Nope:
From the Seattle P.I. :If this were true, would you be interested in a second-hand team? Would your desperation to land a basketball team outweigh the guilt of stealing another team? After the way Stern treated this city, could you stifle your pride and play NBA musical chairs?
George Maloof, the owner of the Sacramento Kings, denied last week that the team is considering a move to Seattle. Sports Illustrated reported on its website that Maloof met with former Sonics minority owner Wally Walker and others recently.
Maloof told SI.com that the meeting in Seattle was to discuss the hurdles Sonics ownership faced in securing a new arena. Owner Clay Bennett moved the Sonics to Oklahoma City in 2008 after he was unable to secure an arena deal to his liking in Seattle.
"It had nothing to do with us moving the team," Maloof told SI.com. "It was more of a meeting to understand what their experience was as it relates to what we could do in Sacramento because it's very difficult to build arenas anywhere. That was basically the meeting."
As much as I miss the Sonics, I'd sooner eat Jack Sikma's socks than screw over a community like Sacramento, that was once one of the best basketball towns in the country. As much as I enjoyed watching the Sonics kick their asses in the playoffs a few years back, no city deserves to go through what we did.
7 comments:
Amen brother.
I am a lifelong Sonics fan. My wife is a lifelong Kings fan. We currently reside outside of Sacramento. The pain that we would feel if the Kings left after the horrors of watching the Sonics leave would be unbearable. I can't even begin to think about whether we would cheer for the Seattle Kings/Sonics.
Do I want the Kings? In the words of the great Drew Magary - F$CK and NO.
After the uproar we voiced (and justifiably so), we CANNOT POSSIBLY take a team from another city (unless it's OKC of course). Right now we're still seen as victims around the NBA community. That reputation turns into one of hypocricy if we accept anything short of an expansion team.
There are three teams that I would feel ok with relocating to Seattle. They are the Hornets, the Grizzlies, and the Clippers. I think it would be ok only because of their respective lack of history in their current locations and/or their less than stellar history of fan support. However, I agree that it would be best if we could just get an expansion team.
Only 2 ways I can see being able to root for a new NBA team in Seattle:
1. Expansion
2. Apathy
If a team is drawing <10,000 a night for multiple seasons, I think it's safe to say that city has given up their right to whine about them leaving. LA and NO aren't there yet, but Memphis is close. And while I'm guessing the people of LA wouldn't cry too much if the Clips left, you know Sterling would never move them to Seattle, and only an imbecile would pay $500 million for the Clippers and move them to Seattle.
I would be ok with getting a existing team. This is a business and if the city and or the fans are not willing to support the team, well...then another fan base will have the team. The situation here in Seattle was different because the onwer from Seattle was a liar and the owners from Okie had no ties here. We the fans fought hard to keep the team. My other point to this would be if the team owner that brought then here would give a local ownership the opprotunity to buy them if they wanted to sell before just taking the first nancy that came around.
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