This Date in Sonic History: Feb. 19, 1975, The Sonics Crush the Celtics

In his book Tales From the Seattle SuperSonics, Slick Watts (and co-auther Frank Hughes) go into great detail about Watts' sometimes-good, sometimes-not-so-good relationship with the great Bill Russell.

As Watts explains it, Russell tried as hard as he could to make the Sonics the Celtics of the West, going so far as to call Watts "KC Jones" and Fred Brown "Sam Jones," and so on. It was obvious to anyone observing the situation that Bill Russell thought that the Boston Celtic way was the right way. As Watts himself put it:

"When we played Boston, I thought Russell became the best coach in the world. For some reason, he prepared us well to play Boston. He said the game didn't mean anything to him, but for some reason we always played well. And he would come into the locker room pleased whenever we beat Boston."

Entering the 1974-75 season, the Sonics had existed for nearly a decade and had yet to reach the playoffs. The Celtics, meanwhile, had a vacation home in the NBA Finals and were the defending NBA Champions. Featuring John Havlicek, Dave Cowens, Paul Silas, Jo Jo White, Paul Westphal, and others, they were in another universe when compared to the Sonics.

And so it was, that on Feb. 19, 1975, the Sonics played host to the Celtics. At 27-31, the Sonics were coming off a surprising win over the Lakers the previous night, but they still figured to be no match for the 41-17 Celtics - a team that had won 11 in a row earlier in the month, and had won 22 of their previous 25 games on the year. Clearly, anyone could see that the Sonics were being prepped for the slaughterhouse.

Anyone, that is, except Bill Russell.

Who knows what Russ told his young team before the game started. Perhaps he threw up in a bucket; maybe he threatened them with a baseball bat. Whatever it was ... it didn't work.

(See what I did there?)

Seriously, after one period of play, the Celtics were rolling, leading the Sonics by a comfortable 33-19 margin en route to another win.

Somehow, though, the Sonics came alive. Buoyed by a standout performance from big man Tom Burleson (who would go on to score a career high 28 points on the night), Seattle roared back to take a 4-point halftime lead - helped in no small part by a 17-0 run during the quarter - then build upon that with a ridiculous 35-14 edge in the third quarter on the way to a 26-point win over the defending NBA Champion Boston Celtics!

"They smoked us." Boston Coach Tom Heinsohn told the AP. "It was their night."

Even the noted begrudger of popular sentiment, Bill Russell, had to concur. "It might be our best game of the year," Russell said afterwards, while no doubt dancing a jig on the inside.

Stranger still, Russell had used an incredible four rookies - Burleson, Rod Derline, Tal Skinner, Leonard Gray - and a second-year player (Watts) for a large portion of the second half.

It was a remarkable performance, and a turning point in the season for the green and gold. 27-31 entering play that Wednesday night, the Sonics caught fire and went 16-8 the rest of the way, including a 7-game win streak to close the season. The momentum carried into the playoffs, where they knocked off the Pistons in Seattle's inaugural playoff appearance, and took a 2-2 split before losing to eventual NBA Champion Golden State in the second round.

Box Score via NBA.com

This Date in Sonic History: Feb. 18, 1977, Slick Watts Goes Off

The 1976-77 season was one of the more unusual in the team's history - featuring the end of the line for both Hall of Fame Coach Bill Russell and popular point guard Slick Watts.

Unlike Russell, Watts wouldn't leave the team until the next season, but his future in Seattle took a inauspicious turn on Friday, February 18, 1977 when he unloaded his frustration about a perceived lack of fair compensation to the local media.

The Sonics were on the road that Friday, and while the on-court results were positive (Slick led the club with 19 points in a win over the New York Nets), Watts used the opportunity to explain that he wanted to be traded - and, boy the Nets and Tiny Archibald sure looked like a great place.

"I've got to get what I'm worth," Watts told a reporter. "I play hard and I do the dirty work and for doin' the dirty work I want to get compensated.... There's seven players on the Sonics makin' more money than I do."

It's easy in 2013 to underestimate how popular Watts was in Seattle in the mid-1970s. Prior to the arrival of the Seahawks and Mariners, Sonic basketball was the only professional entity in the state, and Watts - with his exuberant personality, cocked headband, and exciting play - was the most famous player on the roster. With hundreds of personal appearances a year, Watts was the Sonics.

And yet, his salary didn't reflect it. At $90,000 a year, Watts was making less than such players as Tom Burleson ($310,000), Fred Brown ($200,000) and - worse - Frank Oleynick ($100,000).

