Sonics Say So Long To Seattle
When sports team relocation happens, it’s the worst. I remember I was just starting to understand the game of hockey when my family migrated to Canada in 1995 when all of these small market teams, teams that have terrific fan bases but aren't well-off as a city like a New York is or a Los Angeles is, leave a city they developed a relationship with and move to a place where they can get more financial benefits in.
I watched the last NHL game ever (?) in Winnipeg in 1996 and when the Jets—now the Phoenix Coyotes—said goodbye to the sellout crowd in the Winnipeg Arena, and it was utterly disheartening. In 1998, my one and only professional home team, the Edmonton Oilers were almost sold to Houston if it weren’t for a group of passionate Edmonton-based business owners saving the team hours before the sale was supposed to be finalized. You could hear the whole city’s sigh of relief when they announced that our beloved Oilers were being saved by our very own community.
We had a near-miss, but I can imagine the heartbreak I would’ve felt if the team weren’t swiped last minute from the greedy hands of the Houston investors (to their defense, I guess, it’s only business and they just wanted their own hockey team to route for). So I sorta know how Seattle feels, the feeling of your home team breaking-up with you. I’m familiar with that feeling of being abandoned, your loyalty trashed after all the years of being there for their pursuit of glory. Seattle, I don’t envy you.
What is even worse is when your team that left you for greener pastures actually obtain success with another fan base, especially if it happens right away like what the Colorado Avalanche after leaving Quebec City and the Baltimore Ravens after leaving Cleveland. Not to make matters worse for Seattle, but there’s a good chance Seattle may be heading towards basketball zenith with Kevin Durant leading the way. Experiencing this is like when your girlfriend back in high school, who didn’t want to have sex with you because she wanted to preserve her virginity, breaks up with you, and then, days after, hooks up with the varsity quarterback. It’s completely unfair. That’s the type of top 5, Desert Island, all-time break-ups that Rob Gordon from High Fidelity would be talking about. All I’ve achieved is a boob feel, why does he get to bang her right away? Completely unfair!
But it’s not like you can blame owner and Oklahoma-native, Clay Bennett for the move. The Sonics were 28th in the league in attendance and the city weren’t coughing up money for a new stadium, even though they constructed home stadiums for both the Seahawks and the Mariners with Qwest Field and Safeco Field, respectively. It’s not like Seattle—the home of Starbucks, Microsoft, Amazon.com—is a poor city, generally. It’s not like they didn’t have enough time to buy the team back from Bennett. The people of Seattle were just not willing to spend for the Sonics anymore. Maybe the fact that they had won one championship in 41 years had something to do with it.
On the other hand, Oklahoma City should be a terrific NBA city—they were a superb interim city for the New Orleans Hornets after Hurricane Katrina happened, and they’re rich enough to erect a new stadium because of their involvement in the oil and gas industry. And, at least, Bennett was gracious enough to leave the team name and team colors in Seattle. I mean, the Oklahoma City SuperSonics? The NBA annoyingly does do this with their teams who have relocated over the years: the Grizzlies are in Memphis where there are no bears, the Lakers are in Los Angeles where there are no lakes, and the Jazz are in Utah where there is no fun.
So what’s next for the Emerald City and the NBA? Commissioner David Stern said that there’s a good chance that in a few years, Seattle will have a team in five years. But an expansion team in Seattle? That will only make the league worse. Expansion teams have a tendency of diluting the talent in the league. Just look at the Charlotte Bobcats, once home of the Hornets: before they got Jason Richardson last season, they had career back-up Gerald Wallace leading the way along with players they got from the draft like Emeka Okafor, Raymond Felton, and Adam Morrison. Back in 1985, when there were only 23 teams, the rosters were stacked. Look at Boston’s line-up: they’re starting Bird, McHale, Parish, Dennis Johnson, Danny Ainge, and they had Bill Walton coming off the bench. You’ll never see that in today’s NBA, unless you have a team like today’s Celtics, in which veteran superstars were willing to sacrifice their salary for a chance to win a championship for the first time.
