Stern answers Sonics question
TIME Magazine recently asked readers to submit questions to NBA Commissioner David Stern so the magazine could pose them to the commissioner and publish some of them in an upcoming edition.
Out of hundreds of questions, a lot of them Sonics related, Stern answered 10 questions for TIME and only one regarding the Sonics. Here it is…..
Q: Why would you let the Seattle SuperSonics relocate to Oklahoma City? You’re moving away from an Asian-Pacific community to a much less diverse place. Can you explain your logic — John Holm, Budapest.
A: I guess my logic is that there are plenty of franchises that have jumping-off points to Asia. It could be the Bay Area; it could be Portland; it could be Los Angeles. And our Asian philosophy is more about being there. We have offices in Tokyo, Honk Kong, Shanghai and Beijing.
The rest of the 10 questions will be in the upcoming issue of TIME, on sale this Friday. Other questions are about the age limit, the commissioner’s highest and lowest points on the job, steroids, the dress code, favorable treatment for star players by refs, the Knicks’ futility, broadcasting in India, the player Stern enjoys watching most and the last time he suited up for a pick-up game.
Also, updating a previous post, the airplane banner purchased by Sonics fans flew in Olympia this afternoon and it made the news.
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Viewpoints
Two stark differences in viewpoints from two Seattle columnists today.
In this Seattle Times column by Steve Kelley, he points the finger at Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire and House Speaker Frank Chopp for not stepping up and approving the $75 million King County tax extension that would help fund a $300 million KeyArena renovation. In this Tacoma News Tribune column by John McGrath, he gives Gregoire and Chopp a pass for not rushing to approve the money and points the finger instead at the prospective Seattle-based owners who, instead of stepping up months ago, waited until the last minute to act as Sonics saviors.
Both are worth reading. McGrath, however, throws out all the what-ifs and focuses on the fact that the ball is in Clay Bennett’s court.
“This is Bennett’s team,” McGrath writes. “It is Bennett’s team no matter how much Ballmer’s idea gains traction in Olympia, and it will be Bennett’s team regardless of the outcome of the June court fight over the two seasons remaining on the KeyArena lease.
“Steve Ballmer can make demands for action and Nickels can point fingers at foot-dragging lawmakers, but it’s all moot: Bennett’s got the ball, and you’ll take it away from him when you pry his cold, dead fingers off it.”
And finally, do yourself a favor and check out the guy who wants to buy the Sonics from Clay Bennett.
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Sonics banner to fly in Olympia
For the second time in a month, an airplane banner has been purchased by Sonics fans in an attempt to raise awareness of their fight to keep the team in Seattle.
The banner will be flown from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday around the Washington State Capitol Building in Olympia. The banner will read “Save Our Sonics: Next Year Is Too Late!”
The message is aimed at state leaders who said Monday that they will not approve $75 million in funding for a KeyArena renovation before the current legislative session ends Thursday. State officials have said that they remain open to looking into a proposal next year.
Sonics fans in Seattle, however, are trying everything to sway the minds of state officials. On Saturday, more than 300 fans held a rally on the steps of the capitol. Fans have also organized to flood the capitol with letters, e-mails and phone calls.
During the All-Star Weekend festivities in New Orleans last month, the same fan group, Sonics Fans United, purchased an airplane banner that read “Stop Clay–Sonics Must Stay.”
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The Sports Guy on Sonics, Oklahoma
Bill Simmons, perhaps better known as The Sports Guy on ESPN.com, was recently interviewed on a Seattle sports talk radio show and weighed in on the Sonics, owner Clay Bennett and Oklahoma City. In the words of talk show host Dave “Softy” Mahler, Simmons has “been more than a friend to Sonics fans” for the work he’s done on ESPN.com, where he recently dumped tons of e-mails from distressed Sonics fans on the Web site’s pages. You can read through part one of Sonics fans letters to Simmons here and part two here.
