Comments on: Collison Confronts Jim Traber

By: Now that Clay Bennett can’t control his players, Kevin Durant and Nick Collison are coming back to Seattle | Hoops206

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:41:29 +0000

[...] A couple summers ago, Collison tweeted about how great of place Seattle is, it made the news in OKC and OKC sports radio show host, Jim Traber, blasted Collison for his pro-Seattle tweets and wanted him out of town. Traber apologized after Collison decided to confront Traber and called into the show – listen here. [...]

By: ProphetC

ProphetC — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:30:00 +0000

This DJ is just taking shots to get ratings. Even if he loves that city, Nick didn’t say anything negative about OKC. He can love Seattle as does most of the world. It’s been in the top 20 best places to live forever now. A guy works for a team that he likes to play for. The team is located in Oklahoma City. He likes to live in Seattle and respected the franchise in Seattle and wished that it didn’t lose their history. He also loves the fan support in OKC. A guy can feel both of those things. It’s not limited to one or the other. And the fact that a drop in attendance for 3 years in comparison to 41 year franchise doesn’t mean that we “gave up on our team.” We didn’t let the team go. The owner did what he wanted to not what he said he was going to. The last couple seasons the ownership did not give the Sonics the means to be a contender and that is why the fans stopped coming and justified the move. To this day there are crazy amounts of Sonic gear sported and sold. There is some undue hostility toward OKC where it should be directed at your owner and not your city. I don’t rock a “FUCK THE THUNDER” t-shirt with the Sonic colors, but do want my Sonics back. And it does piss me off that he bought our history. When I’m watching ESPN and it talks about Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp being some of the best players in Thunder history it’s a joke. They never wore those colors nor the name. They wouldn’t even accept court side seats to represent that. Clay Bennett’s plan was always to move them hence not putting money in the team and paying off the city for the lease at Key Arena to move them. It was a scam and lies told to the fans and the city and we want our Sonics back. “In 2006, after unsuccessful efforts to persuade Washington government officials to provide funding to update KeyArena, the SuperSonics’ ownership group, led by Howard Schultz, sold the team to Professional Basketball Club LLC (PBC), an investment group headed by Oklahoma City businessman Clayton Bennett. The purchase, at $350 million, also included the Seattle Storm WNBA franchise. The former ownership group, Basketball Club of Seattle headed by Starbucks Corp. Chair Howard Schultz sold the franchise to Bennett’s group because they thought that Bennett would not immediately move the franchise to Oklahoma City but instead try to keep it in Seattle. Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett was quoted as saying “I think it’s presumptuous to assume that Clay Bennett and his ownership group won’t own that Seattle team for a long, long time in Seattle or somewhere else. It’s presumptuous to assume they’re going to move that franchise to Oklahoma City,” Cornett said. “I understand that people are going to say that seems to be a likely scenario, but that’s just speculation.”[10] After failing to persuade local governments to fund a $500 million arena complex, Bennett’s group notified the NBA that it intended to move the team to Oklahoma City[11] and requested arbitration with the City of Seattle to be released from the Sonics’ lease with KeyArena.[12] When the request was rejected by a judge, Seattle sued Bennett’s group to enforce the lease that required the team to play in KeyArena through 2010.[13] On July 2, 2008, a settlement was reached that allowed the team to move under certain conditions, including the ownership group’s payment of $45 million to Seattle and the possibility of an additional $30 million by 2013 if a new team had not been given to the city. It was agreed that the SuperSonics’ name would not be used by Oklahoma City and that team’s history could be shared between Oklahoma City and any future NBA team in Seattle.[14] The team began play as the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2008–2009 basketball season after becoming the 3rd NBA franchise to relocate in the past decade.

