An hour with the Gov
Posted on Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 7:03 pm by Brian Robinson
Sorry for the late update all. It has been a very, very long day.
I think today between the Bennett news, our previous actions, and our meeting we established the Seattle Sonics as arguably the most visible issue for Governor Gregoire’s campaign. That is not a bad thing.
We spent more than an hour with the Governor today, on the day of her Seattle campaign kickoff. It was both respectful of her to give us that much time and moderately productive. I wish I could claim it was very productive because the Governor was quite convincing in her desire to do something. She was also quite convincing in her explanation of why nothing had gotten done.
I think there is some passing of the buck going on here obviously. A big question is how much of it is legitimate. Could the city have done a better job lobbying? SURE. Could Stanton, Ballmer, etc. have come out earlier? SURE, could Ron Simms be completely throwing sports fans under the bus? SURE
At the end of the day though I think the governor has a real problem if she can’t get this done. For better or worse she is the one with the most percieved power to resolve this, the biggest gap between what people percieve her leadership to be and what is needed, and she is up for re-election. She never asked us to take it easy on her, nor did we offer.
She was ultimately VERY sincere in her statements that she wants to resolve this situation. I believe her. She cautions that a special session unless you are assured the votes could be a death blow to this as opposed to a measured win next session and I take her at face value with that comment. What we looked at is that if a special session is not an option how can she take action to make sure something gets done. She is working on a letter signed by virtually all state and city officials to the NBA owners pledging her support. She was also very receptive to the idea of further reaching out to the city to see if there were some level of assurance she could provide that would lead them to provide bridge funding for this $75M. We urged her, and I think she will honor this, to make a concerted effort to work with the city towards a pledge that satisfied them within the next 72 hours.
We had another idea that may or may not produce something. She seemed animated in her desire to pursue it, again with the 72 hour timeline.
At the end of the day I think Gov. Gregoire has never been criticized for her intentions or desire, but rather for her performance and delivery. Today she took a step in demonstrating resolve but at the end of the day we Sonics fans will have to judge her on her actions. Like it or not this issue is camped squarely on her doorstep right now.
Yes she did say that Frank Chopp was on vacation. Yes I did immediately suggest a same day special session. We got a smile out of that.
Thanks to the Governors office for all the time. I wish I could convey more concrete results but it was not a negative meeting in any way.
April 10th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Thanks Brian, I was about to start a new thread.
Big Chris
April 10th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
About time Bennett got caught with his pants down.
And it’s about time Stern feels like his bff was banging his wife on the side.
April 10th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
We need to do what BR said to spread out the words to everywhere. I have tried to find a way to get TNT e-mail address or phone number to call them to give message to CB and KS to discuss about this story. Since Denver and GS is playing now and will have second game coming soon and inside the NBA. Does anybody know?
April 10th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
BR on KJR now
April 10th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
What a day, almost 400 posts!
April 10th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
More e-mails to from the bag to be released tommorrow.
Cannot wait.
April 10th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Brian,
Great job on KJR. You never cease to amaze me, bro!!! You’re a man on a mission. I freakin’ love it!!!!
Supes fans… let’s keep tightening those screws on the Governor for her to take action NOW!!!!
Clay Bennett and Stern are diggin’ their own graves. What a great day!!!!
April 10th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
It would be great to get fans from other teams to email the league as well. This is no longer just a Seattle issue, it has become an NBA issue.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
What happened I missed it. BR was on KJR?! I hate missing stuff!
April 10th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
The ideal situation would be to have EVERY NBA fans to leave the game in 3rd quater of tomorrow’s games to show NBA! Of course that would not happen but it would be a great idea. Or have these NBA fans show the signs to support SOS and Sonics!
What did BR say on KJR? Is there a transcription for text or link?
April 10th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Brian Robinson, I gotta say - you are a mighty big man.
As the father of a 6-year old, I feel for the personal and family sacrifices you’ve made throughout this process. I hope you at least know how much your leadership, vision, and hard work means to the rest of us diehard Sonics fans.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
The mayor should not get cast in words of doubt, even in an attempt to contrast him against the actual liars, other than that, I think your message was clear, reference to the commitment to make an effort in Seattle made by Bennett’s ownership group to the other owners is huge.
Stanton was a former owner, hopefully there is a lever there. I am more hopeful now, than I have been in a very long time.
The media has to keep getting new and different looks at Bennett in the worst possible light, in his own words.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Can someone provide a summary of what Brian said, or at least the highlights?
April 10th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I know this isn’t a sure win by any means. But I cannot help but get re-energized by today’s events. And I have to admit, I really needed it.
Let’s show the world what a f’n scum bag Clay and the Okie trash truly are!!! Go SEATTLE Supes!
April 10th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
I work for 1280 The Zone in SLC, Ut. It’s where Ian Furniss was a few years ago. I talked to talent and programming today about it and they talked a little but not a lot. Have some fans Go to 1280sportszone.com and kallsports.com, those are the two sports station I work at and flood there text and e-mail. They’ll have to respond somehow. Locke is on the competitior here call 486-1320 and see if you can get on air that way.
In Oakland/ SF go to KNBR.com.
