Sonic Summer League assistant coach Mike Brown gets a profile in the Deseret News. In addition to his coaching life, Brown is interested in helping African child soldiers get out from their war-torn lives. Turns out he's hoping to head to Senegal with some American kids next year. Wonder if he'll be asking Mo Sene for any tips ...
Turns out some guy was so amped to see Kevin Durant in SLC that he punched a security guard and was hauled away in handcuffs. As I always say, you got to watch your back around those Mormon gangsters ...
Taking a cue from the Artest family, Paul Millsap's brother, John, is joining him in the summer league. And, if that wasn't enough, the two older brothers have two younger brothers; one was Freshman of the Year at college, and the other stars for a Utah high school ...
Kevin Pelton has a nice summary of each of the newcomers to the Sonics' roster at supersonics.com. ...
Also at supersonics.com, Clay Bennett issues a "call to action" to get the arena deal moving again. Plenty will/have mocked Bennett (yours truly included) on this issue, and the cynical way to look at his latest statement is to see it as pure CYA in case the team leaves next year. Or, you could be glass half-full and say that he could have just done nothing until October and said, "Hey, I tried, but see y'all later."
And, finally, also on the arena front, it turns out that Nets fans in Brooklyn (or whatever they would be called if they moves), would be looking at some pretty hefty ticket price increases with a new stadium, as reported in Atlantic Yards Report. If you read the entire article, you'll see that while there will be plenty of $15ish tickets for the regular folk, personal seat licenses and other faves of ownership will be implemented. Ironically, it will be the season ticket holders and mini-season ticket holders who will bear the brunt of the price increases, not the bleacher crowd.
Why is that ironic? Because it's the bandwagon fans who are against the stadium that would benefit the most. Meanwhile, the season ticket-holders, who take the unpopular view politically in support of the arena, that will pay the most for it. Somewhere in there is a karmaic message, I suppose.
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"Basically, I'm pounding the table, reiterating everything we've said to date," Bennett said.
Then you get nothing here with that approach.
To update the story, the Seattle Times' Jim Brunner reports that Bennett spoke with Mayor Nickels today (Thursday) about keeping the team in Key Arena. However, in the same article Bennett said that even the previously proposed $200 mil. renovation of the Key would not be sufficient to keep the Sonics profitable.
He is "pounding the table, reiterating everything" to Oklahoma paper and yet in Seattle he says:
"Anything and everything is on the table," he said.
You can't truly mean both and the rest of the Seattle story essentially shows he is still (mainly) refusing anything but a new arena.
Hard to deal with that.
Definitely not the way to get action here.
"We would love to have a conversation about KeyArena being home to the NBA for 40 years," Nickels said.
That is the response that Bennett got. Predictably, given the wording of Bennett's statements.But what happens next matters and what they will say & do in private might vary from the surface impression. But probably not.
Also of note, via the PI I learned that the Daily Oklahoman ran a story today (and remember, Bennett's wife's family runs that paper, so we can assume he was okay with it) that Bennett plans to file for relocation to OKC come the end of October, unless the status quo changes in Seattle.
It's noteworthy on two fronts:
1. That he still plans on moving, or is at least positioning himself to re-charge the arena negotiations
2. That he is not moving to KC or Vegas
Durant plays his first game on or about the same time Bennett plans to announce desire to move, taking focus away from the court and the game he loves. Way to blur the joy of his start.
Move might happen eventually but move, keep Durant/Green etc., get other pieces and win championship is a much bigger challenge. Durant just demonstrated willingness to not let highest amount of one stream of money dictate his answer. He will probably make several hundreds of millions in careeer so this is not really daring. Money alone won't keep Durant. Presti's plan better work and Durant better end up feeling happy and loyal in whatever the situation is by 2010 or 2011. For their sake. Not that their sake is a concern but a challenge in their plan may be another reason to try harder to make Seattle market work on terms that would be mutually acceptable. If winning a championship is the first priority over Bennett & Co. being a hometown hero. Which is the true first priority? They probably dismiss this concern. If so, we may find out if they are right or wrong about it not having an effect on future success on the court.
Presti's first decision was hitching his future to Bennett. Seems high risk to me from afar.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=A0WTWaqsy59GSHkAZwC8vLYF?slug=ap-supersonics-arena&prov=ap&type=lgns
A little more postive tone here.
"Bennett spoke with Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels on Thursday morning to arrange an in-person meeting. In a statement released earlier in the day, Bennett said Nickels is "the appropriate person to provide leadership and guidance on this issue."
Bennett hopes Nickels may be able to bring other civic and private leaders together to work on a new arena deal.
"(He) was extremely receptive and considerate in phone conversation," Bennett said. "It's not so much to provide public money, but he is someone who can provide leadership and bring people to the table in his capacity as mayor ... and help address the issue."
The city wants to hear what Bennett has to say in person.
"We'll take the discussion from that point and see where the initial meeting goes," Nickels spokesman Marty McOmber said.
New arena in Seattle might have potential to work with rehab of Seattle Center, using Memorial Stadium for new arena and splitting Key into two smaller revenues.
Bennett seemed oddly loose about finances. Maybe it is flexibility or maybe he just is looking to check off the final I tried step. I guess we will here some more soon.
Bennett seems to be using strategy of mixed messages. Which is the real one? Reminds me a bit of the mixed messages with Yi. He and they have preferences but are leaving wiggleroom.
Wiggle room. That's the key two words in this whole enchilada. I'm not of the opinion Bennett has made up his mind and plans to leave town. I believe he wants to stay here and thinks the best way to get what he wants (i.e., a new stadium) is to play hardball. In the end, he'll probably be proven right.
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