When Watts injured his knee during the season he suddenly became aware of his basketball mortality, and how close he was to going from Slick Watts, Basketball Player, to Slick Watts, Insurance Salesman. With that in his head, it didn't take much for Watts to spill his guts to PI reporter Blaine Johnson.

Watts' comments didn't help matters. His new contract - which he hoped would earn him in excess of $200,000 year - never came off, and Watts wound up being dealt to New Orleans for a first round draft choice in the fall of 1977. It was a shocking transformation for the poster boy of Seattle basketball.

Feb. 18, 1977 - the beginning of the end of the Slick Watts Era.

Terence Stansbury

In honor of tonight's dunk contest, here's arguably the greatest dunker (non-Shawn Kemp division) in Sonic history, Terence Stansbury, competing in the 1987 Slam Dunk Contest.

Statue of Liberty, here we come.

(Photo via SI.com).

This Date in Sonic History: Feb. 15, 1991

22 years ago today, the Sonics and the Milwaukee Bucks did what all teams do when they have disagreeable superstars – they swapped them.

And so it was that Ricky Pierce and Dale Ellis – two of the shootin’-est shooting guards in NBA history – wound up trading uniforms on February 15, 1991 in a straight-up, no-blinking trade that seemed more at home in a fantasy league than in a real one.

The reasons for the trade were, naturally, both financial and emotional. Per The Seattle Times, Ellis had become dissatisfied with his usage under new coach KC Jones, while Pierce was frustrated with Milwaukee’s foot-dragging in contract negotiations.

(Want to feel old? Try this on for size – Pierce’s deal was for $1 million a year. He was looking for something north of $2 million.).

With the benefit of hindsight, we can attempt to figure out who won the deal.

Oddly, even though I’ve always assumed the opposite, Pierce wasn’t that much older than Ellis (perhaps it’s because Ricky Pierce was already 31 when he was born). In any event, neither player wound up lasting too long in their new homes. By 1992, Ellis had been dealt to San Antonio, while Pierce lasted until 1994 before being traded to Golden State. Pierce – famously – bickered with new star Gary Payton during the infamous Denver Nugget Debacle in the 1994 playoffs, a not insignificant coincidence with his trade later that summer.

The two subsequent moves offer one opportunity to judge how the players turned out post-trade. Here’s how they worked out:

To San Antonio: Dale Ellis

To Milwaukee: Tracy Murray (a first round pick that year with the 18^th overall selection)

To Golden State: Ricky Pierce, Carlos Rogers, 2 2^nd rounders

To Seattle: Sarunas Marciulionis, Byron Houston

It’s difficult to say who’s valuation was higher. Sarunas was coming off consecutive 17+ ppg seasons, but Rogers was an 11^th overall pick that helped to sweeten the deal.

Statistically speaking, both players enjoyed long and productive careers, with Ellis even returning to Seattle nearly a decade later (and leading the league in 3-point percentage at the ripe old age of 37!). 

Post-Trade Win Shares

Ellis: 42

Pierce: 29.6

Post-Trade PER

Ellis: 142.7

Pierce: 132.6

Ellis gets a slight edge, but a chunk of that gets erased by the fact he played an extra season relative to Pierce. In all honesty, both players contributed at high levels immediately after the trade, and while Ellis’ numbers were slightly higher, that could be balanced by the fact Pierce started more playoff games in one season (1993) than Ellis did in the entirety of his post-trade career.

Clear winner? None.

Payton, Haywood Among Finalists for HOF

Spencer Haywood and Gary Payton: Coming soon to Springfield?

Gary Payton and Spencer Haywood - arguably the two greatest players in Seattle Sonic history - are among the 12 North American finalists for basketball's greatest honor, the Basketball Hall of Fame announced today.

While not a foregone conclusion, it seems extraordinarily likely Payton will make the cut this year (to clarify, today's announcement only reveals the 12 final nominees; the ultimate inductees will not be revealed until April 8th, prior to the NCAA Men's National Championship Game). As measured by Basketball Reference's Win Shares, Payton is the 26th greatest player in league history - and all those above him are either in the Hall or not yet eligible. Interestingly, another nominee, Maurice Cheeks, ranks almost identical to Payton in Win Shares per 48 minutes. That is countered, obviously, by the fact Payton played more than 13,000 more minutes in his career than Cheeks, participated in more than twice as many All-Star Games, and was routinely either a first- or second-team All-NBA recipient, awards Cheeks never saw in his marvelous career.

So, let's assume The Glove coasts in (and won't that be a fantastic acceptance speech!). How about Haywood?

