Sonics leave Seattle drenched, but in better shape
Give Seattle credit. The Emerald City stepped up and saved the Sonics. All six letters. For at least $45 million of Clay Bennett's money, Seattle gets to keep "Sonics," a box of uniforms and 41 years of basketball history. The rest of the franchise figures to be crated up and shipped to Oklahoma City in the coming weeks and months. Somewhere under all the duct tape and bubble wrap there just might be an actual basketball team.
For the better part of a year we've read about carpet-bagging owners, ambivalent politicians, arena proposals, lawsuits, slippery businessmen, incriminating emails and one dictatorial commissioner. It's made for great theater, but little else. No one is rolling out of this mud pit looking pretty.
Bennett emerged as the Oklahoma rube who struck it rich, bought himself a new toy and ran off before letting anyone play with it. Art Modell can relax; America now has a new face for the disingenuous sports owner. Bennett and his fellow owners created one public-relations blunder after another, concluding with a series of embarrassing emails that revealed not only that they never had any intention of keeping the Sonics in Seattle, but also that Bennett had developed a bizarre infatuation with the NBA's Great, Glorious Commissioner. If Bennett learned anything from this, it's how to use the delete button on his keyboard.
David Stern's Napolean act is also getting old. For years we've watched the commissioner threaten cities with relocation if they don't build his owners new arenas. That's part of the game. Always has been and always will. But in a season in which he had the Tim Donaghy scandal to clean up, would it have hurt Stern to show some compassion toward one of the league's great towns? It's not like the NBA's relocation and expansion business is booming these days. The Memphis Grizzlies and Charlotte Bobcats continue to play in half-empty buildings.
As for Stern's maybe-we'll-come-back-if-you-act-nice promise? The NBA needs Seattle more than Seattle needs it.
Seattle's gutless government leaders also should be embarrassed. They staged an elaborate public lawsuit, but rather than wait out the court's ruling a few more hours – a ruling more than a few legal experts thought Seattle would win – they took the money and ran. At least they kept Squatch to work the office Christmas party.
Sonics fans, meanwhile, shouldn't cling to hope of ex-owner Howard Schultz steering the team back to Seattle with his lawsuit. He's the guy who created the mess by failing to invest enough in the franchise before selling it to Bennett. Lately, he's struggled to run his own coffee shop. Does anyone truly think he'll do any better in a courtroom?
Eventually, though, the news conferences will end, the ink will dry and the focus will return to the basketball court, and maybe that's where Wednesday's real winner can be found. Oklahoma City's new NBA team likely won't be much better in its rookie season than Seattle's was in its last, but at least now there's some clarity to its future.
Only the displaced New Orleans Hornets weathered more bizarre working conditions than the Sonics' front-office and coaching staff did this season. At a time when most NBA teams are reassembling their rosters with free agents, Sonics officials spent Wednesday refreshing their web browsers to see if a U.S. district judge had determined where they would spent next season.
A little more than a year ago, Bennett plucked Sam Presti out of the San Antonio Spurs' front office and charged him with creating a new culture for the Sonics. Defining the franchise's culture, as Presti soon discovered, is easier when you have a permanent address.
Presti set about rebuilding the team around Kevin Durant and his first act was to trade Ray Allen. Sonics fans questioned whether that move – and nearly every other personnel decision the team has made since – were part of a grand conspiracy. If the Sonics' owners really wanted to prove they couldn't survive in Seattle, wouldn't it help to strip the roster of its talent to dissuade interest? When Allen helped the Boston Celtics to the championship, Sonics supporters again had reason to wonder.
Though understandable, the skepticism was also misplaced. Allen is what he showed to be with the Celtics: an excellent complementary player. He is not a team leader, and his presence could have stunted Durant's development as much as aided it. Instead, the Sonics have stuck to their plan, stockpiling draft picks and building for the future. Last week, they used the No. 4 pick on UCLA's Russell Westbrook, a possible reach that high, but he also fits the profile the Sonics are creating: Hard worker and willing defender.
The decision to go young helps the franchise now. Veterans have more reason to question a relocation; they have families to move. With young players, you can roll out the ball in an empty gym and they'll play.
The atmosphere around the Sonics had grown toxic, and it only would have become worse had the team been forced to stay in Seattle for another season or two. Undercover security officers were stationed around the team’s offices. Some employees didn’t like speaking on office phones for fear they might be tapped. This was an environment that bred paranoia, not champions.
Durant and his teammates now have a new fan base to cultivate. Never mind they shouldn’t be going to Oklahoma City. What matters is what they do when they get there.
The Sonics will have their honeymoon period. New teams always do. Still, there will be challenges. Recruiting free agents is typically easier when you can say you’ve lived in the city you’re recruiting them to. Presti and P.J. Carlesimo don’t have that luxury. And if Durant improves as much as the Sonics think he can, at some point he’ll likely hear the siren song of a bigger market. Oklahoma City can only hope he doesn’t listen.
In the end, it will likely come down to sport’s greatest determining factor: winning. Had the Sonics more consistently challenged for a championship this past decade, they’d probably still be playing in Seattle. Likewise, all of Oklahoma’s excitement over the NBA will eventually fade if Bennett can’t put a winning product on the floor. Nor will Durant have incentive to stay.
For now, Durant and his teammates will pack their boxes and prepare to move. Finally, they have a direction to point.
Seattle? It clings to only a name.
