It seems David Stern is still 200% supporting the Sonics to leave Seattle for Oklahoma City. So, bye-bye Seattle. You have enjoyed your last NBA game in KeyArena.
What a complete bull**** response from Stern. Those e-mails blatantly showed he was not operating in good faith.
As a Pittsburgher, we nearly lost the Penguins so I got a dose of what it might feel like but I simply can't imagine what it really feels like to actually lose a sports team. I feel terrible for the city of Seattle.
Stern sucks. He really, truly does, and clearly has no problem at all lying to Seattle and the entire country.
I wonder if sonics fans will follow the new franchise in OKC...probably not, b/c they don't have any real attachment to those players.
Can the Sonics get a Cleveland Browns-type deal where any new team that comes in down the line could still be named the Seattle Sonics? That would have been huge for my Oilers-Texans fanhood, in my opinion. Got to be painful drafting good young talent and knowing the team is moving ... kind of like the Oilers taking Steve McNair and Eddie George.
Stern has said if Seattle lets the team go, the city can keep the name and colors of the team in the event Seattle gets another team. I don't know if Bennett and Stern will still feel the same way if Seattle (as I fully expect them to) launches a scorched-earth war to keep the team here. I keep telling people on this board, Seattle is a tenacious city that has a strong, libertarian, "stand up to the man" attitude. This is going to be a like a bad divorce trial. Seattle is asking for full financials from all 30 teams, and they are going to poke and prod the NBA, surely exposing some info that Stern doesn't want getting out. With Schulz's intent to sue to get the team back, the release of emails last week, and the NBA voting on Friday over relocation, things are going to get interesting. I feel a lot more optimistic about the Sonics staying here in Seattle than I felt during the Save Our Rockets days. Maybe living through it once has innoculated me...
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3347564 Schultz is suing Bennet's group to reclaim the team due to fraud!
Definitely, this issue deserves a few threads to talk about the various aspects of it. After going through the Save Our Rockets when I lived in Houston, I never thought I'd have to do that again. Now that I live in Seattle, I get to go through it all over again. Even though I hate the Sonics from the battles we used to have with them, I am a hardcore supporter of Save Our Sonics.