We've covered Spencer's candidacy in the past, and, ultimately, it comes down to one question: Does Spencer Haywood's legal embroglio with the NBA and his defiance of the league's antiquated 4-years-of-college restriction lift his otherwise slightly less than qualified bona fides to the level of Hall of Famer?

My answer is no, and I think the committee's answer is no. With that said, I've reached the point where I almost wish they'd let the big fella in. Is he the best eligible player not residing in the Hall? Definitely not (in fact, I'd argue that he's not even the best eligible Sonic in, so long as Jack Sikma is paying his way into Springfield).

Regardless, this annual dance has got to be incredibly painful for Haywood. It's undeniable that the former ABA MVP has spent his life with a considerable chip on his shoulder, and you couldn't blame him for feeling like the NBA has it in for him. Nothing feeds a conspiracy theorist's appetite like exclusion, and the Hall's continued is-he or isn't-he dance with Haywood would drive even the calmest personality to more than a bit of anger.

I don't know what the Hall's policy is on nominational time limits (and, honestly, I don't care to spend six hours demystifying the most mystical of institutions), but perhaps it's time for the Hall to either fish or cut bait with Spencer Haywood.

Induct him or don't induct him - but put the man out of his misery.
(Photo via Spencer Haywood's: twitter.com/spencerhaywood)

More like SupersonicsSEXY! Am I right?

So our vintage obscure Seattle Supersonics valentines weren't romantic enough for you, eh? Well here's something for that will knock your green yellow socks off:  The official website of former Sonic and eternal heartthrob Jim Farmer, who apparently is now some sort of model and/or country singer. Warning: his manliness may melt your computer screen, so watch out! 

(To read more about Jim "Fabio" Farmer, check out Pete's excellent "Where Are They Now" series from 2008.) 

Seattle Supersonics (Fake) Vintage Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day, Sonics fans! Here are some authentic fake Seattle Supersonics valentines to print out and give to your sweetheart. Or, you know, your dog or whatever. (Click below to see all of them)

New Seattle Supersonics Arena (circa 1990)

After spending a day rummaging through the Supersonicsoul video archives (my spider-ridden garage), I found this gem from 1990. It's from a Seattle Supersonics infomercial called "Sonics Slam Dunk Saturday" that featured clips from the 1989-90 Sonics and a preview of the upcoming 90-91 season, including pieces on new coach K.C. Jones (who would be fired the following season) and an exciting new rookie named Gary Payton.

The most interesting part of the show, however, was an in-depth look at the new Seattle Arena that was to be built next to the Kingdome. Who wants to call that number and reserve some luxury boxes?

The show, hosted by a mustached Kevin Calabro and sportscaster turned Sonics salesman Gary Spinell, was about two hours and the source material (a well-worn VHS tape that's probably full of spiders or baby rats) is not great, but I'll be posting the best parts to our new YouTube Channel, SupersonicsoulTV, so be sure to subscribe to get updates. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to take about a thousand showers. SPIDERS!

Seattle: The Graveyard of NBA Arenas

This plan not only served as a basketball arena, but also an Imperial Shuttle for Darth Vader.

As Seattle and Sacramento both ramp up plans to build new NBA arenas, it's easy to forget how many times we've been down this road before. After all, Seattle is a town lousy with failed dreams and broken promises. From an extended monorail to a refurbished waterfront, we have rarely seen a good plan that wasn't worth killing with fire.

The Sonics have an especially bleak history of unfulfilled plans. During their 41 year residency, the Supes were often basketball vagabonds, couch surfing around the Puget Sound with stops at the old Coliseum, the Kingdome, the Tacoma Dome and even Hec Edmundson Pavilion, an old gym even too small for the University of Washington Huskies.

Fed up with the leaky roof and meager seating of their Seattle Center digs in the late 80s, former owner Barry Ackerley came close to sealing a deal for a new stadium. SeaFirst Arena of Seattle was to be built near the Kingdome and, like the current stadium plan, got the approval of the City Council before getting derailed by a parking dispute with (you guessed it) the Mariners. Ackerley was so frustrated by the lack of progress that he officially filed for relocation in 1990.

Luckily, cooler heads prevailed and Ackerley finally settled for a refurbished Coliseum, sparing us the indignity of watching the Kemp/Payton era unfold with the San Diego Sonics (shudder).

Another forgotten arena aberration took place more recently. In 2008, we were all going a little crazy about our team getting hijacked. And none went crazier than Seattle Supersonics legend Downtown Freddie Brown, who proposed one of the most ambitious/insane/awesome arena plans in the history of anything. This thing had everything. An interchangeable basketball/hockey court, retractable roof, waterfront view and, of yeah, it only cost ONE BILLION DOLLARS!