Also, maybe get a Sonics pocket Schedule and call affiliate stations that carry The Supes. Have them get their listeners to call the Gov. Lot’s of Eastside Affiliates that need pushed. In Wenatchee call Morris Communications, KKRV, and KKRT They carry the games there. KKRV is Country but the morning host, Gary and Brent are huge sports fans.
That’s about all I can think off but it’s a start in the right direction if you really want to out Gov’s feet to the fire. Act Regionally Think Locally!
April 10th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
BEAT O-K! BEAT O-K! BEAT O-K!
April 10th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Just psoted everything on ESPN Message Boards.
http://boards.espn.go.com/boards/mb/mb?sport=nba&id=general&tid=2643435&lid=3
April 10th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Headline at Foxsports.com
“E-mails suggest Sonics misled Stern, Seattle”
The national story seems to be moving toward the lies told to Stern. That can’t be anything but good for us. It’s getting harder to see how Stern and the other owners can slide past this, or, even if they try, how they can rehab Bennett as a member of the Club…
How can they vote to move the Sonics and say with a straight face that they did everything they could in Seattle? Simple. They can’t…
April 10th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
This gives Stern an out too. I honestly thought DS was part of the conspiracy but now it looks like Clayton (Rhymes with “SATAN”) Bennett tried to bone him too.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
“Seattle wants access to documents detailing how the league handles the relocation of teams, early termination of leases and what it wrote was “the NBA’s direct involvement in the owners’ attempts to move the Sonics.”
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/basketball/nba/04/10/bc.bkn.supersonics.e.mails.ap/index.html
“Direct involvement in the owners attempts to move the Sonics” … hum, could they be fishing for evidence of collusion or conspiracy? What was David Stern’s involvement in this plan? When did he decide to move the Sonics? Was it before the sale? Who determined the price? Was it a recommendation by Stern to overpay for the team?
April 10th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Can someone please summarize what Brian said on KJR please? Thx.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Send an email to Bennett’s Oklahoma Village Company Dorcheter Capital Corporation:
info@dorcap.com
Ask them how they can stay in a business that demands complete integrity when their chairman has been exposed as a complete liar.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Brian - thanks again for all your hard work and leading on an issue that is so important to all of us. It can’t be said enough.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
will someone let us know what br said on kjr.What a great day.finally.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
The city should have also asked for all emails between NBA and every NBA owner to see if there were promises or backroom deals on securing the relocation vote.
Brian, did she say why they won’t make a deal using some kind of conditional agreement that would only take affect if Ballmer (or other local owner) got a team? I still don’t see the harm in that.
BR: “We had another idea that may or may not produce something.”
Ok, so is anyone else curious?? What other idea? How can you drop that line and then ignore it?
April 10th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Rather than these vague, non-committal references to “saving the NBA in Seattle” or “efforts to acquire an expansion team in the future” or “perhaps buying another NBA team if/when one becomes available” I wish ALL of our City, County, State, and other assorted officials would instead say “OUR #1 GOAL IS TO KEEP THE TEAM WE ALREADY HAVE - THE SEATTLE SONICS!”
April 10th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Chopp owns the legislature and, by proxy/extension, the Guvnor. Any of y’all read that David Brewster piece on his blowback blog? He detailed how NOTHING gets passed in Oly w/o the Chopper backing it. And the Chopper will only back $$$ for the Supes arena if he gets $$$ for his priorities too. Gregoire’s power is limited, sadly. I heard her on with Gas around 5pm and she’s doing what she can, but the Chopper holds the fucking strings.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
right with you there courtsense.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Just as expected. Sounds like she was blowing smoke today. Passing the buck is right. No accountability - NONE. What a disgrace.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Is it not time to launch another wave of calls to Gregoire’s office and Seattle leadership? I’m sure the anti-sports people will.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Did the Gov happen to mention where the Chopper was vacationing?
April 10th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Dick, I was going to ask that but figured I’d be accused of being a lunatic fringe person.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
The Sonic’s owners should either get out their check books to construct their dream arena in Seattle or sell the team to local owners willing to support the NBA and their fans.
Anybody see the halftime report during the LA game? Kobe went vertical and jumped over a speeding car in his new hyper-dunk shoes…the lightest shoe on the market….13 ounces.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Channel 13 had a promo about the sonic situation something along the lines of “new information that might help keep the sonics in seattle”
very hopeful take…but I will take it.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
clay clay don’t you know what ever you do in the dark comes to light..lol..I really can’t see how the bog can move the supes now. if they do you know it was fix from the word go
April 10th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
If Stern doesn’t come out and denounce Bennett within the next few days, then f*** the NBA. Let’s bleed the bastards dry until 2010 and hope for the best. Seattle does not negotiate with terrorists.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Brian,
When are we going to see some of the other emails that you mentioned on KJR? Sounds like there are still a few more shoes to fall…
April 10th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Thanks Brian for all you do for us to keep our Sonics!! I am excited to see what happens in the next 72 hours to see if something can get worked out or accomplished.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Percy Allen says stay tuned, Seattle Times have many more emails to produce.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Lot’s of good stuff in the brief.
please see on page 7-8 of the PDF (p. 4-5 as numbered in the document), “II. Factual Backround, section B. In particular the last paragraph on sheet 7 and the following . Bennett’s group, on condition of the sale, had two agreements to make a good faith effort to find a solution and not move, one agreement with Howard’s group, the other with the league owners (NBA). That second one could be plan C, a long shot, but it looks like an out for the league.
