I'm amazed at this story. The arrogance of these Oklahoma folks is amazing. I hope The Commish squashes them, yet I don't know if he actually can. Fortunately, I know David Stern is way too smart and never believed the crap these guys were emailing him.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-supersonics-e-mails&prov=ap&type=lgns
The thing I don't get is have these owners actually been to Seattle? I mean, seriously, Oklahoma is pretty friggin lame. Plus, do they actually think that an NBA free agent is going want to sign with them and move to OKC? The 2 lamest locations used to be Milwaukee or Salt Lake, but those are looking mighty fine compared to Oklahoma.
4 comments:
Clay Bennet is about 10 kinds of shady. I been following this all year, cause frankly, the whole thing breaks my heart. If the Sups can get stolen, any team can.
I would boycott starbucks if I wasn't already boycotting them for different reasons since like 1999.
I like Milwaukee, have you been there? They are great sports fans there too. As far as the bucks go, they are 40 years old and have a championship. I rather be playing with a team that has a rich history and a strong foundation, then for some young or youngish team like the Jordanaires or Grizzles, growl.
Side note, Bucks hired Pistons VP, John Hammond, tonight as their new GM (effective immediately). He is awesome, i bet you bucks get better really quick. Him and Dumars were a tag team; he'll be hard to replace.
Excellent point on Milwaukee. I really shouldn't have bashed the city.
The same goes for Salt Lake, who have an excellent fan base as well. And we complain about Houston not getting enough national attention, what about the Jazz? They are least loved of all the West powers.
I'm not saying that the fans in OKC are going to be bad fans. If anything, they showed potential with the Hornets the past 2 years. Yet, what I'm saying is that OKC just doesn't strike me as a better location than Seattle. I think the long term viability of a franchise there is weak.
I think this is a pure pump and dump thing. I think Bennet knows he can move into the nicely newly renovated Ford Center, milk Kevin Durant for a couple of years, then sell the franchise for way more than he could sell it for in Seattle. Which is business, shady business, but business nonetheless.
Yet, ten years from now I see the OKC sonics having the same problems that the bucks, the jazz, and even Cavs have. An inability to attract or hang on to top talent.
The Jazz have overcome some of these problems by drafting well, having a hall of fame coach that they would never dream of firing, and finally overpaying for boozer. The Cavs are lucky they won the lotto, but LBJ is going to move on.
Meanwhile the poor Bucks can't catch a single break and can't compete in the Free Agent market.
Yeah, you always hear that some city has a medium size market(SAS) and stuff like that. I know the revenue of NYK and LAL just completely dominates the rest of the NBA. I don't know, but i think that is pretty much determined by population and population of nearby cities. You know, how many dollars for spending are nearby.
I think OK. City probably has a smallish market. Though i always drive past Oklamhoma, never stop there; so i don't know for sure really. But their market must be considerably smaller than Seattle. Seattle has a large metropolitan too.
In the news today 4-18.
NEW YORK, April 18, 2008 – The NBA Board of Governors today endorsed the recommendation of the NBA Relocation Committee and approved the move of the SuperSonics from Seattle to Oklahoma City for the 2008-09 season, subject to a resolution of the pending litigation between the Sonics and the city of Seattle that removes any requirement for the team to play at KeyArena for the next two seasons.
“The support for the NBA demonstrated by the fans, government leaders and business community of Oklahoma City over the last three years has been extraordinary,” said NBA Commissioner David Stern. “The Board of Governors is confident that that level of local support will result in success for the Sonics franchise in Oklahoma."
Bastards
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