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NBA

FanHouse Roundtable: How Much Blame Does Seattle Carry?

Posted Jul 03, 2008 7:00AM By Tom Ziller (RSS feed)

Filed Under: SuperSonics, Seattle

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We didn't set out to have a Roundtable discussion on the Sonics settlement. Things just sort of ... unfolded in an email thread. As such, it's a bit less formal in style than usual. This is the (edited) result.

Brett Edwards: [after several grousing emails and posts about the settlement from yours truly] Ziller's a closet Sonics fan.

Tom Ziller: I'm a Kings fan who fears the next Clay Bennett!

Matt Moore: Just fear Sacramento deciding to try and bully an owner they KNOW is looking for a way out, playing a game of chicken that they know they can't win after giving both their baseball and football teams (that they don't have) brand new state of the art stadiums, and then refusing to fund measures that would save the team.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. Bennett's a jackass, but they KNEW he was a jackass and they decided to try and play hardball regardless.

Ziller: Bennett's a jackass and a conniving, two-faced liar who repeatedly said one thing to the fans, the Legislature, the city, the league and the employees while doing everything in his power behind the scenes to get to his desired outcome, which is a hometown team for his buddies, at the cost of millions of fans and 40 years of civic pride and history.

Fixed.

Moore: Can't disagree with a single statement there. But Seattle is not without fault in this debacle. I'm not lacking in sympathy for the guys of SuperSonicSoul or SonicsCentral. But at some point, the city did exactly what he wanted them to.

Ziller: Well of course the city and Legislature have culpability in the end result. But they weren't the ones who purchased a team under false pretenses and lied to everyone's face about it. Bennett was. And Stern let it happen without recourse, to make an example of Seattle and teach those other cities a lesson. That the city and Leg (and voters) rejected bad plans for new buildings (Key would be fine with a renovation, according to everyone except Bennett and Schultz -- even the NBA agrees with the city on this) is a far smaller crime than those committed by Bennett and Stern.

Will Brinson: The thing that tees me off more than anything is just how culpable David Stern looks in all of this. He and Bennett are known to be long-time friends, and if he really does have the best interest of the league in mind, he would have found a way to stop this move from happening. Yes, OKC will support a basketball team, but there are other places to yank from that don't have the history and tradition that Seattle does (looking at you Beale Street.)

If we, meaning NBA watchers in general, are going to wax conspiratorial, then why aren't we screaming for Stern's head on this? But yes, Bennett is a dirtbag.

Moore: First, I agree with what you said about Bennett, again. He's a lying, cheating, dirty snake. And if he ended up losing every dime he has, this world would have a small measure of justice.

What I disagree with is this notion that Stern's in bed with him. Stern has two priorities, one that feeds off the other. His first is to protect and grow the league. His second is to protect his owners, because they are the core of the league. Like it or not, without owners, no league. From there is the fact that the way the system is now, regardless of how right or wrong it is, cities pay for arenas, owners pay for teams. That's the agreement, with different levels of conjunction between the city, state, local, and ownership levels. It may not be how we want it to be, but it is. And Seattle knew that going in. And they authorized improvements for the other two sports teams in town, and then denied it in the one league it shouldn't have. Improvements? Yes. You're absolutely right. But if you want to protect this team, you have to be willing to block Bennett's every snake-headed move. Once the city, and then state, moved against the owner, Stern's already had his position set. He doesn't get to agree with the city. He doesn't get to side with the fans. His obligation is to the owner, and to that end he has come out looking absolutely evil. But trying to sell me that an Oklahoma hillbilly and a New York lawyer are bosom buddies, trying to defraud a larger market in favor of a smaller one, in a PR disaster of untold proportions? No way.

Bennett's the enemy, but Seattle is the one that let him get away with it. Stern is forced to support a bad situation by the economic environment his league operates in."

Now that said, Stern and Bennett are bosom buddies, which certainly weakens the argument. I don't necessarily think it eliminates it, but I'll admit that regardless of the situation he was put in, the right thing to do would have been to say, "Clay, I'm sorry, but I'll get you an expansion team in three years." I just don't necessarily think the voters are without culpability here.

Tags: ClayBennett, DavidStern

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