In this radio interview, Simmons said he doesn’t like the precedent that’s being set, “where a fan base can root for a team for four decades and just have the team taken away because they don’t want to spend a couple hundred million to renovate an arena that they just renovated 13 years ago. I just think that’s scary.”
Here’s an excerpt of the interview….
DSM: What’s been frustrating is that Clayton Bennett comes here and says, ‘OK give me my $500 million Taj Mahal in Renton,’ which is just south of Seattle. He wanted to build a new arena. Any renovation of KeyArena was off the floor, off the table from the get-go. So my question has always been why is a $120 million renovation of the Ford Center OK but not the same thing here in Seattle of KeyArena in a bigger market.
BS: Because he wants to move the team. He bought the team because, I think, he’s one of the most visible people in that Oklahoma community. He’s going to be a hero if he brings the Sonics. The weird thing about his role in this whole thing is the e-mails I get from Oklahoma City people seem to be pretty torn. Like they really want an NBA team, but I don’t think a lot of the people there want a team under these like sleazy circumstances. And that part has been under-reported and I really haven’t read that anywhere. But I’m sure there’s Oklahoma fans that they’re just so happy to get an NBA team they just don’t care. But I do think there’s an element of people out there that do think this is a little sleazy and the wrong way to get it done.
DSM: The mayor of Oklahoma City was on our station last week and he talked about the fact that honestly they’d rather have the Hornets than the Sonics. But because of the Hornets situation and Katrina that’s even more sleazy than this situation, getting a team by way of a natural disaster. It’s a bad situation. What I’m worried about is the old boy’s network. Clayton Bennett’s done so much for the NBA in helping moving the Hornets and what he did for the Spurs. I mean, what if there is a package in place here that is better than the package in Oklahoma City but David Stern just goes to the old boy’s network and sneaks it through anyway?
BS: I’ve thought about that and I’ve thought that one through, and that would not jibe with any of the ways he’s run the league over the last 25 years. I do think that this situation can be salvaged. I just think you need to have somebody come up with an offer where you’re going to basically overpay for the team to get Bennett to walk away. Because if you look at it from his perspective, not only is he going to bring this team to Oklahoma but he also has Durant who is eventually going to be one of the five meal tickets in this league. I think (Durant’s) taken some unfair criticism this season. You just can’t ask for a worse situation for him to go into. He’s 19 years old. He’s playing shooting guard. He’s shooting 22 times a game. He’s playing for a coach that everybody hates. He’s got two point guards that hate each other. I just don’t think you could have thrown him into a worse situation, especially with the team moving. But I think eventually he’s a top five guy. And that’s really one of the cruel parts about this whole thing. If the Sonics leave, you guys have to watch Durant thrive somewhere else and I don’t think anybody deserves that.
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So much for that
Guess you can forget that last post. Wish I didn’t waste my time typing it. The Seattle Post Intelligencer is now reporting that the Washington State Legislature will not provide $75 million to the $300 million proposal to remodel KeyArena by Seattle officials and a Seattle-based group interested in buying the Sonics.
So what’s next? Will Ballmer and his group take their deal off the table? Is the city of Seattle going to attempt to come up with another option to keep the team? Have all parties had enough of this back and forth? Will Seattle officials open up to a buyout now?
Stay tuned.
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A new Sonics deadline
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who leads the Seattle-based group that is interested in buying the Sonics, has placed a deadline on Washington state lawmakers to approve the state’s needed $75 million in the $300 million financial plan to remodel KeyArena. The Seattle Times has the story here.
You can read Ballmer’s letter to Washington leaders here.
Under the plan, Ballmer and his group would pay $150 million and the city of Seattle and state would each pay $75 million toward the project. Ballmer’s group would also attempt to buy the Sonics from the Oklahoma-based ownership group or purchase a replacement team if one becomes available in the event the Sonics relocate to Oklahoma City. Sonics chairman Clay Bennett maintains that his franchise is not for sale.
