According to the Sonics Blog from The Seattle Times (link stolen from CSTB), a fan names Sam had the nerve to disturb His Lord Highness while sitting in his box seat watching the Sonics play Sacramento.

Sam: Clay, what’s up? You’re a thief Clay!
Clay: shrugs, smirks and blows me a kiss (I swear to God this is no lie)
Sam: I’ve been a season ticket holder since age 10. Don’t steal my team!!!
Clay: makes a face of mock pity
Sam: Sell the Sonics!!!
Clay: walks to the back of the suite, never to reappear

How rude to hurl insults at someone above your station. The Duke of Sonicsville rightly had ruffian put out on his ear.

Not wanting to carry and dead weight in the U-Hauls to Oklahoma City, that evil bastard no good Clay Bennett agreed today to sell the Storm to a group of well-heeled local gals led by former Deputy Mayor Anne Levinson that includes two Microsoft executives. Women owning a professional women’s sports team? The next thing you know, they’ll be getting the vote.

Money quote from Bennett in the official press release: “We believe the Storm can continue to be successful in KeyArena.” This, I’m sure, he said with the biggest ever shit-eating grin on his face.

Stern went on to say (and I’m paraphrasing here), “Seattle can go screw itself. They’re all on my shit list, so no more roundball for them. They don’t deserve it. See my big white ass? Seattle can just kiss it, because my boy Clay Bennett is taking his team out of there and that’s that, end of story. Those fuckers up in Seattle can bitch and moan all they want but it’s their own damn fault.

“Suck it up and deal.”

You can probably imagine yesterday was pretty hard, but I finally did it. I finally told Seattle what I think about out relationship and my true feelings for Oklahoma City and I broke it off. It’s done. What a weight off my shoulders.

You can’t imagine what it’s been like all these months living a lie and carrying on like everything is going to work out in the end when I knew it wasn’t true. There were a bunch of times I almost came out and said it but I knew I had to keep my true feelings to myself for a while longer because I did give Seattle an ultimatum and I meant it. But now it’s official, me and Seattle are through.

Of course right away Seattle started calling all our friends and telling them this was all my fault, that I didn’t try hard enough to make it work and suggesting that I was never interested in a longterm relationship in the first place. What a fat bunch of lies!

I suggested we move out to the suburbs but Seattle said, “No.” I suggested we renegotiate our lease, but Seattle said, “No.” Every idea I had Seattle just said, “No” and then when I asked Seattle for suggestions all I got was silence. Typical passive aggressive behavior. Typical Seattle.

Unfortunately I’m stuck here in this lease for a while so we have to make it work somehow. It’s kinda like that movie with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. I don’t know though how long I can keep avoiding Seattle in the hallway or on the way to the bathroom. I wish I could just move to Oklahoma right now. I can’t wait to start my new life there with someone who really understands me and cares about me.

Well, that’s all for now diary. I think I might do a little shopping today and maybe get a new haircut — I think I deserve it.

Clay Bear out!

Add this to the mounting evidence that Bennett and his Sooner cohorts basically bamboozled the league and everyone else and never had any intention of negotiating in good faith with the city and state over a new arena proposal. So what are we to do with the flim-flam artists?

I would suggest again to the NBA that they take seriously a proposal I saw printed in the News Tribune (the link is dead now) this past Spring. Basically, David Stern should just let Bennett and his country bumpkin friends take the team wherever they want, but give all the rights to the Sonics name, history and colors to the city of Seattle, al la the Cleveland Browns. That way Bennett gets what he wants, a team in OKC (he’ll change the name anyway) and Seattle would be rid of hostile owner that has basically been a cancerous growth on the city’s sports scene. Then maybe in 2009 or 2010 a new group of local owners could resurrect the franchise.

Just tossing that out there.

Aubrey McClendon, a billionaire oilman from Oklahoma and part of the group that purchased the Seattle SuperSonics last year, told The Journal Record today that Clay Bennett and Co. had no intention of keeping the team in Washington state. “We didn’t buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here,” he was quoted as saying, adding some compliments to Bennett for negotiating the deal: “To the great amazement and surprise to everyone in Seattle, some rednecks from Oklahoma, which we’ve been called, made off with the team.”

So you feel pretty good about yourself, huh? I guess you’ve earned the right. But I’m not sure how much business sense it makes to broadcast to the world that you basically misrepresented yourself to everyone in a major American city, the commissioner of the NBA, and all the other owners when Bennett told the world, “It’s not our intention to move or relocate the teams as long, of course, as we are able to negotiate a successor venue to the current basketball arena.”

You do realize that the other owners have to approve any relocation, right? How many friends do you think you just made? And what kind of reception do you think your team is going to get from the fans in Seattle now? It would serve you right if the NBA denied your petition to move.

Anyone seriously taken aback by the news that Clay Bennett is going to move the Sonics out of Seattle please raise your hand. Now please take a magic marker, write “rube” on a piece of paper and pin it to your shirt so everyone knows.

Yes, less than a year after buying the Sonics and saying he wouldn’t move the team, it seems that Mr. Bennett and the state have come to loggerheads over building a new arena. Are you ready for some basketball, Oklahoma?

Of course, the new Sonics owner was slow to even come up with a proposal for the city and the state to consider, and then gave the idea little time to gain any acceptance in the legislature before calling it a dead deal. He’s been vague all along on what kind of financing he and his partners would provide, and generally been a dickweed. How about you build you’re damn arena? Oh, that’s right, the good folks in Oklahoma City already built one for you.

In an interesting column appearing in the News Tribune, John McGrath proposes that since Bennett is so set to move the team anyway that he be allowed to move the team to OK City or wherever he wants, but that the name and the history remain with Seattle, a la the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns. That’s not likely to happen since David Stern is as gutless and soul-less as they come, but it’s a good idea.

I have been looking at places around town to build a new arena, though. Like right over here might be nice. Sure, there’s a church in the way, but you can knock that down, right? No? Well how about over here? You can bulldoze that nursery school and that retirement home, right? No? Okay, okay, I’m willing to work with you here. Now, here’s a piece of real estate that looks good. Except for that really tall Space Needle thing, but you don’t need that old tourist trap, do you? You do? Well, I’ve tried working this out and compromised and everything, but if you people in Seattle are unwilling to work with me, well, maybe I have no choice but to move the team somewhere where they appreciate basketball. Now, let’s see, where might that be?