Future Cards: Kevin Durant

Aubrey's Wine Sale Nets $2.2 Mil

Well, at least one thing has gone well for Aubrey McClendon in the past eight months - he was able to unload part of his wine collection in New York this past weekend, and the WSJ reports it earned him (or, rather, Sotheby's) $2.2 million.

Just think, if the next auction (slated for Hong Kong for the other half of the wine collection) is as successful, maybe the Sonix could afford Tyson Chandler after all.

The Dulcet Tones of KC Jones

In this video, KC Jones is either:



1. Announcing that Portland, Maine's new D-League team is going to be nicknamed the Blackbirds
2. Infreakingsane
3. All of the above

Bonus points for noticing the semi-panicked look on the gentleman behind KC's right shoulder. I'm guessing "this wasn't on the script" and "my God, how much longer is he going to keep this up" floated through his thought processes at some point.

Drew Carey's Got Your Back

"Here comes this evil NBA owner who takes the SuperSonics, screws the city with this duplicitous deal he put together and takes them to Oklahoma. The whole city hates this guy. One of their major sports is gone now. And we come in like, 'Hey, is yo man not treatin' you right? Come and see us.'"

—Drew Carey, part-owner of Seattle Sounders

(Via AP)

Attendance Report

I've tried all sorts of ways to show how massive an impact the Sonics' move has had on NBA attendance, and how by removing that particular aspect from the equation totally alters the picture of the league's health.

Unfortunately, the graphs I've thrown up there haven't adequately captured just how much of an outlier the Sonix are this season. The graph below, though, goes a long way to showing that uniqueness. Listed below are all the teams, with their corresponding attendance from last year to this year.

Coach Lister

Word out of Manila is that former Sonic center Alton Lister is a "skills coach" for San Miguel Beer.

There are so many jokes to make with that sentence that it's almost not even fair to try.

It's a positive article, though, and Lister comes off as a modest man who appreciated his career in the league, without the standard ego-jock stuff you normally read.

Of course, the comments are filled with "remember when Kemp dunked on Lister in the playoffs"-type stuff. At what point does Alton Lister just come out and say, "Yes, I remember that. Yes, it sucks. But let me ask you - how many points did you score in the NBA?"

Payton, A Near-Fight, and Toothpaste

Humorous story from the Seattle PI's Jim Moore about his near-fistfight with Gary Payton prior to a Seattle-Sacramento playoff game in the mid-1990s.

Just One Question

If, for some reason, the NBA allowed blog authors to ask questions at David Stern's occasional press conferences, there would be a million questions I'd love to ask him. Naturally, it's never going to happen, and probably for good reason.

But there is one question I just wish someone would ask him:

Mr. Stern, you claim that during your tenure the NBA has gone from being on the verge of extinction, to being one of the strongest leagues in the world and your comments about the recent $200 million bailout given to your league just serve to further underscore that point. My question is this: If that is indeed true, how can you explain the Pacers posting a loss in 26 of the last 28 years? If the NBA is on solid footing, how can the Pacers lose money 9 out of 10 seasons in their brand-new arena?

You say that the league is healthy. Herb Simon says he loses money every year.

Who's telling the truth?

Face Time

If you're interested in seeing the KeyArena deal move forward in the legislature this session, the best way to make it happen is to reach out to your representative in the House of Representatives.

Normally, that would entail composing an email, removing the swears, hitting 'send,' receiving an automated reply, and then some incoherent grunting. In the end, the result would be little if anything in the way of progress.

This weekend, however, offers a more effective means of communication - face to face.

The Seattle Times' Politics Northwest blog lists the representatives who will be appearing at town meetings this weekend to grovel for votes find out how their constituents feel they should best spend tax money this session.

Might be worth a visit. Although I might warn you, watch out for the weird guy in the corner who smells like old flannel - once he gets to talkin' about his idea to replace the freeway system with a ferry-only plan, well, it's hard to get him to stop.

House Passes Stadium Tax Bill

On first blush, the report from the AP sounds great:

Wash. House approves stadium taxes bill
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The state House wants to extend some taxes that paid for professional sports stadiums in Seattle.

