I’m sure the same thought is running through the head of every Sonic fan these days:
The only thing separating us from losing the Sonics forever is $75 million.
Don’t get me wrong, $75 million is a vast sum of money, especially to regular people working 50 or 60 hours a week struggling to make a mortgage payment. $75 million could feed tens of thousands of people in Africa, build homes for hundreds of people in America, or fund the Iraq War for about ten seconds.
But in the NBA, $75 million is chicken feed, bubkus. Heck, David Stern probably spends that much in a month on smugness lessons alone.
Let me illustrate further just how insignificant is $75 million in NBA-land. I’ll give you five words:
Calvin Booth and Jim McIlvaine.
The Sonics spent $67.6 million in salaries on those two bums, and when you figure in inflation, travel costs, health insurance, athletic tape, and the rest, they easily spent $100 million in 2008 dollars on BooMac.
To think that the Sonics would spend the next 40 years in Seattle, if only the city could come up with the amount of money the team spent on two players who contributed absolutely nothing to the team’s fortunes.
Of course, the team could just not spend money foolishly on ridiculous contracts and then plow that savings back into a stadium, but that’s just a silly notion, right?
I don't think coming up the $75M would make any difference. It would just the NBA an "official" offer to ignore rather than an "almost" offer.
ReplyDeleteEven better: If the team was/is willing to throw away over $75 Million on BooMac, how can they not throw down another $75 Million to save the franchise's future in Seattle. I understand they're different ownership groups, but it doesn't change the fact that they can easily afford $75 Million.
ReplyDeleteOh, and BooMac? Best name EVER.
If Ballmer's group is going to commit $75 million they'd almost be better off getting more investors and building their own arena. That would get the BOG's attention really quick.
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