Other stuff
See the argument on sheet 21, as related to sheets 7-8.
sheet 22, #20, paragraph 2 sets the arena lease in a class of leases.
sheet 24, seeking NBA financial data as related to undue hardship.
City’s brief in support of motion to compel (PDF)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2008/04/09/2004338446.pdf
I am going to have a beer, cheers!
April 10th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Just read the city’s brief in full. I know this sounds corny, but I’m proud of the city. They have a rock solid case and they are potentially going to revolutionize the sports world as we know it. Please don’t accept a buyout and make me eat my words.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Soon we will have some video and pictures for you. Great stuff.. What a day.. What a day.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Two very simple questions that I’d be curious to see people’s responses to (please no caveats, no “ifs, ands or buts”…just your best guess if you had a gun to your head).
1) Odds of the Sonics being in Seattle next year? I say 75%.
2) Odds of the Sonics being in Seattle in 2010-11 and beyond? I say 40% (would have said 20% yesterday).
April 10th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Probability, not odds. My B.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
100% & 100%. victory or death
April 10th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Slade Rocks.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
“That’s the spirit!” -Tom Ward
April 10th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
100%
50%
That 50 could grow to 75 within 72 hours.
I think that if lawyer/gov Chris G. can find a real way to get the actual Sonics team to stay I think she commits to the city, the city bridges the 75 mil.
“hanging on to a fungus”, Silvi is killing me, you go Paul!
April 10th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
I just read the brief also. Great read. I found this interesting:
“PBC expressly promised the NBA (as it had promised the former owners) that it would make good faith efforts…. Further, the NBA required PBC’s members to expressly affirm they had no intention of relocating the Sonics outside of the Seattle area.”
It mentions the fact throughout that the “good faith effort” agreement was with the NBA as well. I always thought the “good faith” was an agreement between PBC and Howie. I wonder if this will open the door to any other lawsuits with the NBA if they allow relocation?
April 10th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
The meeting Brian, Paul and I had with the Governor was a good one. Right off the bat she made it clear she was mad as hell at Clay Bennett. She also made it 100% clear to us that she wants to help and feels there is no way to acomplish the goal with a special session. At this point I agree because the next step after that requires King County to act diverting those funds after the state approves them doing so. Even if that special session were tomorrow it is unlikely that the King County Council would approve it on their monday meeting.
Timing wise we are too late in the game to go that route.
However the thing to keep in mind is that $300 million doesn’t need to be in a bank account to make this deal a done deal. What has to be there is a 100% commitment that the project will be built if we get the approval to move forward. With that commitment the Ballmer group can go to the league and state that they WILL buy the team and that Key Arena WILL be upgraded to their standards.
The league needs to seriously consider that this is about to become one of the biggest scandals in sports and needs to put the brakes on everything while this is being investigated.
They would have to be flat out insane to move forward with this process before they have a chance to find out just how deep this mess goes.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
AP, I thought the same thing, but there it is. That may get people to talk and act in a hurry.
They actually may be able to force him to sell, reality changed today.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
I like hearing that otto (the Q13 lead). Anything that builds confidence in the region’s casual fans is a plus. I get sick of casual fans telling me how they want them to stay and would try to help but that they feel it’s too late.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
I think the headlines of these papers, & the various websites should focus more on the lies, than the intent to move. Most people, except the naive fools like myself, & some of our politicians knew from day one what the intentions were, so that’s not a surprise to most. The surprise is the documented lies not just to us, but Stern, & just about everyone on the planet with the exception of his cohorts.
Who knows how many others are realizing that they were lied to without doubt today, i.e. the Sonics front office, coaching staff, players possibly, Sonics employees, season ticket holders as well as the former ownership group, and even some of the people of OKC might be wondering if they can trust this guy right now.
Can this even be spun at all by Bennett? I suppose he could try, but he’s gonna have to wait until it all comes out to even try, so that he doesn’t get caught in any more lies. Oh what a tangled web we weave…
April 10th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
SamK: I would put the odds of the team playing here next year at 100%
If you consider the timeline of the court case, deliberations, appeal period, and appeal process there is no way that Clay can get free of the lease before the drop dead date to move for this season. That is assuming the 1% chance that he wins the case. The appeal culd take long enough that they might not even be free the following year.
If he loses the case the chances of the team playing the next two seasons here is 100%.
What is a bigger question is what are the odds that this will even go to trial. I would put those odds even lower today than I did yesterday and they were pretty low then.
This is shaping up to be a monster scandal and the league must find a way to keep this out of court. Yesterday that meant finding a way to get teams in OKC AND Seattle but that may have just changed today.
If the league is smart they defer the vote until October and then step in and work overtime to clean up Clay’s mess. They have to find a way to seperate themselves from him or they will go down with him.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Mr. Baker I totally agree. It is extremely clear they lied to the NBA and may have violated an agreement in the approval of sale.
I would really like to know in light of this news how the NBA could spin this if they allow the relocation.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
thanks Steve P, I figured she would be angry, good for her, she may not be the greatest Gov, maybe she is, either way I don’t think it is a good idea to lie the the Gov of any state, esp one that was the state AG.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Wow, it was SO SATISFYING to walk past a newspaper vending machine and see the headline in today’s Seattle Times.
