30 pieces of Silver: A City Betrayed

July 2, 2008. Remember this date as it will infamously go down as the day The Seattle SuperSonics were sold down river to Oklahoma City for a cool $45 mil. It will be remembered as the day professional basketball died in the fine city of Seattle.

July 2, 2008 was supposed to be the day the sporting world learned the fate of Seattle's oldest professional sports franchise as decreed by Judge Marsha Pechman. After two straight weeks of the circus that was the court case and the ups and downs that came along with it, it would all be over. Closure would finally be earned.

In 1925 T.S Eliot famously wrote "This is the way the world ends...Not with a bang but with a whimper." He may as well as have written those words about the conclusion of the Sonics tenure in Seattle in 2008. Before Judge Pechman could issue her decision an out of court settlement was reached. Instead hearing a much anticipated ruling on the case the only thing that was heard was a giant ripping sound coming from the rending hearts of Sonics fans as their team was violently torn from them.

The City of Seattle, whose argument throughout the trial was that no monetary value could be placed upon having the Sonics here, reached an agreement with the Professional Basketball Club(Bennet et al.) for $45 million, a monetary value if I have ever heard one. A sum that still doesn't fully pay for the Key Arena tab. An additional $30 mil will be granted to the city if a deal for a new arena or Key Arena remodel is passed sometime during the next session of the legislature and a team does not move into the facility by 2013. No team was promised to the city in return, unlike when The Hornets left Charlotte in 2002 and were granted the expansion Bobcats a mere 2 years later.

In accepting the $45 mil settlement being offered Greg Nickels might as well as have been Judas accepting 30 pieces of silver. The man testified that he had only attended 2(!!!) Sonics games in the past ten years. Why should he care about the team the put Seattle sports on the map? He seemed only interested in covering the remaining amount on the lease than actually trying to keep the team here. Mayor Nickels probably felt that all in all the team could add enough monetarily to the city to be worth the fight. Not like, say, his beloved condos and other soul stealing buildings, that add near countless funds to his coffers(perhaps I am overstating the financial impact of all this new housing but to me the massive influx of new people into the city combined with the tearing down of anything that resembles "old" Seattle dovetails nicely into Nickels' goal to rid Seattle of it's soul in a conquistadors quest for the loot, the Sonics being the latest victim unfortunate enough to be in the way)

Greg Nickels was tittering and giggling like a school girl with a secret during the press conference at which the settlement was announced to the public. On the most somber day in Seattle sports history he was acting as if he just found out the cutest boy in the class had a crush on him. This did not go unnoticed, however. It was a fact that the news media immediately picked up on and even the normally collected Kevin Calabro had something to say on this in a recent PI article "I suppose I should be muzzling myself and painting a rosy picture, but I can't do that, it's not honest." He then added "I was embarrassed for the city, I was enraged that our council members would sit up there and titter and laugh nervously and congratulate themselves over being part of a 41-year history being sold. I was deeply embarrassed and still am.

"I get incensed because people, particularly leadership in the town and the region, don't seem to have the same pride in the area that I do. They sold the legacy away for less monetarily than they should have for a promise down the road of an NBA team from a league run by a commissioner that disrespected them and the region.

"What you're doing now is going after a theoretical building for a hypothetical team. I find that failed logic."

When the voice of the Sonics says things like this with so much anger and disappointment, people listen. I agree whole heartedly with his statements. There is no guarantee that by going along with the NBA and their scorched earth policies that the city will ever get another team. A funding deal could be put together for a Key Arena remodel an upgrade and still no team could come.

This is all rather analogous to the chapter from Cannery Row where John Steinbeck lovingly tells the story of a male gopher who builds a mansion among gopher burrows, replete with a ransom on fresh mallow weeds, in attempts to woo a mate. The poor gopher finds out that despite a prime location away from predators, with readily available food, and a top-notch floor plan there are simply no females near to court. He eventually leaves his home, following a females scent down a another distant burrow only to find that she is already spoken for and her mate doesn't take too kindly to the bachelors advances. For his troubles the young gopher is mauled badly and forced to return to his den and lick his wounds, alone.

Seattle is not the only city on the prowl for an NBA franchise. Las Vegas, Kansas City, and San Diego are hoping to lure a team away from floundering market and give it a shiny new home. Like a sad Vh1 reality TV show, Seattle will have to compete against the rest of the contestant/cities in order to impress a team enough to be chose as said franchises new home. I can envision Seattle losing every shred of dignity as it grovels to the NBA for a new team. We could call the show "I love David Stern". Challenges could include cooking Stern's favorite meal(liver and fava beans with a nice chianti) and getting into a hot tub with sexy Davey while whispering into his ear all the nasty things our city would do for him if he were to choose Seattle. If the city were lucky it'd be the last one standing and we would get to hear those beautiful words "Seattle, you get to have the Memphis Grizzlies!"

