Oklahoma City...Supersonics?

Posted by Phil Partington Aug 14, 2007

For those who don't know much about me, I grew up in the Seattle area and currently live about an hour south of the Emerald City. As a result, I'm a die hard Seattle Supersonics fan, which makes them potentially moving to Oklahoma City a story I care a lot about.

This news is a few days old, but I thought I'd take this opportunity to fill those who have not followed the issue a synopsis of what's going on (as well as take the chance to rant a little about it).

According to the Seattle Times, "In an incredibly odd interview with an Oklahoma newspaper, Aubrey McClendon, one of the new Sonics owners, blatantly admitting that they're gonna move the team to OK City, even if it costs them money.

McClendon said the team would probably make more money if it stayed in Seattle.

'But we didn't buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here,' he said. 'We know it's a little more difficult financially here in Oklahoma City, but we think it's great for the community and if we could break even we'd be thrilled.'

A prediction: The team won't "break even." Unless Seattle fans -- who McClendon keeps saying "kind of look down their nose at us" -- burn down the Sonics' offices, that team is gone, people, regardless of whatever apologetic press release McClendon sends out today."

McClendon has issued a statement since, which basically copies and pastes the agreement they made with Howard Schultz (previous owner) - presumably to avoid lawsuit. Clay Bennet's statement was hilarious!!!! The first 5-10 seconds was him going "uhhhhh, errrrr, ummm...." followed by a "no, no! we um really want to er...stay in...um...seattle." I was waiting for Clay to yell out "HEY YOU GUYYYYS" followed by a fat kid cutting him off at the podium to do the truffle shuffle.

None of this is really a big surprise to Sonics fans and frankly, as frustrating as it all is, I can't blame them for doing what they're doing. If I was in that situation and wanted to take a team from Oklahom to Seattle, I would probably do the same thing if the situation called for it.

What does tick me off is that though you'll hear them repeatedly cry about how Seattle "looks down at them" and thinks of them as nothing but "stupid hicks", they have looked down at Seattle from day one in how they address the media with snobbish egoism and a lack-of-respect type of attitude. They seem to think of Seattlites as a bunch of yuppies who don't know poop from shine-olah. Sometimes it's hard to argue with that, but the ironic thing is, these yuppies have called them on their every move. They've seen through the piles of crap and identified it for what it is - the ownership trying to move the team. When ownership dumped its two best players, sending the team into rebuilding mode, it was the fans who saw that as a means to reduce salaries to make for an easier move. When the Sonics cleaned house in management and seemed to want little to do with any past Sonics affiliates, it was the fans who saw that as a sign of disrespect.

If anything good comes of this, it's that Washington state has figured out that there is interest in having a pro basketball team. If a new team came to the state, it probably wouldn't come to Seattle, but many other cities stepped up trying to make a new stadium work in their area, including Renton and Auburn. They see it as a way to compete with Seattle.

However, Bennet and gang have sabotaged things over and over. The biggest and most blatant sabotage was when they were two months late in submitting the Sonics' case to the Legislature for vote. The issue that needed to be voted on was whether or not they should let Renton vote on whether or not they should start building a new arena for the Sonics. It was obvious that Seattle wasn't going to support a new stadium, since their tax payers were already too heavily burdened with taxes from the Mariners and Seahawks stadiums, but only an idiot would expect that the Legislature would be able to vote on something when it's two months late in submission. It would make sense that the tardiness was intentional. Remember that legally Clay and his group have to make all reasonable efforts to keep the team in Seattle. Also, David Stern wouldn't let them leave if they don't.

Seattle's doing the right thing by playing hard ball and trying to make them honor their lease, which keeps the team playing in their current arena until 2010. We'll see how that plays out. The more time that can be bought, the better chance for a miracle.

So, that's the scoop. Some might care, others might not. As for me, I plan on being a die-hard Sonics fan til the bitter end. If they leave for Oklahoma, I don't think I can continue calling them my team, though I will be rooting for certain players like Robert Swift and Luke Ridnour. I might have to be a temporary Blazer fan until (and if) Seattle gets a new team.