But, the buzz was that Seattle taking a team from another NBA city that is also struggling financially, like Memphis or Sacramento. My advice to those living in these cities that’s on Stern’s clock: hold on to your NBA franchise. Buy season tickets, wear the merchandise, support your team! You don’t want to suffer what Seattle is going through right now.
I watched the last NHL game ever (?) in Winnipeg in 1996 and when the Jets—now the Phoenix Coyotes—said goodbye to the sellout crowd in the Winnipeg Arena, and it was utterly disheartening. In 1998, my one and only professional home team, the Edmonton Oilers were almost sold to Houston if it weren’t for a group of passionate Edmonton-based business owners saving the team hours before the sale was supposed to be finalized. You could hear the whole city’s sigh of relief when they announced that our beloved Oilers were being saved by our very own community.
We had a near-miss, but I can imagine the heartbreak I would’ve felt if the team weren’t swiped last minute from the greedy hands of the Houston investors (to their defense, I guess, it’s only business and they just wanted their own hockey team to route for). So I sorta know how Seattle feels, the feeling of your home team breaking-up with you. I’m familiar with that feeling of being abandoned, your loyalty trashed after all the years of being there for their pursuit of glory. Seattle, I don’t envy you.
What is even worse is when your team that left you for greener pastures actually obtain success with another fan base, especially if it happens right away like what the Colorado Avalanche after leaving Quebec City and the Baltimore Ravens after leaving Cleveland. Not to make matters worse for Seattle, but there’s a good chance Seattle may be heading towards basketball zenith with Kevin Durant leading the way. Experiencing this is like when your girlfriend back in high school, who didn’t want to have sex with you because she wanted to preserve her virginity, breaks up with you, and then, days after, hooks up with the varsity quarterback. It’s completely unfair. That’s the type of top 5, Desert Island, all-time break-ups that Rob Gordon from High Fidelity would be talking about. All I’ve achieved is a boob feel, why does he get to bang her right away? Completely unfair!But it’s not like you can blame owner and Oklahoma-native, Clay Bennett for the move. The Sonics were 28th in the league in attendance and the city weren’t coughing up money for a new stadium, even though they constructed home stadiums for both the Seahawks and the Mariners with Qwest Field and Safeco Field, respectively. It’s not like Seattle—the home of Starbucks, Microsoft, Amazon.com—is a poor city, generally. It’s not like they didn’t have enough time to buy the team back from Bennett. The people of Seattle were just not willing to spend for the Sonics anymore. Maybe the fact that they had won one championship in 41 years had something to do with it.
On the other hand, Oklahoma City should be a terrific NBA city—they were a superb interim city for the New Orleans Hornets after Hurricane Katrina happened, and they’re rich enough to erect a new stadium because of their involvement in the oil and gas industry. And, at least, Bennett was gracious enough to leave the team name and team colors in Seattle. I mean, the Oklahoma City SuperSonics? The NBA annoyingly does do this with their teams who have relocated over the years: the Grizzlies are in Memphis where there are no bears, the Lakers are in Los Angeles where there are no lakes, and the Jazz are in Utah where there is no fun.
So what’s next for the Emerald City and the NBA? Commissioner David Stern said that there’s a good chance that in a few years, Seattle will have a team in five years. But an expansion team in Seattle? That will only make the league worse. Expansion teams have a tendency of diluting the talent in the league. Just look at the Charlotte Bobcats, once home of the Hornets: before they got Jason Richardson last season, they had career back-up Gerald Wallace leading the way along with players they got from the draft like Emeka Okafor, Raymond Felton, and Adam Morrison. Back in 1985, when there were only 23 teams, the rosters were stacked. Look at Boston’s line-up: they’re starting Bird, McHale, Parish, Dennis Johnson, Danny Ainge, and they had Bill Walton coming off the bench. You’ll never see that in today’s NBA, unless you have a team like today’s Celtics, in which veteran superstars were willing to sacrifice their salary for a chance to win a championship for the first time.
But, the buzz was that Seattle taking a team from another NBA city that is also struggling financially, like Memphis or Sacramento. My advice to those living in these cities that’s on Stern’s clock: hold on to your NBA franchise. Buy season tickets, wear the merchandise, support your team! You don’t want to suffer what Seattle is going through right now.
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