Yea, that's a pretty huge misconception. There are many parties at fault for how things played out.

 

I'm sure there were other people, but those are the ones that stand out.

 

I think Bennett made for an easy target because he gave fans a name and a face for the obligatory finger-pointing.

 

Agreed, there is blame on all sides. It didnt matter what Seattle did, Stern was dead set on hand delivering the team to OKC. Bennett screwed himself by letting those emails from his cronies go public.

Schultz is a power hungry douche bag and our former mayor was only looking for $$$.

Whatever, it's done. I wish Seattle could just get an expansion team instead of taking the Kings but we all know that wont happen.

No new news on the deal so who knows... Maybe the MaGoof's are tryin to pull out again.

 

Expansion would kind of suck. I don't think people realize that it dilutes the talent pool even more, resulting in a watered-down league. If anything, the league would benefit more from contraction (strictly from the perspective of depth and talent) . Of course, that doesn't make a whole lot of fiscal sense since I know the NBA loves the revenue that comes from expansion. Expansion means more games, hence more ticket and broadcasting revenue. Can't forget about merchandise, either.

 

Well, looks like its about to happen. Sincere condolences to the Kings fans, there are a lot of us here that know how it feels. Feel free to come watch a game in Seattle wearing your Kings gear. I'm sure plenty of people will be happy to buy you a beer.

 

I heard another rumor that the team would be named the Superkings.

 

I agree

 

I wouldn't say it's the "same process." Chris Hansen (he leads the ownership group, not Steve Ballmer) has been transparent about his intentions to get a team to Seattle, for the Arena he's building. He's looking for an NHL team as well.

Clay Bennett lied for years about his intentions to move the team. Then shows up after the move to OKC saying "we finally did it." So yes, fuck him.

Trolling? A dick move? Nooooooo...

Plenty of blame to go around, yes. But the guy kissed Stern's ass and lied to a city of fans for years. It's more than just finger-pointing. He's at the center of it.

There's no way it's going to be anything other than the Seattle Supersonics.

 

Of course, one could also point out that the Sonics sold to Bennett in part because they couldn't find a local ownership group interested in buying the team, while there were bids from ownership that wanted to keep the team in Sacramento. The mayor wanted to work on building a new stadium for the team, whereas Seattle refused to contribute to a new arena.

I'm not trying to say Bennett didn't do some shady things or that the relocation of the Thunder wasn't a mess, but I don't think the Kings move is any better, and I honestly feel some Seattle fans, especially the Save Our Sonics team, are being a bit hypocritical in all of this.

 

Its definately a bummer and more them a little shady. Sacramento bent over backwards for the owners to make a new arena happen for them and previously had other buyers for the team only to have these guys bail at the last minute every time. If it was a case of the city being unwilling to help or the fans simply not caring that would be one thing, but that isn't the case here. My brother in law and his family are all Sacramento natives and have had season tickets for MANY years, as have pretty much every one of his friends I've met, to say that Downtown Sacramento and historic "Old Sac" bleed Kings is a major understatement and I've heard plenty of not just F the Maloofs or even F Seattle (there has most definately been a lot of gloating and 'we're taking your team' trash) but I know a few of them are saying they are done with basketball and the NBA ENTIRELY. It's a shame to see so many diehard fans feel so utterly betrayed when they tried to do so much for their team.

As for the "well, California has 4 teams" argument...have you looked at the SIZE of California? How many NBA teams are between New York and Atlanta?

I get that Seatle was totally screwed over, but screwing over another city just creates another set of victims.

 

Nets, Knicks, Wizards, 76ers, Bobcats, Hawks?

 

But don't you think that Kevin Johnson and fans in Sacramento are doing so much because they saw what happened to the Sonics?

"If we get a team, it's going to be somebody else's team... To get a team, I'm going to have to break the hearts of people just like me." Sherman Alexie said this in the Sonicsgate documentary. Are there hypocritical fans out there? Always. But I think a greater number of just understand that that is the situation that had to be.

 

That's true. Still, if you look at the location of the investors who were in the running with Bennett, they represented cities like Vegas, Kansas City and other locations that were also in the running. Due to a variety of factors, if it hadn't been Bennett, odds are good they would have been bought by someone else who tried to move them to their city.

Truth be told, relocation ends up pretty bitter no matter what. I can remember being in Orange County when the Rams won their Super Bowl in St. Louis. The team's games were blacked out every week they were in Anaheim, there was no support in the area... there was a famous story that Todd Lyght tried to find Rams hats for his family and was told by several sporting goods stores near the stadium they didn't bother carrying Rams merch because no one bought it. When the Super Bowl win happened? Not just L.A., but Anaheim said it should have been their trophy.

All that said, watching Thunder-Sonics games is going to be a fascinating experience. I do enjoy talking basketball with Seattle fans and I think they deserve a team, I just feel for Sacramento Kings fans in all of this as well.

 

Yeah, I'd have a lot less sympathy if they were taking a team that wasn't willing to build a new stadium and couldn't find local buyers to save their own team...oh wait...wasn't that SEATTLE....but that isn't the case at all in Sacramento.

 

I have to wonder what the alignment will look like. OKC is in the Northwest division (w/Portland, Denver, Utah, and Minnesota). It makes sense for the Thunder to move to the Southwest division since they're geographically closer to the Texas Triangle. But what do you do with New Orleans and Memphis?

An aside:

New Orleans Hornets to announce change to Pelicans at Thursday news conference - Yahoo! Sports

 

No..just..no.

 

It's the State bird, apparently. Which helps it none from still being awful.

 

The one thing I'll say positive for the Pelicans nickname: It's still better than the Polka High School team, the Dots. To be fair, too, there are a fair number of names in the NBA that are less than threatening already.

So I wonder if this means the Bobcats will try to broker a deal to get the Hornets name back? I sort of doubt it, since they just revised their uniforms this year, but you never know.

 

Meh, to be honest Sac BB fans only need to wait a few years for another team to get relocated there. As long they have a new arena ready to be built at a moment's notice and all the fundings taken care of, eventually a team from another city that wants a new arena but city won't give it to them can simply move. It's happened to Seattle and eventually it'll happen to Sac too.