The NBA in OKC: A Personal View

Kurt Streeter, a sports writer for the Los Angeles Times who grew up in Seattle, wrote a )column on how much the Sonics move to OKC affected him emotionally. Most of what he said was entirely understandable, but there were the inevitable "digs" at Oklahoma City and Oklahoma that I decided to write to him about how I felt about the whole thing.

He wrote me back to thank me for my response and wished us all "Good Luck" with our new team.

Here is my response to his original column:

Dear Mr. Streeter:

I read your column "SuperSonics' move leaves a bitter taste" on-line and while I sympathize with the fact that the team that was a part of your youth is no more, I hope that you realize the fact that few things associated with our youth actually remain fixed and eternal. I grew up in Kansas City rooting for the Athletics at Municipal Stadium. Neither they nor it survive anywhere except in my moments of nostalgic reveries. There they remain eternally for me as I am sure yours will for you.

Please understand the fact that I am pleased that a whole generation of young people in my hometown of Oklahoma City will now have the opportunity to develop their own memories. That is the cruel reality of the business of sports: your pain is some OKC kid's gain.

I take exception to the digs that you and other West Coast folks have made at those of us living in the Heartland. I often get the feeling that those living out in your part of our nation feel entitled for some reason. Most of the great cities of our nation can be found on the coasts or the Great Lakes region. This is due to their access to ports and other means of water transportation. Nature built you.

Oklahoma City was born, literally, overnight. We grew without your accidental advantages. We have managed to flourish despite the worst that Nature (the Dust Bowl and our famous tornadoes) and humans (the Depression and the Murrah bombing) are capable of doing. We are called Okies, Tumbleweed hoppers, Dust Eaters, and perhaps we are all these things. But there must be rock beneath this dust because we have managed despite it all to build a great community and thriving city.

Again, I recognize your column was written out of your emotions, but I thought that you might wish to consider this event from our perspective. I hope that one day Los Angeles will have an NFL franchise. I still find it hard to say "St. Louis Rams", but then again, I have the same problem with the "Arizona Cardinals." Sic transit gloria mundi.

Sincerely yours,


Robert Lynn Green
The Village, Oklahoma (the Little Town inside the Big City

The NBA coming to OKC

NBA Now in OKC
Well, as anyone following the Sonics saga knows, Oklahoma City will be getting the "Franchise Formerly Known as the SuperSonics" in time for the 2008 season.

I am glad for my city, but I understand the pain and anger of basketball fans in the city of Seattle. I have always said that I wish we were getting the Los Angeles Clippers instead. Not only does LA already have an NBA franchise, I really don't care much for the city (what I've seen of it). On the other hand, Seattle is where 3 members of my family; my father, mother, and sister; live. I also consider it the most beautiful city in America that I have visited (even better than San Francisco).

However, I am happy for the city that has been my home for all but 9 years of my life. The NBA box score will now have "Oklahoma City" or OKC in the standings.

Seattle v. Professional Basketball Corporation (Sonics)

Clay Bennett "Halloween Mask"

Right now, the city of Seattle is trying to keep the Sonics at Key Arena for the remaining two years of their lease. The Sonics owners, called the Professional Basketball Corporation or PBC, want to be able to buy out the remaining years on the lease.

The trial is being done in front of a judge, not a jury, so it's hard to tell how it's going. I think the city will win this one, but I also believe that the Sonics will be in Oklahoma City eventually.

I'm following the trial, not because I am a big NBA sports fan, but because points of law like this fascinate me. I probably ought to study to be a lawyer, but that likley won't happen for various reasons mostly dealing with time and money.

OKC V. Seattle

Oklahoma City V.
Seattle

The way our city and the city of Seattle look at the Sonic situation interests me. The latest twist in this "Sports Opera" is that Howard Shultz, the former owner of the Sonics and founder of Starbuck Coffee (sic), has followed through on his promised lawsuit to void the sale of the team to the Professional Basketball Corporation headed by Clay Bennett. The headline in The Oklahoman, the newspaper in OKC, reads "Ex-Sonics owners follow through on lawsuit threat".

In The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the headline is "Bennett knew he could "flip" team. The story discusses how e-mails discovered through Shultz lawsuit allegedly indicate that Bennett was not interested in owning a team in Seattle, and that had the move to OKC not worked out, his group would have sold the team to another group of owners and used the proceeds to buy a team he could have moved.

Both articles carry the same facts, but from the outset, our paper emphasizes the "ex-owner" who is making a threat while the Seattle paper focus on Bennett personally and his motives for owning the Sonics.

It's a well known ploy in politics that if you can make your opponent the issue, you have gained a major upper hand in your fight. Looks as though both papers are doing their part in the battle.

The Sonics (or whatever they will be named) Are Coming to OKC

Matter of When?
I feel very ambigous about this. I have family who live in Seattle. I think that Seattle is the most beautiful city in the USA. I really wish the team we are getting was from some place like Los Angeles. At least that way we would be paying back the Californians for the way they treated Oklahomans during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl migration.

On the other hand, this is a step forward for the city where I have spent all but 9 years of the 56 God has granted me. We will have our own major league franchise.
Oklahoman article "The NBA says yes to OKC

In this Zero Sum Game, however, we must remember that our joy comes at someone else's pain. Here is a video put up by a Sonics fan. You Tube: Save Our Sonics

"Stealing" the Sonics?

Will They Be Moving?

In my previous post endorsing the extension of the sales tax to do improvements to the Ford Center, I deliberately left out my thoughts on the prospect of moving the Seattle Supersonics to Oklahoma City. This is even more problematic than voting to fund an NBA team in the first place.

First, let me say that I really, really like the city of Seattle. Forget the fact that part of my family lives there. Seattle, for me, is the most beautiful city in America. I love the region's politics. If I could live anywhere else in America, I would probably choose to live there.

Second, like most of my fellow citizens, if we get a team from another city, I wish it would the Hornets. We all fell in love with Chris Paul. New Orleans doesn't seem to be able to support the team, and didn't really do so before Katrina. That's not likely to happen for a variety of reasons though.

So how do I feel about taking a franchise away from its original home, away from a city that has supported it for over 40 years because it's home arena has been deemed inadequate? I feel about it probably the same way someone might have felt about Los Angeles stealing the Brooklyn Dodgers: bad for them, good for us. If Oklahoma City is ever to get a major league franchise, then we will certainly get it at the expense of another city. The NBA, NHL, MLB or anyone this side of Arena Football will not expand their league just to get at the coveted Southern Plains market. The US market is pretty much at the saturation point, and if any new teams are created, they are going to be placed outside the US. This is particularly true of the NBA which openly covets an opportunity to establish itself in South America, Europe and Asia.

Prior to Katrina, Oklahoma City had already been turned down by the NBA and the NHL. We became a player in the NBA because we had prepared ourselves for the opportunity which is the best definition of luck I know. [Senaca's Definition of Luck] Baring any new change of events in the present situation, I feel that Oklahoma City will probably get the Sonics. For us, this will be the culmination of a long time of planning, work and patience. For Seattle and others, we are mere opportunists, but that only looks at one side of the formula.

However, when I go to visit Seattle, I probably will tell anyone who asks that I live in The Village.