In months prior to the settlement, Seattle publicly released email conversations that took place within Bennett’s ownership group and alleged that they indicated at least some members of the group had a desire to move the team to Oklahoma City prior to the purchase in 2006. Before that, Sonics co-owner Aubrey McClendon told an Oklahoma City newspaper “we didn’t buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here,” although Bennett denied knowledge of this.[15] Seattle used these incidents to argue that the ownership failed to negotiate in good faith, prompting Schultz to file a lawsuit seeking to rescind the sale of the team and transfer the ownership to a court-appointed receiver.[16] The NBA claimed Schultz’ lawsuit was void because Schultz signed a release forbidding himself to sue Bennett’s group, but also argued that the proposal would have violated league ownership rules. Schultz dropped the case before the start of the 2008–09 NBA season.

In 2009, Seattle-area filmmakers calling themselves the Seattle SuperSonics Historical Preservation Society produced a critically acclaimed documentary film titled Sonicsgate – Requiem For A Team that details the rise and demise of the Seattle SuperSonics franchise. The movie focuses on the more scandalous aspects of the team’s departure from Seattle, and it won the 2010 Webby Award for ‘Best Sports Film’.” Wikipedia it if you don’t believe the scandal.

By: Erik Berge

Erik Berge — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:06:14 +0000

This radio show host is a fool. When the team that was already not getting anywhere near the playoffs gets bought by a ownership group for Oklahoma City, that in the past, has said his goal was to bring a NBA team to OKC what do you think the fans, other then the 10,000 or so hardcore ones, are going to do? Spend money on a bad team that is owned bt someone who ultimately wanted to and did move the team. The ownership kept the players from the media, changed the radio channels to a unknown and dropped all advertising in the city in the years they owned the team in Seattle. They destroyed the fan base that had been there for 41 years. Dirty trick by a dirty man! OKC is a great place im sure. But this guy is way off saying Seattle didnt support the team!

By: bee1000

bee1000 — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:35:50 +0000

Seattle Sonic FANS never gave up on the team, and never stopped supporting the team. I’m not sure why his moron thinks Seattle was supposed to pony up $500 million in public funds to meet Bennett’s demand for a new stadium, when we had already publically unded a renovation of our arena 10 years earlier. Seattle fans were not idiots and were not going to come out in droves to support a team whose ownership made clear had no intention of staying in the area. Fans had no power to stop the move and have been the victims in the whole thing. It hurts to hear uninformed idiots like this guy who keeps insisting the Sonic fans sealed the team’s fate. Its as far from the truth as possible.

By: madison

madison — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 21:54:58 +0000

what is jim traber’s problem? was he on crack when he hosted this show? don’t listen to him nick. he’s just jealous because you’re awesome!!!!

By: Joe Schmoe

Joe Schmoe — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:05:55 +0000

Nick’s the sweatiest player! Does he have B.O.?

By: Pete

Pete — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:55:02 +0000

Thank you to all that support Nick. My god how odd can some people be that think what he said is a knock to Oklahoma.IT IS HOT.He prefers the more mild climate. Who cares.He loves playing for Oklahoma. You should support a player of this caliber. He will do your team well.

By: Mark WS

Mark WS — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:45:36 +0000

You guys listen to Traber and give him the ratings, otherwise he’d be a goner. You get what you deserve.

By: pawnee

pawnee — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:59:15 +0000

Jim spent most of his time in the minor leagues and still approaches sports radio the same way. He’s a great AAAA entertainer but not big league. This time it was too weird–as Jim came across a combination of his usual bullying self with a big dose of chamber of commerce cheerleader. I’ve taken Jim’s advice about what to do when you disagree with him…click. Now..please send me an Arbitron.

By: Ken

Ken — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:20:37 +0000

Kent – It seems you’re willing to use 2007, the lame duck season, to make a point regarding a 41 year franchise.

Question: Are you going on record as agreeing with Traber’s comment about 4 or 5 thousand fans?

I ask because the only point I was really trying to make was that Traber is a liar, just as Bennett is. I’m from Seattle and I’ve been to OKC. Liked the area and people I meet couldn’t have been nicer, but these two (Traber/Bennett) image-wise do your city a huge disservice.