Seattle Sonics

I'm furious. I'm heartbroken. I don't know where to go from here.

The Sonics signed a lease to stay in Seattle through 2010. Now, unhappy that the city won't build a new stadium, instead of playing out their lease, the team is trying to break it. Fuck that. Stern has always supported the need for a new stadium, which is one thing, but now he's supporting the broken lease. That's a whole 'nother. Fuck him. The city is suing to keep the team in Seattle for a last few years. I'm dismayed it has come to this.

The owners of the team offered city officials $26.5 million last week if the city would let the Sonics out of the lease. The city said no. Thankfully. I'm so concerned about this, though, that I personally e-mailed each and every City Council member and the mayor an e-mail that included the following two paragraphs:

As a Seattle resident and a sports fan, the Sonics issue has been difficult for me. Ultimately, I support the city's (and the region's) hesitancy to build a complex for the Sonics. I believe in the morality of such a stance. I'm not asking any of you to support any such plan.

However, there is a vast difference between building an arena and allowing a treasured sports franchise to walk away from its lease. To allow the Sonics to walk away early would be a travesty. I understand that both the team and the league believe the franchise will leave anyway. As my elected officials, however, I implore you not to enable an early and otherwise illegal exit.

Two councilmembers wrote me back saying, essentially, "we agree. But for more money, well, we might not." That's bullshit. But, OK. Whatever. That's happening.

Now, though, GM Presti has traded away every last shred of talent for a pile of late-round draft picks and expiring contracts. Everybody on the team save, like, four players is DEFINITELY going to get dumped in the next two off-seasons. Outside of those four players, do you think any of the players cares about the Sonics?

First of all: Fuck you, Sonics, for tanking like motherfuckers in your final years in Seattle. We appreciate nothing, assholes.

Secondly, don't you think that would have an effect on Kevin Durant and Jeff Green? Watching Green these days is a little painful. The rampant losing is clearly getting to him. What do even those guys have to play for? I mean, not only are they going to have to move their homes in the next two years, but they won't be playing with any of these same guys. Do you think losing 60 games a year will help their development? Ugh.

The trades have gotten us a heap of late-first round draft picks, but we're talking super late round. Phoenix Suns. San Antonio Spurs. I think we've got a Celtics pick. What good will these do Durant? Get him some crappy tall guys without any polish? Get him some flash PGs without any court discipline? Ugh.

I wish I didn't care so much, but I do. I freaking love the Sonics. Without the Glove and the Reign Man and Big Smooth, I'm never a sports fan in the first place. Without Brickowski and the Chef and George Karl, I'm never attending Syracuse University in hopes of becoming a sports reporter. It makes me ridiculously sad that if I were 20 years younger, growing up exactly where I did in exactly the same home attending exactly the same schools, my life would have been radically different. The Sonics were my number one passion. Now, they'll be gone. Ugh.

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

Ding, dong the witch is dead (cont...)

Seattle is not pleased with the trade. Or, well, not clearly happy. Here are some quotes from Seattle sports columnists:

This is the cruelest and most unfair decision the Sonics' new ownership has made. From the standpoint of saving the Sonics from relocation, chairman Clay Bennett and his group have chosen the worst possible time to start over. They just yanked away the one hope, no matter how pie in the sky, optimistic Sonics fans clenched tightly — an 11th-hour franchise rescue spurred by a winning 2007-08 season.
- Jerry Large, Seattle Times

It is clearly a movement towards rebuilding. I read the Sports Guy's rant on ESPN.com, but I think Boston has less reason to cry than Seattle. I mean, what did Seattle fans really get?

At the moment, the Sonics roster is the hoops equivalent of Pam Anderson. It's going to topple over without some ballast and balance.

So any rational judgment about the biggest draft day in the Sonics' 40-year history must be reserved. More has to be coming.

Otherwise, Sonics fans would have to take owner Clay Bennett and general manager Sam Presti into the street and pummel them, and who wants to spend the impending holiday arranging for bail money?
...
Oh, yeah. Durant. He should be fun. But only the Sonics could manage to overshadow his acquisition with anxiety.
- Art Thiel, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Perhaps most damningly, there is this report from Frank Hughes, who is an excellent youngish reporter who will probably be stolen away by the NYTimes or the Washington Post in a year or two:

NEW YORK - Kevin Durant, whom the Seattle SuperSonics selected with the second pick in Thursday’s NBA draft, was walking from a television interview to a radio interview at the Madison Square Garden theater when he passed by a large flat-screen television.

He stopped, turned and watched as it was announced that his new team had just completed a trade that sent Ray Allen and the rights to the 35th pick to the Boston Celtics for the fifth pick – which was Georgetown forward Jeff Green – point guard Delonte West and shooting guard Wally Szczerbiak.

“Damn,” Durant said, shaking his head with realization that the team’s new general manager, Sam Presti, only 12 years older than Durant, was beginning to change the shape of a team that experienced its worst season in 21 years.
- Frank Hughes, Tacoma News Tribune

Eh. Allen's gone. I'm happy about that. For the same reasons that Zach Randolph should never meet Greg Oden, I don't think Allen should ever meet Durant. But, geez.

