Jenni Carlson NewsOK.com Blogging Community

One of my counterparts at The Seattle Times does a fun weekly feature on his blog.

This week, he asked me to be a part.

The subject?

No big surprise — it’s the court case between the City of Seattle and the Sonics’ Oklahoma-based owners.

Here’s the link to Jerry Brewer’s blog, or you can read this week’s edition of the Q&A(rgue) below:

My guest this week is Jenni Carlson, a wonderful sports columnist at The Oklahoman. So, you know what this is about: two sports columnists from dueling cities, fighting till death to protect the places they live.

Well, it won’t be that dramatic.

While Jenni and I have different perspectives on the Sonics situation, we won’t be going to court over them anytime soon. And while we reside in opposing cities, we aren’t shills. I consider it a columnist’s job to write what is in the best interest of his or her city. Sometimes, they are popular opinions. Sometimes, they are not. We go on an issue-by-issue basis.

Enjoy this one. Considering our viewpoints, it should be an enlightening discussion. And, as always, you are welcome to continue the debate on your own in the comments section.

1. Who do you think will win the case over the KeyArena lease? And will that be the right decision?

Brewer: Though I think Sonics attorney Brad Keller has impressed so far by presenting his case more clearly than the Seattle attorneys, I still think the city will win the trial. And, naturally, I think that will be the right decision. When following the trial this week, I have realized how much fat there is around the arguments on both sides, but it still boils down to this for Judge Marsha Pechman: Will she make the Sonics owners obey that vague, one-paragraph “specific performance” clause in the lease? It is a tough call. But I think that Paul Lawrence and Co. have done a good job of showing what the city hoped its lawyers would show: the new owners knew what they were getting into when they bought the team. So, why should they be let off the hook? They understood the KeyArena lease did not run out until 2010. They knew Seattle wanted the team around for the entire lease. There should be no such thing as naivete in mega-million dollar business. A deal is a deal.

Carlson: At the heart of all this craziness, this whole matter is a legal one. The question is, Can the Sonics be held to their lease for two more seasons? And I think if you look at what courts generally do in landlord-tenant cases, you’ll see that they usually rule in favor of the tenant. Basically, the courts aren’t usually in favor of keeping someone somewhere they don’t want to be. That smacks of indentured servitude, not something the courts, or anyone in America, think real highly of. Obviously, though, this is a special case. It’s not like some guy living in a rent house who’s trying to break his lease. It’s a sports franchise that has been in a city for four-plus decades.

At the end of the day, though, I believe the judge will come back to the central question of whether Seattle can hold the Sonics to their lease. And it seems to me that she’ll rule that this tenant cannot be forced to stay.

Will it be the right decision?

In the eyes of the courts and the legal system, probably.

In the eyes of NBA fans, maybe not.

2. Do you buy it when Clay Bennett says his “man possessed” e-mail was about trying to keep the team in Seattle and not moving it to Oklahoma City?

Brewer: Absolutely not. It is ridiculous that he continues to insult our intelligence with this lie. Look at the context of that e-mail. To me, there is no way he could have been referring to Seattle with that phrase. So “I am a man possessed” are words that will remain in Seattle spots ignominy. Perpetuating this myth makes Bennett look like an untrustworthy leader.

Carlson: This is a question I’ve thought a lot about. When I first read the e-mail exchange, I thought he was talking about being a man possessed to move the team to Oklahoma City. But I’ve looked at it the other way, and I could see it being that way, too. E-mail is a funny animal. There is no voice inflection. There is no facial expression. The subtleties of language are often lost in an e-mail. I think everyone out there has written something in an e-mail before that has been misunderstood by the receiver. Maybe you intended something to be funny, and it came across instead as mean. It has
happened to all of us.

That’s why I struggle with the context of that e-mail. I don’t really know what Clay Bennett intended to say in that e-mail, but when it was sent, he was knee-deep in efforts to persuade folks in Seattle and in Washington to get an arena deal done. Perhaps he thought that the other owners knew that and responded in turn. Perhaps not. This is one of those questions that we may never know the true answer.

3. Do you envision any scenario in which the Sonics don’t wind up in Oklahoma eventually? Can pro basketball thrive long term in OKC?

Brewer: The only scenario I can envision is that the team is forced to stay here for two more years and suffers way more than the estimated $30 million per season the Sonics say they will lose if they keep playing in KeyArena. Then the Sonics will have to consider all options to stop the bleeding, and selling the team is something they will have to flirt with. But that’s an incredible long shot. I think the team is gone. The question is whether they will leave now or later.

As far the second question here, I have serious doubts about Oklahoma City’s long-term viability as an NBA market. In the beginning, all will be great. Many Oklahomans will support the team out of novelty and civic pride. But the start is always fun. What happens when the Sonics go 20-62 again? The measure of true fandom is whether you will stay with a team during the rough years. Those years are inevitable in pro sports. We still have so much to learn about this market, so I will remain skeptical until I see otherwise.

