Here we sit today one month away from what we at SOS intend to make the most publicized trial in the history of Sports. Read the rest of this entry »
May 16th, 2008 6:36 am by Brian Robinson
Clay Bennett owes $150 Million in damages if the team fails to move.
The legal battles in Seattle over the future of the SuperSonics are quickly becoming more complicated, more expensive and more unpredictable. Hard on the heels of a fight over an arena lease in Seattle and an attempt by former owner Howard Schultz to undo his sale to an Oklahoma City group in July 2006 comes the assertion late last week from Oklahoma City officials that they will expect more than $150 million in damages if the team does not move into their upgraded arena.
The Oklahoma City demands arrived in a nine-page, powerfully worded letter from an attorney for Oklahoma City’s mayor and city council. According to the letter from city attorney Wiley L. Williams, current Sonics owner Clay Bennett has signed a series of interlocking contracts and leases with Oklahoma City that are legally binding and would result in enormous penalties if the team does not move.
Simply hilarious! Who needs TV dramas? We’ve got carpetbagger Clay and the good ole’ boys club right here!
Is this the OKC version of the Rabbit Punch?
If it’s worth $150M to OKC to have the Sonics not play a single season there, what is Clay thinking offering Seattle $30M to buy out of two years worth of the lease? I have to think this helps the city’s argument, having another city put a price on this franchise not playing in their city. Of course the water is further muddled by the idea that OKC will come after anyone else who owns the team after Clay Clay to force them to move as well, but I don’t know if that will stand up if it is found via Howard’s lawsuit that Clay never took proper ownership of the team due to his violation of the original contract.
Rounding it out was Al Horford, Luis Scola and Al Thornton.
In a bit of a surprise, Durant, the overwhelming rookie-of-the-year winner, finished second to Horford in the voting process.
Horford was the only player unanimously chosen to the first team while Durant received 28 first-team votes and one second-team vote.
The voting panel consisted of the NBA’s 30 head coaches. Two points are given for first-team votes and one point for second-team picks. Coaches are not allowed to vote for their own players.
Balloting is confidential and it’s unclear which NBA coach placed Durant, who led all rookies with a 20.3 scoring average, on the second team.
Second team was Rodney Stuckey, Jamario Moon, Juan Carlos Navarro, Thaddeus Young and onetime Sonic draft choice Carl Landry.
We are holding a Save Our Sonics volunteer committee meeting as follows:
Location:
Mercer Island Library
4400 88th Ave SE
Mercer Island, WA 98040
(206) 236-3537
Date & Time: Thursday May 22 from 7PM to 9PM.
All are invited but we expect anyone who attends to get involved as a volunteer. We had some good progress at the last meeting in setting up committees to address the various initiatives/events/projects that we want to pursue.
If you want to be more involved in SOS, please email saveoursonics[at]gmail.com and Griff will send you information on how you can join a committee to be part of the effort.
Stay posted here for more information. I or someone else will likely be updating this post to include more information or requests for assistance.
No there is no sarcasm here. Hard words have flown back and forth between Seattle and OKC of late. I hope they all recover from the recent tornados and that the state survives relatively unscathed. Best wishes to the people I have spoken to from Oklahoma. Despite the rhetoric I like to think both cities have been pretty decent to each other.
Shawn Marion OUT, Shaq OLD, D’Antoni STUPID
Sorry but I can’t understand why he would want to be with the Knicks where he is a terrible fit. The draft choice we got for taking Kurt Thomas just got a lot better. It seems like they kind of had the perfect storm of talent matching coaching in Phoenix and now the whole puzzle is falling apart. I don’t know that Raja Bell is going to seem so impressive with a different coach and if Steve Nash loses a step and Shack yet one more.
We can celebrate our new building opening up when the Suns #3 overall pick joins the rest of our team.
Am I actually talking about basketball? Must be time to talk playoffs in this thread.
Good lord. I try to break this bad boy down and it is almost impossible. It is just laughable. I am going to lead off with the fact that I simply don’t understand how this document cannot undermine Clay Bennetts entire argument in the Seattle court. Read the rest of this entry »
As frustrating as this saga has been you take comfort in the small victories.
Oh and speaking of has beens and frustrating, how about that Mariners offense? Dead last in MLB against right handed pitching and three tough White Sox right handers coming to town this weekend. It’s Faaan-tastic! 
Thanks to Steve Kelley for a nice article and also to Tim Ciess for his kind comments.
I need to take this opportunity to really give a lot more credit to Steve Pyeatt and the rest of the SOS gang. Steve is the co-founder. He’s the guy who set this up and asked me to be involved in, and he has been an absolute rock. Somehow the last couple of articles have credited me as the “director” and failed to give him the credit he is due. Thank you Steve.
As I watch West play in the playoffs I have to ask: why is he there?
I have a simple answer, because he would want more money next year and Bennett is not spending a dime while in Seattle for the next two years.
He is saving it up, borrowing it, to cover a debt that will grow well beyond that 40 million in operating losses. Everybody is going to reach for your wallet, Clay. And when it is empty they will reach for your assets.
We are going to do major changes to our web presence and migrate the SOS planning and strategy off the blog and onto forums on the Save Our Sonics site. We are working on major upgrades to both sites and we need some people who have an understanding of both Dotnetnuke and Wordpress to help out. If you know either of these programs, or know someone who does, we need your skills. Read the rest of this entry »
We need someone to volunteer to be the moderator for the forums. Over the past year I have not been dilligent enough in replying to people, resolving login issues, or getting new people signed up. There are tremendous spam issues that have just made this a nusance for me and, like many nusances it gets disregarded. I don’t want to disrespect the people who want to participate by ignoring them any longer so if you would like to be a moderator please let me know Read the rest of this entry »