But if you read the rest of the article ... well, not so much.

The account is not supposed to be source for a new NBA arena or Husky Stadium.

Essentially, the House has passed a bill that would extend the Safeco and Qwest Field taxes that are supposed to expire when the stadium debts are retired. However, the money would be used for arts programs, housing, and so forth, but NOT, again, NOT, for a revamped KeyArena or Husky Stadium.

It's still possible that the Senate could amend the bill to include the wording they showed us a week or so ago which enables counties to use funds for new arenas, but whether the political climate affords that is anyone's guess.

In other words, this bill hasn't really changed anything, other than to underline that the House members are not willing to put their necks out when it comes to using taxpayer money for new stadiums and arenas.

RIP, Kenny McIntosh

Former Sonic Kenny McIntosh, who played two seasons and change in Seattle in the early 1970s, passed away Friday of a stroke in Los Angeles.

McIntosh was a first-round pick of the Bulls in 1971 (the same year the Sonics found one Fred Brown from Iowa) and spent a little more than a season in Chicago before coming to Seattle in an October 20, 1972 trade for Gar Heard and a third round pick in the 1973 draft, which turned out to be Martin Terry.

McIntosh, a 6'7" forward who attended Eastern Michigan University before entering the NBA, never clicked in Coach Bill Russell's system, which, combined with injuries, led to his being waived by the team on November 12, 1974, ending his NBA career.

McIntosh's No. 54 jersey was retired by Eastern Michigan in 2006. During his time at EMU, McIntosh was named to the Division II All-American First Team. He turned 60 years old in January.

Pacer Situation Looking Awfully Familiar to Sonic Fans

History, consider yourself repeated.

An NBA team playing in a publicly funded arena about one decade old and with a 40-year history, is threatening that the lease under which they are playing is just not cutting it anymore, and while they don’t want to leave …

Stop me if you’ve heard this all before.

Except this time, the words are uttered not from Seattle, but from the heartland of basketball, Indiana. As in the home of Hoosiers, Larry Bird, and Bob Knight.

It’s the standard woe-is-me routine deftly practiced by all professional sports owners, but some of the declarations from the Pacers would stagger even the staunchest NBA supporters. Among them:

- The team has lost money in 26 of the 28 seasons Herb Simon has owned them
- Included in those 26 money-losing seasons is the year Indiana advanced to the NBA Finals before losing to the Lakers
- The team has lost money in nine of the ten seasons it has spent in Conseco Fieldhouse
- The current tab is $200 million in losses since Simons bought the club in 1983

Why is this coming out now? Well, as part of their lease with the city for the Fieldhouse, the Pacers are able to renegotiate the contract during a small window which, naturally, is right now. In other words, there’s no time to waste, and Mr. Simon really hates to bring this up, and he’s a good corporate citizen, and he loves Indianapolis, but that $15 million the Pacers are obligated to spend every year to operate Conseco? Yeah, that’s too much to handle.

Of course, it should also be pointed out that the Pacers are estimated to be worth $300 million, or $289 million more than when Mr. Simon bought them more than two decades ago, but who’s counting? (Actually, the Pacers are, and they dispute that number. They claim the team’s losses exceed whatever “golden egg” of a sale would net them. They wouldn’t say what they’re worth, or provide evidence as to why Forbes magazine’s estimate is faulty, but they did cross their hearts and hoped to die.)

Not everyone is buying what Mr. Simon is selling, though. Acccording to information from Forbes Magazine, the team actually made money for six consecutive seasons, ending in 2006 when the Pacers were a disaster both on and off the court. (And by the way, what the heck happened in 1999? Was Indiana writing down the debt on Vern Fleming’s leisure suits?*). The Pacers, naturally, refute Forbes’ calculations, although they refused to provide any evidence beyond their own words to back up their argument.

While on the topic of charts, I’d also like to take issue with the graphic the Star presented as a sidebar to the story, listing the Pacers’ annual salary expenditures. This is the chart here:



The ostensible reason for putting this artwork with the story is to buttress the Pacers’ argument that escalating player salaries are to blame for the team’s dire financial situation. Taken by itself, the chart is fine, but when you look at the statement accompanying it, it becomes a joke.

