8 posts tagged “sonics”

The Sonics are leaving.  I'm happy that there won't be two lameduck seasons.  About the possiblity of the Soncis being in Seattle again, I'm not so sure I would want to care about an organization that's related to the NBA.

大好きなソニックスがシアトルを離れることに、離婚劇が長引くよりも今決まったのはうれしい。また、新しいチームがシアトルに来る事も有るみたいだけど、NBA見たいな団体のチームを応援したくなるのかね？

Congrats to Clay Bennett, if I really wanted pro sports in the city that I lived in, then he'd be a great owner.  Congrats to the professional basketball fans in Oklahoma, you're getting a great team.

オクラホマのバスケファンの皆様にはおめでとうございます、本当に良いチームです。

I don't know if this is cultural, as perhaps my understand of American culture in this regard isn't complete, but I've grown up with an acceptance that everything in life is ephemeral.  But, I think we've all got certain anchor points
in life that we assume will be around (at least during our lifetime).  First, I thought it never would happen, then I thought that if the team moved perhaps another team would move to the city, but now I get a feeling that if the Sonics are gone, that's it they're gone.  All of us fans have got so much packed into the 41 years that the Sonics have been in Seattle, it isn't like I've lived most of my life in Seattle, but it's amazing how something so non-physical, so inpersonal, something that really shouldn't matter, can be so darn depressing and painful.  Articles like this that lay out the most devastating scenarios for Sonics fans are actually starting to be therapeutic now

In either case, the NBA had to back him after his Oklahoma group paid an exorbitant $350 million to buy the Sonics, because that's how the league measures its growth, rather than by annual profits and losses. It would be a bad precedent to future owners if Bennett was held accountable for cleaning up a mess in Seattle that he quickly realized was not agreeable to him or his partners. The league wants new owners to buy in, after all. And so 41 years of goodwill has been trashed.

The naïve hope that another team will move into Seattle is absurd. Local government and taxpayers are going to suddenly turn about and invest hundreds of millions of dollars in an arena project on behalf of the NBA? The people in Seattle who loved the NBA for 41 years are going to hate the NBA when it leaves. They are going to feel betrayed by Bennett and commissioner David Stern, and what had been a point of foundation for the NBA will become a radioactive wasteland. Other leagues may prosper in Seattle, but for the NBA it will be Chernobyl.

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Yes, there is love for Steve Ballmer in my heart.

A high-powered local ownership group says its $300 million plan to renovate KeyArena could persuade the NBA to keep the Sonics in Seattle. Now all they have to do is persuade state lawmakers to approve the idea before they adjourn next week.

Without the legislative OK to use tax money for part of the project, time may run out for pro basketball in Seattle, the group said Thursday.

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, whose $15 billion portfolio ranks him as the world's 31st-wealthiest person on the latest Forbes list, heads a four-man group that Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels hopes can buy the Sonics or another NBA team while also splitting the cost of a major KeyArena overhaul.

Ballmer, wireless executive John Stanton, Costco CEO Jim Sinegal and developer Matt Griffin make up the quartet unveiled Thursday in Seattle's belated bid to head off franchise owner Clay Bennett's effort to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City.

I understand that there are a lot of other good things that the money could be spent for.  But gosh, I really want the Sonics to stay in Seattle.  For all the money that these guys have made for the region, perhaps the state can help them help the Sonics?

I sure would wish if something like this were to happen.

The Sonics are starting the season with an 0-4.  The owners want to move the team to Oklahoma City.  The city is suing the owners to keep them to their lease through 2010.  Which of course means that even if the city wins, the team will only be around until 2010.

If this is the last 0-4 start that I'm going to be able to enjoy, then I'm going to cherish this 0-4, and if it goes to 0-5 I'm going to embrace this 0-5.

BTW, Hubie Brown and David Stern, your public comments hurt, they really, really hurt.

Browsing through Youtube I ran into something that I really miss from my time in school from junior high through college.
I like to say that I was born a Sonics fan, my family moved to Seattle the year that the Sonics started. . .and moved back to Japan five years later before I was born.  However, the one year I lived in Seattle while I was in kindergarden was also the year that the Sonics won their one NBA championship.  I went back to Seattle a couple summers while I was in elementary school and the names that I heard then were Xavier McDaniel, Tom Chambers and Dale Ellis.  It was when I moved to Seattle in '89 that I really started to follow the Sonics though.

Since I didn't have a TV back then, I followed the Sonics mostly through the radio and didn't know what Gary Payton or Shawn Kemp looked like for a couple of years.  I also was introduced the tough realities of the sports business and players that I thought were the stars of the team (Xavier McDaniel and Dale Ellis) were traded away for two players I didn't really know.  The team jelled though and by the time I started to watch the games on the tube during my junior year in high school, the Sonics were starting to become something special.  Things really changed when George Karl became the coach in mid season of 1991-1992, moving over from Real Madrid to coach the Sonics.  I remember listening to his first game on the radio, the Sonics dropped the game to the Blazers.

Things really went into overtime my senior year, as the Sonics went all the way to Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals.  Someone would bring a TV to everything, track meets, the high school musical (we watched it backstage), of course it all ended when the NBA decided to have a Barkley vs. Jordan match up for the finals (which I've written about too many times).

I wasn't planning on writing all of this. . .it's just that last night was the first time that I saw some of these dunks in the clips (especially in the older yellow and green unis).  The Number One dunk on the Shawn Kemp clip, I remember listening to it on the radio, reading it on the paper, talking about it at school, but last night was the first time I saw it.

Watching all the clips also reminded me on how explosive Kemp and how smooth Payton were.  The two biggest transaction related what-ifs for me.  What if the Mariners kept Junior and traded away A-Rod instead?  And, what if the Sonics hadn't signed Jim Mcilvaine and pissed off Kemp?

So, the Seattle City Council took a vote today to show their support behind keeping the team in Seattle at least until the current lease is up in 2010 (though the mayor had already indicated that he would be doing this).

Of course, this is the same council who's president stated last year that the Sonics leaving Seattle would have close to zero cultural impact.  Here's to at least a few years of ugliness until the Sonics leave. . .or hopefully stay in Seattle.

So yes, the Sonics grabbed Kevin Durant, who's a one time in a generation player (how does that compare with what Lebron James is?  Or have we already reached the next generation).  We've traded away Ray Allen for the Delonte West, Wally Sczerbiak and the 5th pick in the draft (Jeff Green).   So, we now have two great young players. . .this is all about rebuilding, which needed to be done.  I can't really care though, unless someone announces that the Sonics are staying in Pugent Sound.