More Stern words
Know those terrible Storms that hit much of Oklahoma and Texas on Tuesday, cancelling flights and causing severe flooding? Well yours truly was a victim. I had an early Tuesday morning flight from Houston back to OKC but, after sitting in an airport for seven hours, never got on that flight. I’m still stuck in Houston as I type this at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday evening from a booth at Panera Bread. At any rate, that explains the absence. A few news and notes….
NBA Commissioner David Stern called Seattle’s last-ditch efforts to renovate KeyArena for $300 million a “PR stunt.”
The Oklahoman’s Berry Tramel writes that the Sonics ownership groups holds all the cards in their attempt to flee Seattle.
Some Oklahoma City Council members are again voicing their concern with the city-owned but NBA-use-only practice facility.
Also while I was out of commission, the Sonics got spanked, the Rockets’ historic win streak ended, the T-Wolves owner called out a future hall of famer and the Western Conference standings remained as tight as ever.
I’m rolling with the Heels in my bracket. Who you got?
-DM-
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Comments
What is ironic about this is that David Stern’s P.R. Stunt was to call Seattle’s serious effort to solve the problem a P.R. Stunt.
As his rhetoric gets more and more shrill it becomes more and more obvious that he and Bennett are in panic mode as this effort unravels.
With the chance to bring this ownership group worth more than $35 billion into the league, potential marking ties with Mircosoft and Costco, the owners are starting to drool over the possibilities in Seattle. Once the financing gap is closed over the next week or two the relocation vote could be as big a blow out loss for Bennett as the Denver game was for the team.
Keep dreamin Andy.
In less than a month you will finally be put on notice that there’s NOTHING MORE SEATTLE CAN DO! If Stern was in such a panic and salivating over the $35B gross worth of the potential ownership, DONT YOU THINK STERN WOULD ANNOUNCE SOMETHING OTHER THAN WHAT HE ANNOUNCED???
You Seattle people sure keep thinking so highly (arrogantly) of your rich people and your city. Just because they are rich does that mean they will do something for the NBA or mean something? PLEASE. If this were the case, wouldn’t you think there would be more billionaires in the club than JUST Paulie? Just because Seattle is closer to China than OKC is doesn’t mean that the NBA wont have a west coast (or even NW) presence when the Sonics leave. ..
There’s rich people everywhere. If Ballmer was so bullish on the Sonics, then why didn’t he buy them when Schultz sold them? OH, I remember – Ballmer was a part owner then, who VOTED in favor of the sale to Bennett. …. *guess you Seattle fanatics keep forgetting about that. ….
Perhaps it is you and many other Seattle fans who are not in-touch with reality.
I feel for you losing your team though, Keep Hope Alive! But the Sonics (and the NBA in Seattle) are History!
Might want to jump on the JailBlazer bandwagon (Seattle is SUCH a bandwagon city, so it shouldn’t be too difficult).
Wow, you are sure full of misinformation. You must work for Clay Bennett to be so ignorant. Moronic smack talk aside lets look at your B.S.:
1) Ballmer WAS NOT part of the ownership group.
2) Stanton WAS part of the group but he voted AGAINST the sale and tried to buy out Shultz.
3) Seattle is the gateway to the Pacific Rim. Yes there is a team in Portland but the Seattle Market is 3.5 million people and growing with a large Asian base. With the right ownerhips the Mariners and Seahawks have tapped into the Pacific Rim and Ballmer has those market ties locked up with his MIcrosoft background.
4) The league bylaws require a host city to be given preference if they have an arena package and ownership group on the table when a relocation request is made
5) Stern is making these comments to help out his BFF Bennett. He is hoping that they can get Seattle to give up and let him out of the lease. That isn’t happening. In fact the NBA owners will find themselves added to the lawsuit if they vote to approve a move while the court case is still pending.
6) That lawsuit is just the first step. Anti-trust actions and emminent domain are in the works and will be rolled out later. The risk of losing control of a team is what made the NFL settle the Cleveland Browns situation.
In the end OKC will end up with a team, it is just unlikely that it will be the Sonics.
Here’s what Shaq, Grant Hill, Steve Nash, and Mike D’Antoni have to say:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/basketball/355735_moore20.html?source=rss
Oh, and Steve these are the circumstances: they are being stolen by a couple of arrogant buddies from a city willing to pay $650 million to keep them.
Brilliant move.
“If Ballmer was so bullish on the Sonics, then why didn’t he buy them when Schultz sold them?”
Because David Stern hand-picked Bennett as a buyer. It was not offered up for sale to local ownership. That’s old news, and the story just gets uglier from there my man.
If you end up with a team, watch your back. Pretty sure you won’t have the market to sway a move when the NBA fails in OKC 10 years from now, and Stern decides to slip your team out the back door.
Just look at what’s happening in similar markets, Charlotte and Memphis.
We are lucky we have the top-15 market that will likely save the team. …Stern likely won’t think twice with a market in the 40’s.
“Seattle is SUCH a bandwagon city…”
Hahahaha! Wow. Yeah, a bandwagon city that has successfully supported three professional sports franchises through good times and bad, and built and rebuilt beautiful sports palaces for them.
Sonics – 41 years
Seahawks – 32 years
Mariners – 31 years
How many professional sports franchises has OKC supported? One, on loan, for a two-year honeymoon.
Maybe support two of your own for at least a decade before you start to understand the dynamics of supporting three for over thirty years.
I really like Stern because he tells it like it is. Obviously the Ballmer deal is nothing but a PR stunt because there’s no team for sale.
Seattle’s only hope was to reach an agreement with Bennett on an arena deal by Halloween of last year and they didn’t even make a proposal. Bennett was always the judge and jury on any arena solution and Seattle still hasn’t figured that out.