This brings me to another point that Art Thiel brought up. Namely, can the city of Seattle and it's sports fans feel good about themselves if they turn around and steal a team from some other struggling city? For once I totally agree with Mr.Curmudgeon. As a Seattle sports fan I can't hope to subject another city to the BS Seattle just had to endure.

Already I've tried to reconcile my misgivings about stealing another team like a Memphis. I've tried to rationalize that Memphis s a college sports town, that the Grizzlies were moved there from Vancouver, BC not too long ago, and even then it was on a billionaire's whim not due to any huge groundswell of fans begging for an NBA franchise. But it doesn't matter, you can't have a list of caveats wherein it is alright to steal a team from another city. You have to either not care and plunder away with glee or not do it at all. To try to talk oneself into such a theft is what the NBA is counting on. It will only embolden them to let established teams leave in search of "greener pastures". If the city scorned wants a team back bad enough they will steal another franchise from elsewhere.

If this stolen team were to come here and play the current best option is a renovated Key Arena. It is interesting to note that, now, David Stern says a remodel of Key Arena is good enough to receive a team. With these latest statements Stern has done a complete 360 on The Key's viability. In 1995, during a Sonics/Lakers game, The Commish was on the local broadcast stating he thought the former Seattle Center Colosseum was a world class facility. Then, some12 years later, he says that a remodeled Key Arena is a "non-starter" as far as a viable place for the Sonics to continue to play and thus won't be accepted as a means to keep the Sonics here. Now, with our 41 years of history out the door, Stern is back to claiming a remodeled Key is a perfectly fine place for the new team to play. How is anyone expected to trust a single word that comes out of Stern's mouth? I sure don't.

One of the other things that really pisses me off about this whole mess is, as I stated in my previous sonics posts, this: The Sonics organization, for the first time in years, is positioned to become of of the best young franchises in the NBA. We have two young Stars in Kevin Durant and Jeff Green...Their season-long growth was given it's true test in the last two games of the season against the Nuggets and Mavs in which they both posted career highs and made countless big shots in games that were must-wins for the opponent. The idea of these two playing alongside each other and getting only better in the coming years is exciting enough as it is but throw in the fact that we have 6!!!!! first round draft picks in the next 3 years. That includes two this year in one of the more loaded drafts of recent memory.

This was written well before we drafted the point guard of the future, Russel Westbrook, from point guard U, UCLA. His drafting only adds to the sting. Another solid young player to build around, a component that will help out both Jeff Green and Kevin Durant but Seattle doesn't get to reap the rewards. I want so desperately to root for these guys, it kills me. They belong to the enemy now. They no longer play for my Seattle Sonics because that team no longer exists. When I read article saying that Westbrook is the best player not named Kevin Durant in the summer league, it makes me extremely bitter. And I'm already like goddamned lemon. Clay Bennett should just punch me in the face, just to really rub it in.

I feel sorry for the fans, for losing the only mens pro sports team to have ever won a title. I feel sorry that we never got to give The Glove a proper send off and retire his jersey as a way to thank him for all he did for this town. I feel sorry for the city of Seattle, it is less of a place without the Sonics here. I feel sorry for Kevin Calabro, he can longer engage in his love of calling Sonics basketball.

Mostly I feel sorry for KD and Jeff Green. Kevin Durant bought a $2.8 mil house on Mercer Island when he was drafted here last year. He got to enjoy living in a small quiet neighborhood only minutes from downtown. He was surrounded by Lake Washington and as any Seattlite who has been on the lake in a boat on a beautiful summer's day can tell you, there are few better places in the world to be. I've never been to OKC so I can't say what they do on their hot summer days, but I can tell you it's nothing like lamping beachside on mercer island or boating out on the lake. I'm sorry the KD and Jeff only got a small, albeit delicious, taste of Seattle life. I'm sorry that they will now have to call OKC home, no knock on OKC but I doubt there is a soul north from Everett south down to Tacoma that would rather live in Oklahoma. Sorry guys, I wish you could stay and grow in this beautiful northwest haven but David Stern, Clay Bennett, Mayor Nichols, Gov.Gregoire, et al. all didn't see it that way. They fucked up, so you two, like all us fans, have to live with that fuck-up. As much as that may suck. Sorry, again.