahoma+City%27s+NBA+franchise+are+unveiled+in+Oklahoma+City,+Wednesday,+Sept.+3,+2008.+Wilkins+is+a+player+for+the+Oklahoma+City+Thunder,+which+moved+from+Seattle.&CredString=+(AP)&Alt=Oklahoma+City+Basketball&Height=512&Width=474
Mansfield II '08
EV Solo Shows:
NYC I
NJPAC
I. LOVE. YIELD.
crap
5/25/06 - Boston
6/28/08 - Mansfield
6/30/08 - Mansfield
8/2/08 - Eddie in Boston (FRONT ROW!)
wow. I'm thinking WNBA, MLS or arena football.
weren't they almost named "Wind" though.
this is light years better. lol
will miss the Sonics
and the Whalers
Everybody had a one line.....
Everybody misses Andy....
We'll be seeing him in no time.... Oh Yeah.....
We are Red, we are White, we are Danish Dynamite!
Anyways. Seattle should get an NHL team within the next 4-5 years I would bet the farm on it.
The people of Seattle are too good for the NBA and deserve to watch a real sport.
7-06-03
7-11-03
9-28-04
9-29-04
5-13-06
6-03-06
6-27-08
Don't forget the Expos!
MSG 1+2. 2010
Wrigley. Brooklyn 2. Hartford. 2013
St. Louis. Denver. 2014
Global Citizens Festival. 2015
MSG 2. Fenway 2. Wrigley 1. 2016
Safeco 2. Missoula. 2018
Every quarter??
Nothing to do with support, everything to do with money (ie a new Arena). Don't confuse support and money. Imagine if every team who did not get what they want relocating during a time when that team is at the bottom of the league. The Key wasn't empty because it was old or run down. It was empty cause the Sonics made poor choices and did not perform well for the last 5 years.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1e/Detroit_Pistons_logo.svg/200px-Detroit_Pistons_logo.svg.png
OR the Clippers':
https://www.usshortcodes.com/csc/images/directory/65.jpg
Compared to those, the OKC logo looks pretty sweet.
Most Seattle voters were burned by the the funding of Qwest and Safeco fields. Over a billion dollars were spent. With no hope of a new stadium , Schultz (former owner) decided he would pawn the team to a red-neck from Oklahoma who claimed he would fight or even throw in some of his own cash for a new building. All lies of course. Bennett half-heartedly tried to get the stadium paid for and if he was successful would have flipped the team to someone else. But his plan worked perfectly and now he has the Thunder in OKC.
If anyone is to blame its Starfucks owner Shultz. He singlehandedly gave the Sonics away. Yeah the team has been terrible lately , but 3-4 years ago in McMillens last season as coach they went to the 2nd round of the playoffs and were playing great. People were coming out. They let Nate go to Portland and that set the events in motion the next 2 years. Losing Rashard Lewis for nothing trading Ray Allen for shit. It was all a plan to justify moving the team to OKC.
They will be successful in OKC short term, but look what happened in Memphis. They play in maybe the nicest building in the NBA. FedEx Forum. Its nearly half empty every night now and the NBA has lost its luster. No one likes to root for a loser. Year after year the same bad moves. Losing 50+ games.
I was/am a Sonics fan all my life. I watched games in the Kingdome where I could barely see the court. I watched games in the old Seattle Center Coliseum. I met Tom Chambers , Dale Ellis, Jack Sikma , Xavier McDaniel to Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, those were the fucking days.
Shultz fucked Seattle , the fans and the city. Don't BS people and say there was no support and its Seattles fault. If he wanted to sell there were plenty of local owners willing to buy the team for fair market price, not top dollar to a billionaire red-neck who planned on moving the team to OKC the whole time.
As for being successful in OKC, I think it is unwise to equate OKC with Memphis. For better or worse, Oklahoma has very loyal fans and will support their teams, even in the worst of times (see OU's football in the 90s for an example). Although we don't know if that loyalty will carryover to the Thunder if they suck for a long time, previous behavior would suggest that OKC fans would remain more loyal than Memphis fans. Furthermore, I strongly believe that the Thunder has much more direction and focus under Sam Presti than the Grizzlies do, so I think they have a bright future and the loyalty to a bad team issue is moot anyway.
As for BS-ing people about support, it is absolutely NOT BS that there hasn't been the support for the team lately. Sure, that can be blamed on Shultz or the team's bad decisions, or just the poor play in general, but the support definitely wasn't there for the past 3 years I was attending Sonics games. I loved watching them, but was consistently disappointed in the level of support for them. As for providing public funding for a new arena, it's understandable that a major city with 3 major teams (two of which recently got new venues), would be skeptical about paying even MORE taxes for another arena. I think that is why OKC will support this team so much, because this will be the only major sports team in the state, so fans are really excited and are willing to pay for it.
In the end, I think it is sad the way this went down and that the NBA is no longer in Seattle. I hope they get a new team soon.
Clay Bennett (And Schultz) is a huge crapbag....also, keep an eye on the NBA's Napoleon, Stern.
Seattle....with no Sonics? Boooooooo!