It’s truly amazing that people there are delusional enough to think the BOG will side with Seattle over Bennett or that Bennett can be forced to sale;
Bizzare……
Phillip,
You like Stern because right now he is helping Bennett. You won’t like him the day he turns on you and demands a new arena to replace the one you just remodeled. Think he won’t? Pay attention to what he did in Seattle and what Bennett said about needing a full on events center in OKC within a decade.
You can delude yourself into thinking that a guy worth $15 billion would be involved in nothing but a P.R. stunt if you want but it makes you look like a fool.
Pay attention to the facts:
1) If you knew anything about Ballmer you would know he wouldn’t be involved just as a stunt. He gets involved because he gets things done.
2) Yes the team is not for sale TODAY. The Storm were not for sale and Bennett decided to sell them. The Seahawks were not for sale but the court case changed that. The Mariners were not for sale but that changed as well. This team will be for sale when the situation changes.
3) Seattle couldn’t reach an agreement with Bennett because he refused to negotiate. He NEVER talked to the City of Seattle and even those in Olympia that were supporting his Palace Proposal said he wouldn’t work with them either. He was never serious about honoring his word or contracts as we learned later when the truth came out.
4) OKC is being delusional if they think the ENTIRE league is willing to take financial losses to support Bennett. Pay attention to what the owners are saying and you will see there is almost no support for his relocation request if Seattle has Ballmer and an Arena plan in place.
5) The looming court case is not a problem today for the owners but it becomes their problem if they approve the relocation. At that point the city will add the owners as defendants to the case and none of them want to sit on a witness stand just to watch Bennett lose a case.
6) Then comes the federal anti-trust investigation, not something the league wants to be part of, followed by the emminant domain fight. The league will never take the chance of losing control of a franchise and will never let that get into court. If they did they would never be able to hold a city hostage for an arena deal again.
7) You are correct that no one can force Bennett to sell but they can, and will, deny the relocation. When that happens he can remain the owner if he wants but he would be a fool to do so since his lies have made it so no one would do business with him. At some point a deal will be negotiated that gets OKC a team and leaves the Sonics in Seattle in the hands of what would be the richest ownership group in the league.
It is great that you are passionate about becoming a major league city but you can’t let your emotions override common sense.
Andy, I’m glad you’re so impressed with Ballmers money but I promise you the Bennett group isn’t. They could care less how much money he has.
The BOG has never voted down a fellow owners relocation request. In the last three relocations combined, the vote has been only one vote short of unanimous and the one vote was a conditional yes. The BOG will do as Stern recommends, just like they always do.
After the BOG approves the move, the Sonics will sign a long term lease with OKC beginning in 2010 or upon the successful resolution of the lease. Seattle will accept a buyout soon after and this thing will never even make it to the trial date.
The writing is on the wall…..it’s over. Seattle needs to realize it.
It just doesn’t matter how much money Ballmer has if there’s not a team for sale. Why should it?
Seattles aire of self-importance is really cute. Here’s a news flash for you……the NBA isn’t afraid of Seattle or Sen. Skeletors threats.
Anti-trust…imminent domain…You internet lawyers are really funny. The Sonics are a private business that are coming up on the end of there lease….Seattle can’t stop the Sonics from leaving anymore than they could stop Boeing.
I’m ridding the well coached COUGS all the way! I must be crazy..
and I agree with Andy…
when everything is laid out on the table it’s so obvious the goal was to move to okc..plain and clear…. and never give in to Seattle.. just look at how the fomer players and coaches were treated prior to the season. Have you ever seen a team ditch all the history after celebrating 40 years as a franchise… wow unbelievable… Lenny, Sikma, Detlef ….
Sadly Phillip is nothing more than a smack talking troll.
It doesn’t matter if Bennett and his partners care how much money Ballmer and his partners have, it is the NBA owners that it matters too.
I am sure they are drooling over the marking ties they can do with Dorkmeister Capital and Cheesepeak Energy. WOW!
They are going to drool over the marketing potential of a world wide giant like Microsoft and a large national marketing group like Costco. The possibilities are endles, especially when the NBA wants to go global.
BTW Boeing didn’t leave Seattle, they moved a couple hundred executives to Chicago. Considering the merger made them the biggest in the industry it is a natural part of it. The growth they have in this market is yet another reason why OKC doesn’t hold a candle to this region. OUR companies open branches in OKC, not the other way around.
Andy….You’re just not too bright, are you? You’re on an OKC board. That makes you the “smack talking troll”….dummy.
Why are you posting on an OKC board? It’s because deep down inside, under the layers of denial, you know that the Sonics are moving to OKC.
The team is leaving Seattle…..period.
Bennett and company hate Seattle and can’t wait to take their team and leave……and nobody , nobody, NOBODY can stop them.
I guess I’ve been a little hard on Candyazz Andy and his band of latte sipping trolls…….
I just want to tell you Seattle trolls that every time you fill up with gas or pay your heating bill, you are helping to drive OKC’s thriving economy.
Thanks for your support…..and your NBA team.
Wow, you can’t even talk smack right. ROFLMAO
We don’t send a penny to you in OKC because all of our fuel comes from Alaska.
Schooled again.
BTW: Never had a latte in my life.
I guess simple economics are just way over your head, CandyAndy. It doesn’t matter where it comes from….every time you buy it, you prop up the price……dummy.
Oh and by the way…..Seattle will accept a buyout before the trial date. Bank on it.
U.C.L.A. beats gonzaga by 5. i think the idea of losing the sonics is making me go crazy!! ucla could easily do it. but gonzaga, in the title game. without question im losing it!