Supersonicsoul on HuffPost Live TODAY!

MEDIA FREAKOUT ALERT: I'll be appearing on HuffPost Live today at 2pm PST to talk about the possible return of the Seattle Supersonics, the Sacramento deal and, of course, Supersonicsoul. Pray for me.

UPDATE: Now Kevin Johnson announced he is doing another press conference at 2pm also--that guy is obsessed with me!

UPDATE UPDATE: The whole show is now posted (see above). Sorry for lousy video feed. Note to self: Never bring an iPad to a knife fight.

Uh-oh . . .

HE'S WATCHING US!!

(You can follow us on Twitter too at @sonicsblog.)

Don't Hate Me Bros, But The Kings Should Stay in Sacramento

I hated the Sacramento Kings.

From the Human Flop Vlad Divac to that rat-faced punk Mike Bibby, I have always loathed that team. And the cowbells? Ugh. They were almost as annoying as soccer fans.

In 2005, there was more than a little schadenfreude being dished out around here when Danny Fortson sat on Brad Miller in the playoffs, literally crushing this pesky little team of overrated divas and allowing us (at least before getting stomped in the next round by eventual champs San Antonio) to bask in the glory of our Cinderella team, the last good team we would see in this town for quite a while.

So you'd think with this sort of deep, borderline psychotic hatred of the Kings, I would be happy to eliminate them from the history books while getting back my beloved Seattle Supersonics. But I'm not.

Because if we gleefully swipe a team from a city that has faithfully supported them (ENOUGH WITH THE COWBELLS! I GET IT ALREADY!), we become (gulp) Oklahoma.

We will have to let go of the glorious torch of righteousness we've been able to wave in the faces of Clay Bennett, David Stern and the rest of the slimy dirtbags who lied, cheated and swindled to get their damn dirty paws on our team. We become part of the same problem that cost us a team in the same place. We become enablers of the NBA's cycle of abuse and extortion.

It's tempting to say our case is different. That at least we're being upfront about wanting to take another city's team, unlike Bubba Bennett, who claimed to be giving us a chance to show we "deserved" a team (!), while purposely tanking the organization, alienating the fanbase and demanding the city pay for the most expensive arena in NBA history. In fact, I'll probably be consoling myself with that exact straw man fallacy if this deal goes through. We're not like OKC! We're not like . . . THEM!

But in the end, the only way we can truly have a clean install of Sonics 2.0 is to start from scratch with an expansion team.

And believe me, I know how unlikely that is. The NBA already has too many teams. The only way we'd ever get an expansion team is if another team folded, and isn't that in essence what would be happening in Sacramento (and in Seattle in 2008, for that matter)? And besides, this is just business, son.

Except it isn't.

We don't watch basketball for the cold numbers of enterprise. We watch it because we fall in love with teams. We follow them like lovestruck teeny-boppers. We are crushed with every loss and walk on clouds when (or "if" in Seattle's case) they win. Sports are about irrational love, not backroom deals and corporate naming rights. When we buy another city's team, we're not just acquiring a franchise, we're taking someone's dream (See: NBA Finals, 2012).

As someone who has felt this pain, I hope the Kings stay in Sacramento. I hope they get the chance we never had. And I hope we get a new, guilt-free Seattle Supersonics someday so we can kick their miserable asses all over again.

Kind of a Big Deal

Via sonicsarena.com:

We are happy to announce that we have entered into a binding agreement with the Maloofs to purchase a controlling interest in the Sacramento Kings NBA franchise. The sale is obviously subject to approval by the NBA Board of Governors, and we look forward to working with the League in the coming months to consummate the transaction.

Let the intercity sniping begin.

Who wants to Space Jam?

Sweet GIF courtesy of io9.com

If we (and by "we" I mean Chris Hansen and friends) are going to spend $500 million on a swanky new basketball stadium for Supersonics 2.0, why not have the COOLEST BASKETBALL COURT OF ALL TIME?! For a measly few extra million you (and by "you" I mean an NBA team and not you ever) could play basketball on something straight out of Tron. Or, at least, Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball.

DO IT NOW!!!

Another day, another unconfirmed source says Sacramento Kings have been sold to Seattle group

Apparently the Maloofs invested all their money in plastic. AM I RIGHT?!

Here we go again.

According to the Sacramento Bee, it's official: the Kings have been sold to the Seattle group led by Chris Hansen.

A tweet from a Comcast Sports Bay Area NBA analyst this morning said the team had been sold for $525 million to a group led by hedge-fund manager Chris Hansen. A representative for Hansen in Seattle could not immediately be reached for comment.

