City should buy the teams and wave goodbye to Clay Bennett et al
For everyone who thinks sports should bolster and not betray communities, consider this a call to arms. NBA commissioner David Stern has let it be known that when it comes to the battle for the Sonics, he will stand with owner Clay Bennett and his Oklahoma rustlers over the basketball fans of Seattle.
Bennett, a man who has spent less time in Seattle than the sun, has made it clear that unless a deluxe, publicly funded arena is built, he will take "his team" and move it to his home base in Oklahoma City. Without shame, Bennett is holding economic hostage a city with serious education and health care shortfalls.
Stern's recent comments show that he will back the billionaire Bennett over the people who have supported the Sonics for four decades. "I'd love to find a way to keep the team there," he said, "because if the team moves, there's not going to be another team there, not in any conceivable future plan that I could envision, and that would be too bad."
This hasn't exactly been a great recent run for Stern -- what with a betting scandal involving a referee, the flap over his dress code and a failed experiment with a synthetic basketball -- but this moment is his absolute nadir. Stern is siding with a man who has made it his intention from Day 1 to break Seattle's heart by any means necessary.
Bennett hasn't acted in bad faith, he has acted in no faith.
"When the team was bought from the previous ownership, they told us and everybody in the city that they sold it to a group that they thought would most likely keep the team in the city," former Sonics star Ray Allen, who was traded to the Celtics last offseason, told the Boston Globe. "Everybody thought that was some [garbage]. How is someone from Oklahoma City going to buy a team in Seattle who doesn't have any ties [in Seattle] and has big money in Oklahoma? If things don't go right, everybody's craving for the team to move to Oklahoma City."
Bennett has already filed for relocation. His minority partner Aubrey McClendon said in August that Bennett's group "didn't buy the team to keep it in Seattle." There is a slight problem, however, with the plan to put the team in Sooner country: The Sonics' lease at Seattle's KeyArena lasts through the 2009-2010 season.
Read full story [By DAVE ZIRIN - Seattle times]
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