In the article, Ballmer says the $150 million in private money will go away if lawmakers don’t authorize a taxpayer contribution by April 10, before the NBA Board of Governors meets in New York on April 17-18.
“We will need to go back to our other responsibilities and our offer will expire,” Ballmer wrote in a letter to Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire.
Washington legislative leaders are leery of approving the proposal on such short notice. The plan was announced last Thursday and the end of the legislative session is this Thursday. Gregoire as well as several legislative leaders have said that a financing option might be viable next year, when it could include other projects under a broader package of King County taxes such as low-income housing, the arts, Puget Sound cleanup and a renovation of Husky Stadium at the University of Washington.
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Sonics, Hornets & Grizzlies
There was news out of Washington this weekend when Gov. Chris Gregoire told Seattle reporters that at some point city and state leaders in Seattle and Washington have to accept that the Sonics are not for sale.
Times columnist Steve Kelley had this piece in today’s paper, calling out state lawmakers to step up and provide their needed $75 million of the $300 million financial plan Seattle officials announced last week in hopes of a local group purchasing the franchise from Bennett and his partners.
Along those same lines, more than 250 fans rallied on the state capitol steps in Olympia yesterday. In this Seattle Times story, state leaders are quoted as saying no money will be provided before the current session ends Thursday.
As for the Hornets, owner George Shinn is now interested in renegotiating a 10-year lease just two months after he reached a deal with the state on a five-year extension. Shinn, in this Times-Picayune story, said he would sign a 10-year lease agreement without exit clauses if the state includes yearly financial incentives in a new deal. Under the current deal, Shinn can opt out of the team’s lease next season if the team’s average attendance isn’t at least 14,735 by the end of next season.
In other Hornets news, the much maligned television dispute that has kept a good portion of New Orleans area residents blacked out from Hornets games on Cox has reached a solution. Why is this important? Many fans in New Orleans thought the team’s early dismal attendance (among a lot of other things) was mostly a result of thousands of fans not being able to see how good the team is. With this deal now squared away, the hope in New Orleans is that attendance will increase and that 14,735 benchmark will become a realistic goal.
Also, anyone in Oklahoma counting on the Memphis Grizzlies to relocate here as some sort of Plan C in case the Sonics don’t get here and the Hornets don’t magically return can keep on dreaming. Geoff Calkins, the fine columnist for the Memphis Commercial Appeal, details why the Grizzlies aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. You can read it here.
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NBA coming to OKC
The NBA’s relocation committee is coming to town on March 25 to tour the Ford Center and meet with business leaders and the Sonics ownership group. NBA Commissioner David Stern as well as several other league executives will be here. You can read more details in our story here.
Stern, meanwhile, dealt another sharp blow to Seattle on Wednesday….
“The one benefit I have from a misspent youth as a lawyer is that I would never make any odds on any litigation other than to say that I think the odds are increasing that the team will go to Oklahoma City. Event though I were a betting man, I wouldn’t bet on the exact timing of it.”
Two nights earlier, Stern had this to say to a Portland television station….
“I never say never,” Stern said of a potential replacement team in Seattle. “I’m only focusing on the reality of the current situation. And we’ll see what happens down the road. If the expressed desire to bleed current ownership for three more years is acted upon, then we’ll take the bleeding with them and the chances of there ever being a franchise in Seattle again are not very good.”
Meanwhile, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels is scheduled to hold a press conference today at 5:30 Central Time to announce a KeyArena renovation plan. There are stories throughout the Seattle media of local investors interested in buying the team from the Sonics Oklahoma-based ownership group and sharing the bill of the remodel with the city and state.
This appears to be the first step in that process. The only problem is, Clay Bennett is unyielding in his refusal to sale the team. Add to that, Bennett and Co. just won big Tuesday night with the passing of the Ford Center tax. So it looks like these new efforts in Seattle might not come in handy until Seattle lands a replacement franchise.