It's going to suck going out this way: For a proud franchise that dominated the NBA in the 90's, for a fan base that continued to pack the stadium throughout a miserable stretch of almost 8 straight no-playoffs seasons, for a city that loves basketball (four draft picks this year went to Seattle high schools) to watch its NBA team leave in sucktastic fashion? It's just sad.

I wanted one last playoff run. Sonics management basically killed that last dream, too.

Ding, dong the witch (Ray Allen) is dead

About three hours before the draft, we started hearing that Seattle was going to deal Ray-Ray for the fifth pick in the draft. I was thrilled.

"As long as Horford or Conley are there," I told my friend Dekay, "I'm 100 percent behind the idea."

I was operating under the assumption that if you're going to deal Ray Allen, a legitimate superstar, albeit one who never saw a loose ball worth diving for, you should get a guy with a ceiling one mile high. To watch both Durant and either of those guys mature would be worth the price of admission.

Whoops. Neither guy I wanted was there. Apparently, management didn't care.

While I'm now conflicted, I'm not 100 percent against the move either. I think Green is filthy, and I think he'll be an All-Star. His bust potential is lower than either Horford or Conley. Somehow, he seems stable. I saw something on ESPN.com that likened him to Brandon Roy. That'd probably play.

But, I mean, I hate Ray Allen (see last week's post), and even I feel like we gave up more than we got. The Sonics only have one more year in Seattle, and instead of having a ridiculous offense -- Ray, Rashard, Durant -- now we're going to have a ridiculous small forward position. In our last year, we're going to see the rookie seasons of one ultra-megastar and one very solid pro. And the team is going to suck. Maybe we'll get two more years out of the team, but we'll be so young, and the West is so good, I don't think the playoffs are likely.

And, really, that's not a very good way to go out. I think I'd prefer to see Durant's first ever playoff appearance to the formative years of an outstanding nucleus.

Oh well. At least I outlasted Ray. The bastard.

Kevin Durant

I cannot believe he'll only be playing in Seattle one year.

I hate Ray Allen because Ray Allen doesn't seem to care. I hate Shaun Alexander for the same reason. I don't know a lot about Kevin Durant, but this is what the Sports Guy just wrote about his competitiveness, in relation to Oden's:

Like Michael Myers, Oden never changes expression, flips out or overreacts; only his heavy breathing gives him away. But would guys be afraid of letting him down the way teammates once were of Bird, Magic, Isiah and MJ? Probably not. Because unlike Michael Myers, Oden is no killer. He admits as much, confessing to wanting to be a dentist and settling on hoops only because of his size. But Durant is wired like Bird and the rest. He's cold-blooded, living to silence hostile crowds. You get the feeling that Oden's life will revolve around many different things over the next 15 years; Durant's will be all about basketball.

Man. I miss him already.

Kevin Durant, Oklahoma, etc

I'm thrilled that the (Seattle) Sonics got draft rights to Kevin Durant.

I was listening to the NBA lottery on my car radio Tuesday night, and as it became obvious that we were going to get a top three pick — the Celtics' misfortune ensured it — I started to pump my fists and honk my horn. I was ridiculously stoked. The Sonics, after all, were my first love. Without Shawn Kemp, etc, I never start to follow sports; nobody in my family ever has.

So, during the commercial break, I pull over into a grocery store parking lot. I'm wearing a massive grin, kinda creepy like, I imagine. Whatever. My phone is ringing off the hook, and so I'm picking up, shouting a few things to my friends, and hanging up again. The Sonics! Greg Oden! Kevin Durant!

I'll admit this: I was disappointed when I heard we got the second pick. Only Oden seems to guarentee a future NBA title. But that only lasted two seconds. I jumped out of my car, danced a little jig, answered some calls, shouted a ton, and then went to Jack in the Box for a congratulatory milkshake — large this time, and Oreo. Delicious.

There's no way the Sonics are staying in Seattle, by the way. I just cannot imagine how that would happen. The team pissed off the community, and the league pissed off the government. Even I — a honking and shouting and fist pumping fool — oppose a new stadium. I'm furious. There is a small chance that the Sonics could move to Renton, WA, which is about an hour south of my childhood home in Kenmore, but even that seems unlikely. Seattle is not going to happen; Renton maybe maybe maybe (maybe maybe maybe) could. Whatever.

Of course, the issue isn't going to come to a vote. That idea is 100 percent dead. The tax package which would pay for the stadium would simply extend hotel/motel taxes for about 20 years. Out-of-state visitors would pay, the team says. And, you know, screw out-of-state visitors, they imply.

Plans suggest the team needs a $500M facility. Even though we redid the stadium 10 years ago, the NBA is back for more. Even though we've nearly filled the stadium these past seven years to watch crappy, uninspired players, the NBA asks for more. I mean. What? What in the world is a city supposed to do? It's absurd. Screw the visitors? Screw the NBA.

But. Kevin Durant! Wow! Go Supes!