Originally appeared at Ball Don't Lie.
OKC fans: welcome to Garbage Time All-Stars. Seriously! I know, this week's strip is a sore subject but please understand that we aren't hating on you or begrudging you the right to enjoy your team or anything like that. You had no team and now you do. You're happy and you should be.
What bugs us is not the fact that you have a team but rather that Seattle does not. It's Bennett's premeditated hijacking that leaves a bad taste. It's David Stern and the NBA and 27 team ownership groups who allowed it to happen (votes against: Portland's Paul Allen and Dallas's Mark Cuban).
So please cut the crap about the people in Seattle not loving their team enough, that they don't deserve a team, that they should have voted for a new arena, etc. There are a lot of great Sonics fans feeling this loss. This was politics and capitalism and powerful interests. Their team is gone. And you know what, a few years down the road it could happen to you too, whether or not you love your team.
When the season starts we will watch the OKC Thunder. We will be amazed by Kevin Durant and the promising bunch of youngsters Sam Presti has gathered. We will absolutely understand that you are happy to have a team. But when we think back on this business of how it came to pass we might also feel a twinge and have to use the can.
And I'm even a little sorry to contribute to the negativity at this point, but it is THE story of the off-season and we didn't want to let it go by without comment. Plus, the logo is hideous.
---Josh
1 comment:
You know, up until now I didn't know that Paul Allen was one of only two dissenting votes regarding the Seattle to OKC hijacking. Allen only stood to gain the loss of the Sonics, as the Blazers have picked up a new listening audience all the way up the top of Washington state, including radio stations and television coverage. And yet....anyway, hopefully Seattle will get an expansion soon (they've retained the name, so at least they have that. And an expansion team would probably be better than the current "thunder" roster. Plus they wouldn't have a WNBA name.)
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