Sure, this place was total vaporware and had zero chance of ever being built, but can you imagine how awesome it would have been to see Squatch waterskiing in Puget Sound during halftime or Danny Fortson paragliding off a ferry onto the court before every game?

But alas, this was yet another Seattle sports pipe dream. And like Ackerley's arena before it, it serves as a warning to desperate fans in Seattle and Sacramento: don't count your weird, bundt cake-shaped arena before it's built.

It's Official: Seattle Sonics 2.0 Group Files for Kings Relocation

According to ESPN, AP and that David Stern guy, the Chris Hansen/Steve Ballmer group (or HAN-BALL, as I like to call them) has officially filed to relocate the Sacramento Kings to Seattle.

As a Sonics fan, I should be ecstatic right now. But I can't help but remember the sickening gut punch we all received back in 2008 when the same thing happened to us. My sincere best wishes to our friends in Sacramento and here's hoping all this drama will lead to new, less crazy owners for the Kings and a shiny new expansion team for Seattle.

Gary Payton: Hall of Fame

If you are a Sonic fan (and, no, I’m not sure what that means anymore, either), you’re undoubtedly aware that Gary Payton has been nominated for – and will almost undoubtedly win election to -  the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Loyal readers might recall a couple of articles we ran that attempted to decide whether specific players (Spencer Haywood and Jack Sikma) were logical candidates for the Hall. The articles were based on Bill James’ Keltner List (Basketball-Reference should also get credit for this idea; they’ve done it with dozens if not hundreds of players).

The whole endeavor left me a little cold, if only because the Basketball Hall of Fame is not like the Baseball Hall of Fame. It’s a bizarre, illogical stew of mismatched ingredients; a few potatoes here, a couple shrimp there, and, hey, let’s throw some brussel sprouts in because, why, well not?

Put it another way: The Baseball HOF makes (some) sense, and a coherent line of questioning can lead you to an answer to the ultimate question: Is Player X a Hall of Famer? The Basketball HOF, though, is a mess, and needs a completely different line of questioning.

But enough of my rambling. On to the questions!

Is Gary Payton a Hall of Famer?

Was he ever regarded as the best player in basketball? No, although he was probably considered the second- or third-best player in the league in the mid-90s and there is no shame in being second to the best player in history.

Was he the best player on his team? Absolutely, for many years.

Did he play for the Celtics? Yes, Payton played briefly … um, what does this have to do with anything?

Did he win a Championship with the Celtics? No, and I’m not sure why this matters, can we get back to the …

Did he play for the Knicks? Did he win a championship with the Knicks? No, he never played for the Knicks.

Did he ever win a Cup? Perhaps a Spangler Cup? Or a Macedonian Elite League Cup? What? He played in the NBA Finals three times and won it once. Is that what you mean?

Is he Brazilian? Did he ever score 40 points in a meaningless exhibition game while taking more than 30 shots? No, and this whole process is really starting to bug me.

Did he dominate at the collegiate level in a small sample size and then fail to replicate that success at the professional level in a larger sample size, but we really liked rooting for him in college, and geez, wasn’t it great when the Big East really mattered? Yeah, that’s a no. He was really good at Oregon State, though.

Did he play for perhaps Fort Wayne or Tri-Cities? Are you kidding with this?

Are you sure he didn’t play with the Knicks? I think I’ve had enough.

Hey, remember when we tried to nominate Yao Ming less than a year after he retired and even he thought it was a dumb idea? Wasn’t that kind of silly? Yeah, I guess that’s one way of describing it. Wait, what does this have to do with Gary Payton?

Was he a skinflint owner whose only real contribution to the game was selling his team to somebody else 30 years later and making a huge profit? Not really, no.

Did he play for Seattle or Portland? Yes! Yes, he did. Finally, a positive sign for us! Does this help …

Actually, we’re not really interested in Seattle and Portland, unless they played in the 70s, and even then, not so much. Seriously, go screw yourself.

The Terrible, Inevitable What If Machine

With San Francisco coming oh so close to winning the Super Bowl on Sunday, 49ers fans are going through the same emotional torment that Seattle Supersonics fans suffer through on a daily basis: the dreaded What If Syndrome.

What if they avoided that costly illegal formation penalty on the first play of the game?
What if the offense had shown up in the first half?
What if the power never came back on?

As a lifelong Sonics fan, I have spent most of my life going through this sort of masochistic mental torture.