That said, however, I have to compliment Oklahoma City for doing what needed to be done to have an NBA team. More than 60 percent of voters approved a $120 million tax package to transform the Ford Center into a more NBA-competitive arena. Before that, the fans were incredible in embracing the displaced Hornets. You look at what that community has done, and you have to think that they deserve a chance to house an NBA team.

It’s just disappointing that the target is Seattle’s team.

Carlson: Right now, it does seem more like a question of “when” rather than “if” with the Sonics moving to Oklahoma City. I don’t believe the owners are going to sell the team, and from all accounts, they are set on moving the team to Oklahoma City.

When that happens, I believe the team will do very well for the first few years. Oklahoma was off-the-charts excited to have an NBA team when the Hornets were here, and that was a team that wasn’t intending on staying. When there’s a team here that is intent on putting down roots and having “Oklahoma City” on its jerseys, I think people are going to buy in even more. Ticket sales should be great, and corporate backing should be strong. Long-term success, though, remains a question. Then again, it is every time a team relocates. I think Oklahoma City will be like every other market. It will support the team to some extent long-term regardless of its success on the court, but if the team really wants strong long-term viability, it needs to have a good product on the court.

It needs to win.

There will be a honeymoon period for several years, but eventually, the team must have consistent success or the fan base won’t be as strong. Then again, I think that’s the case in just about every market out
there.

4. Obviously, this whole situation has turned into an acrimonious mess. Who do you think deserves the most blame?

Brewer: I am not sure that we can put all of this on one person. There are so many villain-types: Howard Schultz, David Stern, Clay Bennett, state lawmakers, the city of Seattle. Some would even include the voters who passed Initiative 91 overwhelmingly. There are no heroes in this situation. There are lots of people who could’ve done more if they truly wanted the team to stay around.

But since Schultz started us down the path to relocation by selling to the Oklahoma group, I give him the biggest share of the blame. If he truly cared about keeping the Sonics here, he would have been more patient and sold the team to a local group. He took the sweetest deal he could find, and now pro basketball in Seattle is on its deathbed.

Carlson: Truthfully, there’s blame that can be placed on everyone involved. I’m most disappointed, though, in government officials in Seattle and in David Stern. I traveled to Seattle in the days after the Oklahoma group bought the Sonics, and even then, I sensed a lack of cooperation from elected officials. There was a feeling of hostility toward the Sonics, and already, I felt like they believed there was nothing to be done to keep the Sonics in town.

Maybe we’re spoiled here in Oklahoma City, but the city, county and state government here get along and work together on issues like this. I didn’t get the sense like that was the case with government officials in Seattle. As for Stern, I really believed that the NBA commissioner would be the mediator in all of this. I thought he would ride in, sit down with Bennett and Nickels and whoever else, and help them strike a deal. Perhaps he would offer to give Seattle the next expansion team. Perhaps he would pledge that Seattle would have another NBA team in five years.

I just honestly believed that Stern would be a unifier in this whole thing, considering the size of the market in Seattle and the gateway it provides to the Asian market that the NBA so strongly wants. Instead, he’s become a very divisive figure. I had hoped for more.

5. For Brewer: What misconceptions do you think Oklahomans have of Seattleites? For Carlson: What misconceptions do you think Seattleites have of Oklahomans?

Brewer: Based on some e-mail interactions I have had with Oklahoma residents, as well as other things I have read, I would say that Oklahomans think people here are arrogant, disrespectful and petty when it comes to slinging stereotypical insults about Oklahoma.

But the average Seattle sports fan is far more intelligent than that. Yes, some scream that the Sonics are about to be stolen by a bunch of hicks. But more people understand all the nuances of this situation. More accept the fact that the opposition was willing to do what Seattle clearly does not want to do: Fund another palace for millionaire sports owners. They want the Sonics to stay here, but not at that price. And if Oklahoma City is willing to pay it, so be it. Seattle will get over it. I think that is the prevailing attitude.

There is ill will toward Clay Bennett for being the face of this ownership group. There is a level of ignorance about Oklahoma. But the majority of fans around here have nothing against Oklahoma.

Carlson: I’m sure there are broad misconceptions on both sides. Oklahoma has long had a stigma that dates back to “The Grapes of Wrath” days, but the truth is, Oklahoma is a place that is changing for the better. I moved to Oklahoma nine years ago, and it isn’t the same place today. There is a vibrancy and an energy that wasn’t here then. There are more jobs opportunities, more cultural opportunities, more opportunities all around.

Many of my friends here are people who moved to Oklahoma from other places. When they did, they didn’t foresee themselves staying here for long. But now, they are putting down roots and thinking about starting families here. They see Oklahoma City as a place with many of the big-city benefits without many of the big-city pitfalls. The crime rate is low. The cost of living is low. And you don’t spend four hours sitting in traffic every day.

I’ve talked to many people in Oklahoma City who like the fact that outsiders don’t know just how good a place this is to live. Funny thing is, I’ve heard a lot of people from Seattle say the same thing.