It was even better when I read the article and then Brian’s post about meeting with the Governor. This whole thing sure is a roller coaster but I feel great right now, if for no other reason than Clay being exposed as a LIAR! Undeniable PROOF that he’s a LIAR!
With that said, I’d just like to thank you once again Brian, for all your hard work.
You. Rock.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I think we are just getting our hopes up to think the NBA will change their stance on this. Stern will probably say something along the lines of things were blown out of proportion, the league has looked into this and made ammends, and now the league supports Clay because there is still no new arena in Seattle.
I really hope I’m wrong but this is my guess.
(Please be wrong!!!)
April 10th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
“Sam K Says:
1) Odds of the Sonics being in Seattle next year? I say 75%.
2) Odds of the Sonics being in Seattle in 2010-11 and beyond?
I say 40% (would have said 20% yesterday).”
Courtsense answers:
#1: 100% - Specific Performance will be upheld.
#2: 60% - If the leadership here goes “all in” it’s 100%.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Eric, I agree. After all the lies and manipulation we’ve seen from Stern, I’ve learned not to expect him to do the right thing. I won’t be surprised if he makes some statement tomorrow about how Bennett’s emails to Ward/McClendon were “a stroke moment brought on by Clay’s frustration with the City of Seattle’s lack of support for professional basketball.”
However, even he has to be second guessing this whole plot a little bit right now.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Who ever said that Percy Allen might have more emails to release, where did you here or read that at?
April 10th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
I really liked how they wrapped the argument around to come back to making the case, limited in scope and time, to the NBA finances.
I am not a lawyer, I am a Com major at uw, that there was very strong in construction, delivering points for other reasons while they are at it, and pinning much of it on the need to have that other data, sweet.
Those emails are like gold.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Got to think that the rest of the owners are wondering if they will get their butts sued as well. Clay is making a great first impression with them.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Paul, I do not think he has the emails, the city does, they have many, the brief asks for more.
I expect to see more that didn’t make the cut to be in the brief.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
OT: Baker, you’re a Comm Major at UW? I work in the Comm building everyday with The Daily. Feel free to stop by sometime and ask for Eric Evans. I am ALWAYS up for discussing the Sonics.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
“With the everflowing B.S. that comes outta his mouth” - Paul Silvi, talking about Stern and Bennett. Great quote Paul!
April 10th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
I expect that if Stern says anything at all publicly, he’ll probably downplay this controversy with the emails and continue to stand with Bennett, and continue to blame Seattle - for the time being.
If, however, more damning emails or other inside information about Bennett and the PBC’s escapades comes to light - OR - if/when the City’s motion for the NBA’s financial statements and other documents is upheld, then Stern will go into sudden shock and start thinking about ways to skillfully and tactfully separate Bennett from the Sonics.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
court, that is basically how I see it.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
http://photos-093.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v235/180/49/10733093/n10733093_37764429_6808.jpg
Clay photoshopped
April 10th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
I know it won’t happen but wouldn’t it be the greatest thing ever if the NBA forces Clay to sell and then kicks him to the curb which kills the chances for an OKC team? Their ‘hero’ who was bringing a team ends up poisoning the well and ruining it.
I would die laughing.
I know the chances would more likely be that they let NO move to OKC or something which would be funny as well. They’d get a team and he wouldn’t be the hero. But he would get to watch NBA ball that way so I prefer option 1
April 10th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
http://www.enjoytheenjoyment.com/2008/04/your-move-howard-schultz.html
This was a good read. Not the best though.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
We could all be wrong and Stern might just “come out” and say ‘Yes, Clay and I have a beautiful relationship. He is the wind beneath my wings and I can’t imagine life without him. We are both strong in our desire to have the team move to OKC and I plan on retiring from the NBA and moving to OKC where we can share in our love of the Sonics and each other forever.’
April 10th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
What is interesting Mr. Baker is that there is a state RCW that makes it illegal to lie to an elected official.
At this point the legal nightmare for Clay is just begining.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Yahoo.com the story is the on their main page. Were gettin some press boys and girls!
April 10th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Thanks Erik, I attend at night (work at the factory of ultimate destruction in the daytime.
I have 25 credits, all electives, to go. I am going to stretch those out through next winter.
My focus is Technology and Society (that’s all if you reading this).
I’ll see if I can swing by early one day.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
I wonder if Bill Russell is feeling betrayed today?
April 10th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Imagine the ridiculous celebration all us diehard fans will have when Bennett is forced to sell the team to Ballmer this summer.
We can get together for a big bash before the game on Opening Night - and then go watch Durant, Green, Derrick Rose, and our new head coach tip off the ‘08-’09 season.
That’s my dream.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Steven Pyeatt: That is what I have been saying and reading about the RCW thing few weeks ago. RCW 9A.76.175 somewhere I think.