“PLAYER EXPENSES This price tag, which includes benefits and bonuses, is the second-highest in the 10 years the Pacers have played at Conseco Fieldhouse.”

Think about it for a minute – do you see why that statement is so wrong? It’s called inflation, people! To compare 2008 numbers with 1999 numbers without any adjustment for inflation that’s … well, that’s just dumb. In fact, if you adjust for inflation, there are at least four instances in the past ten years when the Pacers have spent more money on player salaries than this year. See below:



Of course, that doesn’t jive with Mr. Simon's assertions about how woeful his current predicament is, but that’s to be expected from someone in his position, although it does help his other argument about how crappy his annual financial situation is. I’m just surprised that no one at the Star thought to run that chart by someone in the Business section.

But enough bemoaning the Star, and back to the Pacers.

If you’ve lived through the Sonics’ situation you know that extortion is the name of the game in these encounters, and the Pacers are certainly armed and ready to do battle in that sort of contest. In fact, they even have a former Seattle resident on hand to lead the parade.
“I've seen it, I lived it for 18 months in Seattle and it was painful,” Don Welsh, a 40-year resident of Seattle and now the President of the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association told WTHR-TV. “Losing a basketball team strips away some of the fabric of a city and Seattle is still mourning the loss. I'm hopeful it won't get that point here.”

And, of course, the requisite comments about what would become of Conseco should the Pacers leave town were flowing fast and furious, with one official asking, “What would you rather have, the Pacers or cat shows?”

That argument is one that we hear in Seattle as well, and I think it deserves further examination. Follow along with me, please, as we explore the methodology:

1. Team and city co-exist in harmony with older arena which perfectly suits the needs of both
2. Team grows tired of arena, demands new one
3. City balks, as existing arena is more than satisfactory for other, non-basketball activities
4. Team threatens to leave
5. City gives in, builds new arena, demolishes old arena
6. Team and city co-exist in harmony with new arena
7. Team grows tired of new arena/lease, demands new one
8. City realizes that because it is still on the hook for new arena, it can’t afford to lose its major tenant
9. City and team try to squeeze more money from taxpayers

Am I missing anything here? Essentially, by forcing the city to build a new arena, the team has painted the city into a corner and essentially given themselves the ultimate trump card in perpetuity, as the city desperately needs the team so that it may continue to pay down the debt on an arena it never needed but the team demanded.

Sickening, right? And yet, it’s the exact same situation in Indianapolis as it is in Seattle. Because Seattle rebuilt KeyArena, it is obligated to have a team fill it up with nightly activities, or else KeyArena becomes a giant white elephant with cat shows. Because Indianapolis built Conseco Fieldhouse, it is obligated to have a team fill it up with nightly activities, or else Conseco becomes a giant white elephant with cat shows.

More sickening still, digest what Simon has said, that the Pacers have lost money in 26 of 28 seasons. Is that really possible? 26 of 28 is 93%, meaning that for the past three decades the Pacers are more effective at losing money than the best free throw shooters in history have been at making free throws. Ask yourself, do you really believe that Herb Simon would own a business which was better at losing money than Rick Barry was at making free throws?

And is it possible in a year when the Pacers advanced to the NBA Finals, playing more than a dozen home playoff games to sell out crowds, and all the accompanying merchandise, concession, and parking sales, etc, etc, that this team lost money? Did that really happen?

There are two answers. Yes, it did, in which case the NBA is a horrible investment for both Mr. Simon and the city of Indianapolis, because if the Pacers can’t even make money with an NBA Finals appearance and a new stadium to boot, well, they must be an investment of which only Bernie Madoff would be proud.

Or, no, it did not, and Mr. Simon is flat-out distorting the truth to advance his case for concessions from the city.

Take your pick.

[*-Obviously, the deficit in '99 was due to the lockout. Like David Stern, I guess I had tried to block that year out of my mind.]