Good-Bye Seattle Super Sonics Hello Oklahoma City Thunder

The Really: Did Howard Schultz and the City of Seattle really think we weren't going to notice how absurd their fruitless attempts were to win back the Sonics?

This story doesn't come from the fact that Oklahoma City has a professional basketball team. The "really" comes in the form of how ignorant the City of Seattle was. Quick and dirty time line. Starbucks owner Howard Schultz sells the Sonics to OKLAHOMA native Clay Bennett and his friendly group of investors. (Side Note: Bennett had been looking to acquire an NBA team for O.K.C. since the Hornets played there for a year after they were displaced from their New Orleans home by one Miss. Hurricane Katrina.) Bennett asks the city to build a new arena for the Sonics because Key Area is a god awful mess along with the fact that the Sonics had the worst lease in the NBA. The city offers Bennett a smack in the face of a deal. In a surprise move, NOT, Bennett threatens to move the Sonics to O.K.C.. They City calls Bennett bluff. The City proves itself to be the biggest loser when David Stern and the NBA grant Clay Bennett the rights to an NBA franchise in Oklahoma City. Mr. Bennett petitions the court to get out of his lease in Seattle early so he can move his team to Oklahoma before the start of the new NBA season. The City of Seattle fights for the right to keep the Sonics in Key area siting a breach of contract by Clay. The day the judge is supposed to hand down her ruling the City makes a side deal with Bennett to get some cash in their pockets and not take a total loss. Clay moves his team to Oklahoma City and just this week names it the Thunder. Come on Seattle. Get your stuff together, build a better arena for an NBA team and give your fans the respect they deserve for buying tickets all these years.

Another side note, Howard Schultz filed a law suit against Clay Bennett in which he said that Bennett lied and promised he would not move the team. Howy said that was the only way he would have sold the team. My guess is that Schultz though his Starbucks stock was gonna go down so he figured he would pull a little PR move and seem to care about the city again. Yeah right.