Eric Rose, a Kings spokesman, said, "Nothing has changed with our position that we will not comment on rumors or speculation about the Sacramento Kings franchise."

And, as Sonics fans know, these kind of anonymous sources are never, ever wrong.

UPDATE: And now, of course, CBS Sports is reporting that the Kings might have a local buyer lined up. Gulp!

Not so fast! Maloofs get Maloofish in deal to bring Kings to Seattle.

To the shock of absolutely no one, the Maloof brothers are apparently acting like giant a-holes in negotiations to bail them out of debtors' prison buy the Sacramento Kings and move them to Seattle, according to this story in the Seattle Times:

The family that owns the Sacramento Kings wants to maintain a say in how the team is run if they sell it to Chris Hansen, creating a possible snag in the sale negotiation, an NBA source told The Seattle Times.

The Maloof family has owned the team since 1998, and brothers Joe and Gavin have been particularly involved and visible presences in the franchise since day one.

An initial Yahoo! Sports report on the sale, since confirmed by others, is that the family would retain a small percentage in the team. But the question now, according to the source, is whether that percentage also would allow the Maloofs some say in how the team is run.

So basically, the Maloofs would like to sell us their car for roughly twice the Blue Book value but still want to be able to borrow it to cruise for dates. Yeah, I'm sure Chris Hansen became a bazillionaire by making shrewd business deals like this.

If these are the sort of folks we have to appease to get a (pretty lousy) team, I'd rather invest in a custom team on NBA Live.

Supersonics 2.0 : Sacramento Kings moving to Seattle?

Maloof. Maloof. Maloof is on fire! (sorry)

Chris Hansen is buying the Sacramento Kings and moving them to Seattle in time to start playing at The Key next season, according to the wild rumor mill known as Yahoo! Sports.

The rumor originated in a Tweet from Daina Falk, a food blogger known as “The Hungry Fan’’ and also the daughter of longtime NBA agent David Falk, whose clients included Michael Jordan and a number of former  Sonics, including longtime team president Wally Walker. 

Daina Falk sent out a Tweet Tuesday reading: “So I hear that the Seattle Kings is officially a done deal! The Maloofs (the family  that owns the Kings) finally sold the ailing Sacramento team.’’ 

When questioned about the Tweet, she responded that she had heard it from someone who would know, and she also referred to the Tweet on her Facebook page saying to wait and see what happens over the next few days. 

Those Tweets and her Facebook message were all deleted by Wednesday morning.

(from The Seattle Times)

Happy birthday Reign Man!

Happy belated birthday to the greatest athlete in Seattle sports history.

The Not-So-Secret Arena Plans

KING-5's Chris Daniels has posted a heap of Arena Porn for Sonics fans to drool over. Mmmmmmm . . . practice facilities . . . (cue wah-wah guitar).

Stern Talks Expansion (Maybe)

First found via the tremendous Tom Ziller at the fantastic Sactown Royalty.  Ziller's article attempted to ascertain whether David Stern was actually, possibly thinking about maybe going the expansion route rather than the scorched earth franchise relocation method when it came to Seattle and the NBA. 

At first blush, it seemed as though Ziller might be reading too much into the proverbial tea leaves (and, hey, can you blame the guy?), but when you watch the video at NBA.com, well, you can understand his sentiments. The video is here (and skip to around the 26 minute mark), but you can read the pertinent transcript below:

Q: Commissioner, regarding the Seattle new arena, is there a chance during the next five years when they’ll probably finalize it [the arena], that there’ll be an expansion team, a new Seattle Supersonics?

Stern: Are you the gentleman from Albania?

Q: Romania.

Stern: Romania, yes, Romania. You want to know about the Seattle Supersonics? I love it! 

Q: Yeah, because I grew up with Seattle.

Stern: Oh, well, good! You see, that’s the universality of our game. The answer is, there seem to be plans, uh, moving along for a new arena in Seattle. There was general agreement in the past that Seattle needed a new arena, and, uh, it would be my hope that within the time frame that you mentioned – five years – that if everything works out perfectly, there would be a new arena and a new team in Seattle. That’s always for the NBA Board of Governors , but I know that many governors are favorably inclined. 

Who knows what rattles around the in the head of David Stern, and who knows if he truly meant to indicate expansion was a possibility, or if he merely meant a "new" team in much the same way I tell my 3-year-old daughter that her shoes are "new," even though her sister wore them four years ago. 

Either way, God bless Romania.

And you thought NBA refs were bad.

Give the refs a break--they just forgot which guy slam-dunked the home run ball!