Jamie Reidy comments on the awkward relationship between Oklahoma City Thunder fans and the fans whose hearts they ripped out.
John Hickey reports special for USA Today on the used-to-be-Sonics phenomenon:
It was a cold, gray and wet Thursday in Seattle, just perfect for longtime fans of the Seattle SuperSonics to mourn the NBA franchise that morphed into theOklahoma City Thunder and dispatched the San Antonio Spurs to make the NBA Finals.
Look, I’m not one to not judge (see: earlier idiot “Miley Cyrus Marries Thor” headline. fyi: she is only engaged to his brother).But, fuck, Seattle, you were promised better.
And let’s all just do mentally angry things to Clay Bennett, the billionaire who told the city of Seattle and NBA commissioner David Stern that he would do everything he could to keep the team in Seattle. I’m told that asking to do other stuff is problematic. No physical answers.
And then Clay-piece-of-something-I-can’t-say-because-the-nuns-told-me-no moved the team from Seattle to Oklahoma City, OK. To repeat. HE MOVED THE TEAM FROM SEATTLE.
Then Clay Bennett came from Oklahoma City with a big bundle of cash when Starbucks founder and then-Sonics owner Howard Schultz wanted to sell. Bennett said he would work to keep the team in Seattle, but he bolted for his hometown almost as soon as the ink dried.
Now, Seattle debates watching their former Golden Child Kevin Durant do what he does in the NBA Finals next week. That is a tough organ basketball to follow.
I would still be rooting for OKC: because I am a sap.
GMP readers, would you still root for a pro team that deserted your city?
Photo by: compujeramey
Heather N, that is so f’ing cool! I paid $185 per ticket to take my dad to the ND-Army game in Nov 2010, the first college football game at the new stadium.
I agree re: not giving in.
I grew up outside NYC and I’m a Yankee fan. I found it comical that the politicians caved to George Steinbrenner’s demands re: a new Yankee Stadium.
THE YANKEES WOULD NEVER MOVE TO NEW JERSEY!!! Ain’t gonna happen.
But the politicians blinked, and The Steinbrenner clan saved hundreds of millions of dollars.
Dude, my university graduation was the first (and last) in the original Yankee Stadium. It is totally not relevant to anything, except that it was flipping awesome.
wellokaythen — nail hit directly on head.
I was born and raised in Oklahoma City and moved to Seattle a few years ago. Several times I’ve been chewed out by pissed off Seattle-ites breaking through the cities stereotypical passive-agressive behavior (good! show your anger!). It’s hard to explain that I was actively and publicly campaigning against the raise in taxes needed to build a new stadium, a move which just serves to make the millionaire team owners richer as demonstrated in David Cay Johnsons’ “Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense”. Sadly, the propaganda machine in OKC was too good and citizens’ desire… Read more »
Don’t feel too bad for the people of Seattle. They didn’t give in to a billionaire’s attempt to hold the team as a hostage in order to force the creation of a bigger arena. Seattle is not saddled with ONE MORE new sports venue that lines the pockets of rich owners at the expense of the taxpayers. Seattle did that twice already with baseball and football. I think the Sonics case shows a positive lesson. Seattle is in many ways better off since it decided not to give in to blackmail. I’d give it ten years before the people of… Read more »
Wow that’s a tough situation to be in.
I can understand feeling betrayed when your team (yes that team is supposed to represent your city therefore you get to say its your team) moves but at the same time its not like the team members themselves had any say so in the move. Not that I follow pro sports but I’m pretty sure that Durant didn’t actively say he wanted to leave right?
In fact I’ll bet that some of the members of the team feel like they betrayed Seattle by moving even though they had no say it it.