I just can not imagine that David Stern would continue to support Bennett and send a bad message to NBA and fans in general. I don’t see how they can get out of this mess. Plus there is more coming out that is what I am so curious about.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Don’t forget Luke Ridenour, he must be so garsh darn T’ed off.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Courtsense that thought brings so many emotions, both positive and negative, that I don’t think I can handle it right now. But oh how I hope that happens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 10th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
JJ and I have been saying this for a while…..The trial and its exposing of Stern and Bennett is the KEY. The quikest way for Stern to stop the bleeding is to get Bennett, Ballmer and himself in a room and work out the sale of the Seattle Sonics to Ballmers group.As I said quite a while ago, if I were Balmer I would be tempted to refuse the offer until after the trial. They just shouldn’t be let out of this that easy. The bigger the mess, the better for all NBA cities in the future to be protected from future attempts to blackmail them for new arenas. By the way, I have had a bet with 5 co-workers for more than half a year (for lunch) that the Sonics are going nowhere. I’ve taken a lot of abuse about the supposed OK Sonics in that period of time. Although I’ve been extremely confident ever since the Sale to Bennett and throughout this process, including leaving this up to God, I think they(my abusive co-workers) are finally going to be sweating instead of bragging about the news reports from now on. I don’t enjoy seeing anyone go down in flames, just give me my team back and leave us alone. Been a fan since ‘67 when they first entered the league. My dad was killed by a drunk driver in ‘66. I kind of latched on to the Sonics and B-ball after that. 100% sure (if God’s willing) they stay permanantly.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
It would be even better for Bennett to sell the team quickly by Saturday. Then we can rock the house at the last home game to give these Sonics players some kind of peace in mind to go home knowing that they don’t have to spend time worry about what is going to happen in the summer.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Yeah but I’ll bet Watson is more T’ed off.
Hehe
April 10th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
I’m really wondering how Clay Bennett can show his face to the public anymore. He has so much damage control to do that it’s not even funny, and it seems like this is just the beginning. How many people will be able to put 2 + 2 together & realize that they were indeed lied to, decieved, or misled, and how will they feel when the see him face to face, and how will Clay feel trying to explain himself? This is all way too huge for alot of people to simply ignore, or dismiss anymore…
April 10th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Amen
April 10th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Also the Sonics players will know that they don’t have to sell their house to move to lame-duck city. I just damn hope that Stern will spill out and give up on Bennett.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Steve P, I saw that posted here a few days ago. There is more leverage in the courts getting information when it involves a crime. If things go wrong then throw him in jail? Ok, sounds absurd, but I think pressing the item could be useful.
Don’t do the crime, if you can do the time.
If I am quoting 70’s tv theme songs, then it must be time to say goodnight.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:01 am
Remember!!
[edited - make http://www.tinyurl.com your friend.]
http://tinyurl.com/4py8py
April 11th, 2008 at 12:09 am
Talk about Bennett/Stern going out in public, how embarrassing will this be?
Imagine for years to come at press conferences, away games, etc. seeing these kinds of signs:
Clay, we should try to talk early in the week — so I can calm you down.
Clay Bennett: I aspire to be a GREAT owner.
(preface each one below with Clay or David)
you have significantly affected my life.
you have betrayed our trust.
your charisma brings out the best in everyone you touch.
you and I are fine.
it pains me to see the situation you are in.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:13 am
Coach: Payton
Asst: Sikma
Asst: JJ (Johnny Johnson)
Big Man Coach: Lonnie Shelton, Spencer Haywood
Shooting Coach: Hersey Hawkins
Cheerleader coach: Steve Scheffler
Just bring em all back now.
Woohoooooooooooooo!!!!
April 11th, 2008 at 12:14 am
What a day it has been! BR and Steve P: Thank you for what have done since day 1 that you guys created this organization for everyone to be part of this movement. I will never forget this experience. But it is not over until the Sonics is being transfer to Ballmer group.
Good night to everyone! Tomorrow is definitely going to be an interesting one to watch.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:16 am
The PI version (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/basketball/358574_arena11.html)
makes it sound like CB and Nickels/Ceis were talking buyout but then the #2 pick came and fired everyone up. Nickels chickened out.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Thank you BR & Steve for your work today & for these updates. I know you have details you would like to share & cannot just yet - but What I am hearing from you is that the meeting went well - you left with more hope that maybe the GOV finally “Gets It” and may actually ACT & not just Talk.
Let’s hope so
Let’s call KJR & get on the air a ton tomorrow & Saturday & encourage fans to PACK the Key arena on Sunday night!
SOS
April 11th, 2008 at 12:21 am
Imagine trying to spend 2 more years in Seattle as owner without being able to show your face in public, or at games.
Imagine the prolonged bad publicity for the league, and his ownership group after these emails, the trials, and then for 2 years “lame duck status” as they say. I really can’t even imagine, or visualize how they’re going to continue to try to pull this whole thing off anymore.
Shoot, imagine being an OKC fan if they move in 2010, happy to have a team on the one hand, but embarrassed as he!! about how they got it on the other. The ends don’t justify the means, and most of em’ know it deep down, though they may not want to accept it on the surface…
April 11th, 2008 at 12:38 am
The e-mail revelations today only underscore the idea that the NBA will NOT want to have the June Court case even happen. I can’t imagine NBA owners will want Clay & Stern & maybe even some of them under oath with Slade Gordon going for their throats. Stern & Clay cannot want that to happen.
