Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
Just this morning, Jared Dudley echoed a sentiment that most of us have felt for the past 18 months:
Sitting on the bus with my teammates heading to shoot around.. I dunno why okc wanted to leave Seattle..
Why, indeed. The official answer from Oklahoma City’s ownership and the NBA is that Seattle wouldn’t pay for a new arena, and that the existing one wasn’t up to NBA standards. But here’s what David Stern had to say about that stadium when it was renovated in 1995:
“It’s very special to me. And I know what a struggle it was … to the Sonics, who very much wanted this team to be playing in a beautiful building. And they got a beautiful building. It’s intimate, the sightlines are great, the decorations are terrific. I think Seattle should be very proud of what’s going on here tonight.”
My, how quickly minds can change… Taking a closer look at the blatant hypocrisy and greed that underpinned the SonIcs’ move from Seattle is a brand new documentary called Sonicsgate, and it’s streaming online at Sonicsgate.org. It’s required reading for Sonics fans, basketball fans, or anyone interested in charting the demise of integrity in professional sports management. A sad, infuriating reminder of what the league left behind when Stern and Clay Bennett turned their backs on the city of Seattle. An ugly moment in NBA history.
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