Full disclosure here: I used to be a Seattle SuperSonics season ticket holder.
That being said, I no longer live in the Pacific Northwest, have lived in Northern California for more than a decade, found the Chris Webber-era Kings teams to be a joy to watch and wish well for, thought they got royally jobbed by the officials in the playoffs vs. the Lakers, and felt as if the Kings missed a golden opportunity to dominate the psyche of Northern California basketball fans, given how pathetic the Golden St. Warriors have been.
So my position on the Seattle v. Sacramento tug-of-war over the Kings is nuanced and we'll get to that in another post.
In the meantime, the following video is required viewing for all loyal followers of IN PLAY LOSE. This is an award-winning documentary about the clusterfuck that led to the Sonics being relocated to Oklahoma City, and all of the clusterfuckers who participated in it. Not only does it prevent me from having to go through the whole sordid history myself (because I'm inherently lazy), but it's best of familiarize oneself with the how-to's of franchise relocation – a primarily North American phenomenon which is madder than hatters. So pay attention folks. Class is in session:
thanks for sharing - I was not aware of the details of all that had transpired. It's quite saddening and frustrating.
ReplyDeletethere is one thing that I found interesting, in a competitive sense, about what happened in the court room. The illusion of Seattle being "clobbered" in the court is ultimately what swayed the outcome in the wrong direction. Good lawyering and overload of information and charts and graphs and whatnot somehow threw LOTS of people off the trail of the dishonesty that was going on, and made it very unclear who was "in the right" in the court case.
I have found that in every competitive venue I participate in, morale is HUGE. having the feeling that you are in control, likely to win, etc, blatantly improves performance. Having the feeling that you are losing despite your best efforts, on the other hand, can DESTROY the quality of a player or team's performance. If you look at the court as a competition with two sides, and the first place prize being the Sonics, it would appear that some of that was going on.
The great mystery will always be what the judge would've ultimately decided. I never did understand why it was that the mayor was so quick to settle, since letting the Sonics leave was certain to contribute heavily to his political demise. The same thing may have happened if they'd lost in court, but at least then you have a process behind it all rather than a knee-jerk settlement.
DeleteThe current situation is constantly in flux. I see how the Seattle group just threw in another $25 million as the Sac group neared matching their bid. It wouldn't surprise me if this happens again. My thought all along has been that the Kings will ultimately wind up in Seattle, but the whole situation has gone past the point where any logic can be applied.
xp