Forget Thunder; how OKC Sonics?
The Thunder won our name-the-team contest for the NBA franchise, but how about this name: Oklahoma City Sonics.
We have presumed that Clay Bennett wants a fresh start for his franchise, but don’t discount the team remaining with its name of 41 years when it moves to OKC, now or in 2010. It comes down to a couple of distinct possibilities:
1. Bennett and Co. might not come up with a name better than Sonics. Thunder certainly doesn’t match it. Bennett doesn’t want a singular nickname (who can blame him?) and he’s not crazy about my idea, Thunderbirds. I don’t know of a name he likes. It’s possible all suggestions will fall short of Sonics, and if so, Bennett might say, heck, just keep them the Sonics.
2. The Sonics name will be or already is part of negotiations with the city of Seattle. Bennett could leave the Sonic name in Seattle as part of a tradeoff for considerations on lease relief. That’s what the Browns did when they left Cleveland for Baltimore. But the key word is negotiate. If you make the name part of the negotiations, you’ve got to be willing to pull it off the table. In other words, if you’re willing to leave the name for the right price, you’ve got to be willing to take it if you don’t get the right price.
I know that the Cleveland/Baltimore story has been given great reviews. How the Cleveland Browns became the Baltimore Ravens, and the expansion Cleveland Browns were formed a few years later and given the history of the old Browns.
As a fan, I understand. As an historian, I say that plan stinks. Remember the old Seinfeld episode where J. Peterman buys Kramer’s life stories? All those crazy things that happened to Kramer? No, he’s told. Those didn’t happen. They happened to Peterman. Same argument is tried with the Ravens and the old Browns.
But truth is truth. The original Cleveland Browns and the Ravens are the same franchise. The newly-named Browns just confuse the issue.
SuperSonics, or Sonics for that matter, is a fine name for Oklahoma City. From the Sonic Corporate headquarters to OKC’s SuperSonic boom tests in the mid-1960s, Sonics is a solid fit. Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers are names that don’t pass the common-sense test and are accepted because they’re so long-standing. OKC Sonics would face no such probationary period.
Will Bennett keep the Sonics name? I think he will negotiate. I also think he will be willing to pack it on the moving trucks.
Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel.
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Comments
But the colors and logo stay with Seattle don’t they? I thought that was part of the negotiations.
I really like Lightning more than Thunder, although thunder isn’t bad! I’d like an original team so it would feel exclusively Oklahoma. Otherwise I feel like we are just using someone else’s team. I mean the Lakers and Jazz didn’t become really known for anything until after they moved so it’s different. Sonics I think already have a personality and that is Seattle’s.
Berry. I know you need to tow the company line but you need to wake up and smell the Starbucks. The Sonics are not moving no matter how much you prepare for them in OKC. The effort in Seattle is on life support and OKC needs to start preparing for life after Clay. He is going to have to start worrying about his future as a businessman because he isn’t going to have a future as the Sonics owner.