Supersonics Chronic? Not Looking So Good

I can’t even express how upsetting David Stern and the NBA Relocation committee have been over the last 24 hours. As a Seattlite, I was so looking forward to getting the Supersonics back. Now, it appears, that dream (once so certain) is dwindling.

For those unfamiliar, the Seattle Supersonics were a staple of Pacific Northwest sports world since 1967 (in fact, they along with the Sounders and our now gone NHL team are the only male professional sports teams in Seattle history to win a championship). In 2008, Howard Schultz (CEO of Starbucks, and then majority owner of the Supersonics) threatened to sell the team if the city wouldn’t pony up and build them a new arena. Seattle opted not to fund a new arena at that time and Schultz sold the team to Clay Bennet and created the Oklahoma Thunder.

Starting in 2012, an investment group comprised of, among others, Chris Hansen (hedge fund billionaire), Steve Ballmer (CEO of Microsoft), and the Nordstrom family secured a deal with Seattle to build a new arena (at the investors expense) and the quest for a team began. The Sacramento Kings were in a dire situation. Kings owners, the Maloofs, had been losing money on the team for quite a while. Sacramento was embroiled (like much of California) in a budgetary crisis and a new Sacramento NBA arena was out of the question.

The Hansen Group offered somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 million dollars to the Maloofs. In the mean time, Kevin Johnson (former NBA star and current mayor of Sacramento) frantically tried to raise enough capital to compete with Hansen’s offer. At first, it seemed an impossible task with a city in debt and a lack of private investors. While Johnson was searching for funds, a binding deal was signed between the Maloofs and the Hansen Group for 550 million. All seemed a done deal, it was down to waiting for the formality of the NBA commission to vote and approve the moving of the team.

Mayor Johnson, well after the deal had been inked between the Maloofs and the Hansen Group, was able to tentatively secure about 450 million and has a loose plan on how he was going to build an arena. Most of us thought it was too little, too late.

But, yesterday, 7 out of 12 on the NBA relocation committee (led by David Stern) voted against the move to Seattle. Sacramento rejoiced. Those of us in Seattle are pissed. I’m not angry at Sacramento for striving to keep their team, it always nice to see that kind of enthusiasm. I’m pissed off because right up until yesterday’s vote, Stern and his board made it seem a certainty that Seattle would get the Supersonics back.

The rationale as to why Stern’s group pulled their support? It’s not very clear. But I’m guessing it comes down to money. Which is still unclear because the Kings have been a bottomless pit that has been operating at a loss for a long time in a city that lacks the funds to support a new arena. Conversely, the Hansen Group would have been one of the most well funded ownership groups in the entire league. They had the money ready to go into escrow and had a solid plan for the arena, with city approval. Sacramento’s position on a new arena and how they will fund this is much more tenuous. It doesn’t make sense and, considering Stern is retriring after this year, it feels like he is just passing the buck on an uncomfortable situation.

So the NBA denied the sale of the Kings. Another solution is to simply expand the league and give Seattle a new team. No, says Stern, because then the current 30 NBA teams would have to share league profits with one more mouth. All about money (by the way, this loss Stern is so concerned about amounts to about 2 million dollars/year, per team). That’s a lot to you and me, but to an NBA team, that’s chump change. Not to mention that a new team would arguably generate a ton of income.

Hansen has vowed to continue to fight for the Supersonics and, since the sale of the Kings was binding, it will be interesting to see how Stern’s little posse of greedy dicks deals with a potential lawsuit.

We are livid in Seattle. Not to hate on Sacramento, but we have the fans and resources to have a successful NBA franchise (when it seemed a sure thing for Seattle, over 44,000 people expressed interest in season tickets). It should be a no-brainer. Maybe that’s the problem with Stern, he traded his brain for a diamond studded money clip.

I was so looking forward to getting more stoned than a Salem witch and rooting for my Sonics. F@#K David Stern.