They are bluffing - they will slide out of this case & agree to honor the lease before they let this case go to court. The only thing that would prevent this from happening is if the city relents/caves and accepts a settlement offer. If Nichols hangs tough - The NBA backs down on this court case.
Based on the comments from BR & Steve, I’m hopeful the GOV. will take some action that can assure Ballmer & Nichols that the funding for a new KEY arena can move ahead. I think if the GOV. can assure Nichols the $$$ is there > He will hang tough.
If that happens at some point between now & mid-June - IMO - The NBA will “Persuade” Clay B. to sell.
Stern & Nichols are both talking tough - bluffing > But if Gregoire gives Nichols the card he needs on the River… Arena funding/solution > Clay & Stern are toast
April 11th, 2008 at 12:41 am
And if Howard S. can sue Clay for breaching the sale contract - all the better.
Remember > He does not have to have a winning case - Proving “Good Faith” is indeed very subjective. But it simply adds to the pressure & bad PR for the league to resolve this & get rid of Clay.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:01 am
McLendon and Ward were hinting at bailing if the Sonics stayed here. If I remember right isn’t McL the money man? If the Sonics end up staying for 2 years their ‘heart’ might more inclined to sell and maybe they will pull a Schultz on the rest of their group (Bennett). Would be funny if they made him sell.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:10 am
I could not sleep as I decided to browse through all websites. I found it very interesting how Bennett’s group. There has been some kind of indication that PJ was on it too but not directly. The message in the exhibit: 37 does not stated that PJ is on their side. But it seems like that Presti is doing what he is being told by Bennett indirectly with PJ and Sonics players.
Here is the website: it is a long read!
http://www.kirotv.com/download/2008/0410/15849359.pdf
April 11th, 2008 at 1:22 am
Wow, the Kiro PDF lists all their email addresses. Risky.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:33 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdi0d1we72E&feature=related
April 11th, 2008 at 1:43 am
WHOA
From Bennett to Stern, 8/13/07
“We are attempting to make this the most difficult arena develpment/relocation exercise of all time. Talking with the lawyers and PR folks now to craft a response strategy. Never a dull moment.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:45 am
Oh, never mind. That was concerning the Aubrey mouth off. He was being “funny”.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:48 am
Out of curiosity, now that the news has come out, what would stop Bennett, or even Stern/league from deleting other emails regarding the Sonics/arena/moving to OKC? I mean emails that no one else has in possessions yet but might be asked to be handed it later for the court case?
April 11th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Yeah I know and I thought of sending the E-mails to Clay Bennett group. But I did not want to do any harm to make them more angier or whatever.
WHOA
From Bennett to Stern, 8/13/07
“We are attempting to make this the most difficult arena develpment/relocation exercise of all time. Talking with the lawyers and PR folks now to craft a response strategy. Never a dull moment.
I agree this is a HUGE that is indicating Stern was part of this.
Instead what I did was write a letter to David Stern. I emailed it to dstern@nba.com. I don’t know if he will actually read it. But here is what I wrote:
Mr. David Stern,
You have disgusted me as NBA fan not just because I am a Sonics Fan! I could not believe that you are allowing this mess (Clay Bennett and his group never had the intention to stay in Seattle) to continue. You need to step up and do your job as NBA commissioner to clean up and fix the problem. Because it is hurting the NBA right now. Every media has exploded with this story and I am sure more stories are on the way out.
You need to leave your personal vengeance aside with Seattle City officials and Washington State Legislators as well. Yes, you had the difficulty to work with them in the past because THEY (Seattle officials and WA legislators) are right about the finance plans that was proposed by Howard Schultz and Bennett group were not in the best interest for Washington State taxpayers to be stuck with these type of money to be spent on.
You continued to dispose the effort of Ballmer group to help and DONATE half of million of the 300 million proposal to renovate the Key Arena. Yes, the legislators have made a DUMB move by not working on this one! But it is not over as we have TWO years left on our lease to work on this one! Do you remember what you said that Key Arena proposal with Howard Schultz in Olympia in April 2006 was a viable and up to NBA standard? Now and yet, you said that this very SAME proposal is not a viable solution for Key arena?!?! That does not make sense to me. I wonder what was your real reason? To satisfy Bennett group by ripping off the SEATTLE SUPERSONICS fans and Washington State taxpayers? I suggest you to read the RCW website: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9A.76.175
Guess what? You have put yourself in a position where you have lied to the elected officials.
We knew that it was Clay Bennett’s group intention to move the Sonics to OKC on July 16th 2006 but we had no proof until April 10th, 2008 and we have it now! Washington State Governor announced that “we, Governor Gregoire and State of Washington residents, are being lied to by Clay Bennett”. Guess what? You also are being lied too! I can not understand why you will continue to support Clay Bennett’s group request to relocate the Sonics to OKC, which it really BELONGS in SEATTLE, WASHINGTON! That is my assumption that you are still supporting Clay Bennett because we have not heard anything from you yesterday and today.
I hope you act your job as commissioner by doing what is in the best interest of NBA not just to please your “friend” with Clay Bennett. Remember the everyone are watching EVERY movement you are/will/do make. I fathom can’t imagine you will continue to support Clay Bennett’s group to relocation to Oklahoma City. Again and remember YOU are being LIED by your “friend” Clay Bennett! Clay Bennett group action of being deceiving and trying to make it a difficult to work with City of Seattle officials regarding to the arena.