What if Nate McMillan had stayed in 2004?
What if Steve Ballmer had bought the team in 2001 instead of Howard Schultz?
What if Jim McIlvaine had never been born?

Dwelling on these dark thoughts is, of course, pointless. Time is linear. It moves on, with or without you. And yet, for many sports fans, there is a tiny room in the back of the mind that stores a terrible, horrible device that keeps track of this sort of thing: The What If Machine. Its sole purpose is to examine crucial points in time and pinpoint the exact crossroad that led to the team bus driving off the cliff.

My own personal Seattle Supersonics What If Machine recently spat out a date: June 28, 2007. The day the Portland Trailblazers drafted Greg Oden. (I'm sure many Blazers fans would like to have a replay on that day as well.)

It's hard to imagine, but back in '07, most of us in Seattle were praying that we'd somehow get Oden. At the time, he was seen as the second coming of Bill Russell. Despite the long history of number one picks tanking and the fact that Oden's bones were apparently made out of paper mache, the mystique that comes with a top draft pick is undeniable. It might have, at least momentarily, galvanized the community to fight harder to keep the Sonics in town. At the very least, Ballard would have been ecstatic about having a guy (almost) named after Thor's dad.

More importantly, He Who Must Not Be Named would still be playing in the Northwest, wiping Sam Bowie from Portland's own What If Machine, while Mr. Eggshells For Bones would be on the Permanently Too Fragile To Play List for a very mediocre midwest team that no one cared about.

But, like the Mirror of Erised, spending too much time with the What If Machine will lead to madness. Dwelling in the past is the ultimate act of futility.

Kind of like cheering for a professional sports team.

Seattle Supersonics: Getting The Band Back Together

Jerome James and his garbage bag cape are still available, guys!

Sacramento Kings blog Sactown Royalty recently took a look at what a Seattle Sonics expansion team might look like.

Like many Sonics fans, I haven't paid attention to the NBA since 2008. I have always been, and will always be, a Seattle-centric basketball fan. So if I was in charge of putting together an expansion roster for Supersonics 2.0, I would, of course, go to what I know, which are former Sonics.

After doing a quick bit of research on the interwebs, here are all the former Seattle Supersonics that are still active in the NBA. (Note: I left off those guys from That Team I Will Never Mention because I will never, ever, ever, never mention them on this blog, even if we get another team. They're like one of those rogue countries that aren't recognized by the United Nations.)

So, without further ado, here are your 2013 (or '14, or '15) SEATTLE SUPERSONICS!

Chris Wilcox (Boston)
Jeff Green (Boston)
Reggie Evans (Brooklyn)
Kurt Thomas (NY)
Damien Wilkins (Philly)
Vladimir Radmanovic (Chicago)
Mickael Gelabale (Minnesota)
Luke Ridnour (Minnesota)
Earl Watson (Utah)
Johan Petro (Atlanta)
Ray Allen (Miami)
Rashard Lewis (Miami)
Jerome James (Caciques de Humacao)

Watch out, world! The New Old Sonics are going to be rocking the Over-50 Community Center Rec Leagues across the nation! BRING IT! (And by "it", I mean ibuprofen.)

For Sacramento Fans

Face it, if you're from Seattle and you have a friend from Sacramento, conversation is a little difficult these days. What better way to to bridge that awkward conversational gap than with a sentimental gift?

Ah, but what kind of gift? What could you possibly give to a Sacramentan that wouldn't set them frothing at the mouth?

I'm guessing Sonic-emblazoned toilet paper should do the trick.

When another city takes your team, sometimes wiping your posterior with that city's logo helps ease the pain.

(Etsy.com, via uni-watch.com).

Top 10 Terrible Basketball Movies That Are Still Better Than Thunderstruck

Let's take a moment to stop drooling over the Sacramento Kings and focus on more important things: like making fun of Thunderstruck.

Supposedly, a movie starring That Guy We Can't Talk About Anymore who's on That Team We Shall Not Name, briefly appeared in the theater(s?) last summer.  During its entire run, it didn't appear anywhere in the top 100 at the box office, redefining the term "limited release".

Never fear, Supersonicsouliacs: we've put together a list of 10 basketball movies that are, while almost entirely unwatchable, still better than that poor man's Like Mike rip-off:

Your Seattle Expansion Sonics?

One of these guys could be ours. Hint: not the good one. 

I think most of us here at Supersonicsoul would rather have an expansion team than the Sacramento Kings. Our friends at Sactown Royalty recently posted about what a Seattle Supersonics expansion team might look like. Hakim Warrick here we come!

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)