I do not see how the BOG and you can continue to support the relocation of Sonics to Oklahoma city again. If you continue and allow this mess to go further than necessary. Then you just have cost yourself by damage the NBA fans and your legacy. Plus you will be losing the fans in general because of this situation that you allowed. I have in the past always admire your dedication to the NBA for last 25 years but last few years you have been a great disappointment to the NBA.
Sincerely,
Paul
April 11th, 2008 at 2:35 am
I have to say this and I don’t know really where else to do it. Margarita Prentice has lost her mind!
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sonics/2004341370_sonics11m.html
Read that.
I hope people get no the phone to her.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:45 am
Paul, Thanks for the link - I started reading it, but it’s 92 pages long, so I decided not to try to tackle it tonight since I need some sleep now. I realize that a lot of the pages contain addresses or other filler that you don’t have to read & they’re double-spaced with a lot of partial pages, but it’s still going to take awhile to read.
I don’t know how many readers and posters here were at the Christine Gregoire rally today to make a statement on behalf of our Sonics, but it was a great experience. The Save Our Sonics Group grew from about a dozen when my son and I arrived to over 40 - maybe as many as 50 at one time. It was nice to meet a few of the people who are on this forum, like Zonics, JRT Kelly (? I may be off on that one), Sbux_Sux (sp?), and a few others I’m forgetting right now. I also met Ben Simon, the Key Arena Ballerina, and he and I were interviewed by Kiro-TV to find out what we were hoping to accomplish at the Gregoire rally. He was surprised that I would change my vote from Gregoire to Rossi if she does not come through with the authorization for the funding to expand/rehab Key Arena. He said “You would change your vote based on just a single issue”? I said yes, if she doesn’t solve the problem, I would, because she has had plenty of time to provide leadership on this issue and come up with a solution. She and her people have to know that there will be political consequences for mishandling this and letting the Sonics go. It’s that important of an issue.
That being said, I was encouraged by what the Governor had to say today. She first of all said that she wanted to thank all of the Sonics fans who came out to the rally today. She said after reading the emails today, she realizes that we’ve all been lied to. She said that she was angry at being lied to by Clay Bennett and that she would do everything that she could to make sure that the Sonics stay where they belong - right here in Seattle (or something to that effect). It was certainly one of the biggest positives we’ve had, fortunately made possible by the release of the Clay Bennett - PBC (is that right?) - David Stern emails earlier. The timing was great for her and for us as far as getting some action taken. What is even better than what she said there is that she agreed to meet with Brian Robinson and Steve Pyeatt before the rally to discuss the Sonics’ situation and what was supposed to be 20-30 minutes I think turned into an hour-long discussion of all the issues. Brian (or was it Steve?) said that he felt really encouraged when the Governor opened up her notebook/planner and started writing things down and saying that she was going to get someone on that right away. They asked her to promise that she would take action in the next 72 hours and she did, so that would be up on late Sunday afternoon, but since that falls on a day when it’s harder to get things done usually, we may need to give her until Monday to take definitive action. They asked her to extend herself to the city of Seattle Mayor Nickols and bridge the gap on the financing providing them with written assurance that the State will cover the $75 Million next year, if the city commits another $75 Million this year. Let’s see if she will come through. If so, it’s a big step for the future of the Sonics in Seattle.
I hope you guys got to hear Governor Gregoire on KJR right after the rally on with the Groz. After her briefing from Brian and Steve, she sounded very knowledgable about the issues here. It’s great. It’s the most we’ve heard out of her in a long, long time. We all deserve a pat on the back for being vocal, even outspoken on this issue and not letting it die. I think part of the OKC plan was to create apathy among the citizens of Washington and Seattle by turning out a very poor product, and creating demands that were completely unreasonable to meet, if not impossible, making it look like it was our fault that we were going to lose our team - like we just didn’t care enough to support the Sonics, so they were forced to relocate. We still have a lot of work to do to let the NBA BOG know that there is a very committed, devoted fan base here in Washington and that we will “not go gently into that good night” but we will “rage, rage against the dying of the light.” I feel that victory is within our grasp - and it feels really, really good. A lot still needs to be done. We can give them more bad publicity than they can handle, because they’re such idiots. A lot of it will just be them hanging themselves, but we have to be vigilant and we need to contact the media, and we need to make signs for Sunday’s game - boy do we need some signs - think of the signs that we can make now! Hopefully, we can get a group together on Saturday to do that or maybe more than one group, because I’m in Gig Harbor, so a Tacoma group would work better for me than a Seattle group. Hopefully there’s some artists or calligraphers in this group.
The other reason that I’m feeling really good about our chances of keeping the Sonics in Seattle is because of the leadership of Save Our Sonics and Sonics Central.com. Hopefully, you guys got to hear Brian Robinson on with the Gasman on KJR about 7:40PM. I am always so impressed with Brian and Steve because they are very knowledgeable and they talk to all kinds of people around the country, including NBA owners like Mark Cuban, and politicians, and members of the press, and they are both very well-spoken, intelligent, and informed. We have excellent leadership here - and excellent membership with a lot of well-informed and devoted Sonics fans who are not going to sit still for some crook stealing our team with the blessing of the NBA’s commissioner. I wonder if David Stern is going to press ahead with this folly, trying to ignore all of this or if he is going to come to his senses. My feeling is that if he tries to ramrod this through the NBA BoG, that it will blow up in his face, and will probably end up with him being removed as commissioner of the NBA because he would be endorsing crooks and because of all the rest of the stuff that’s going to come out that hasn’t been revealed yet. We need to throw a couple more logs on and sit back and enjoy the fire.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:45 am
That has to be one of the most foolish, politically incorrect comments that could have possibly been made by her, and it probably stems from the fact that she supported Bennett publicly, and looks like a fool for doing so…
April 11th, 2008 at 2:46 am
Prentice^
April 11th, 2008 at 3:01 am
Plus she must be somewhat upset that the Sonics are not moving to Renton. She has been saying crazy stuff for some time now, but what she says in that article is ridiculous.
April 11th, 2008 at 3:14 am
I say we do everything possible to get that traitor prentice out of office…
SONIC FANS ARE YOU JUICES FLOWING ??????
BECAUSE ITS OUR TIME TO WRECK SOME HAVOC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 11th, 2008 at 3:21 am
Bennith, I agree those sound like pretty stupid things for her to say. She doesn’t understand the ruse he was pulling. He had nothing invested in Renton and no intention of investing there ever. He did not try to understand the political process and make a sound proposal that would have a chance of being accepted or at least heard, because he INTENDED for it to be rejected so he could turn around and throw up his hands and say ‘well, I’ve done everything that I can do, but it’s obvious that Washington State does not want the Sonics’. What we really don’t know yet is if David Stern was in on the deception from the beginning or not. That email that appears to show Clay Bennett lying to David Stern could just be calculated cover for Stern & Bennett (except that it just hangs Bennett, because of the other emails).
I’m trying to understand this sentence that you wrote and I’m just not getting it: “I hope people get no the phone to her.” referring to Margarita Prentice. I don’t know what ‘getting no the phone to her’ means. Please help me out on that.
April 11th, 2008 at 3:33 am
My hope is that the former owners of Sonics will act on to do something to null void the sale. Because Bennett group failed and NEVER had the intention of doing good faith to keep the Sonics in Seattle. That would make a lot easier for Ballmer group to jump back in and take care of the transaction for former Sonics owners. Also Ballmer’s group offer back on the table with 300 million proposal that is fully funded.
The BOG will have to vote NO to prevent the relocation. Because 1. we have viable proposal to fund the Key Arena 2. We have local potential ownership to buy the team. That will screw up Stern’s and Bennett’s plan.
April 11th, 2008 at 4:12 am
I think he meant on the phone to her…
April 11th, 2008 at 4:22 am
SONICS HAD NO CHANCE AGAINST ROCKETS!!!!
http://mundoalbiceleste.blogspot.com/2008/04/nba-news-no-yao-no-t-mac-but-got-scola.html
April 11th, 2008 at 4:38 am
Good faith let’s see:
-500 million $ arena or else
-Let go of Lenny Wilkens
-Let go of Jack Sikma, Wally Walker, Rick Sund
-Trade Ray Allen(teams best player)
-Let go of teams 2nd best player who said that he would have considered staying, but no offer was made.
-Mclendon Statements/fine
-On draft lottery day he’s visiting another city checking out arena
-Trades the better players on the team acquired from Allen/Lewis(Wally Z, K. Thomas, DWest).
-Vegas remarks
-Drastically cut media access to players.
-Cut fan favorite Brent Barry(just cut him)
-EMAILS, EMAILS, EMAILS
Anything I forgot, or that he forgot, bcuz I don’t see anything more that he could have done to totally mock the concept of good faith than what he did. I don’t think it’s humanly possible to put forth less “good faith” in this particular situation…
April 11th, 2008 at 4:41 am
Orlando Sentinel chips in:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_nothingbutnet/2008/04/everything-seem.html
April 11th, 2008 at 6:22 am
Wow (to the Prentice comment). Really?
That’s just sad to see her completely under Bennett’s spell, STILL!
Wake up Mrs. Prentice.
April 11th, 2008 at 6:34 am
Story is in the LA TImes
http://www.latimes.com/sports/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_sports12apr11,1,6419480.story
April 11th, 2008 at 7:01 am
Maybe Prentice, Stern, & Clay Clay had a little 3 way love…
April 11th, 2008 at 7:01 am
Maybe Prentice, Stern, & Clay Clay had a little 3 way love…
April 11th, 2008 at 7:12 am
For the last home game you guys need to be out in force. Signs everywhere and chants saying BENNETT IS A LIAR etc.
Really jump on this and don’t let go!
April 11th, 2008 at 7:14 am
FINALLY Wally Walker speaks out on this issue. Good for him. I sincerely hope the former ownership group can make some waves on this breach of faith issue.
April 11th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Someone on realgm just posted another e-mail from Bennett to Stern.
“We are attempting to make this the most difficult arena development/relocation exercise of all time. Talking with the lawyers and PR folks now to craft a response strategy. Never a dull moment.”
I hope that hasn’t been posted before….
April 11th, 2008 at 7:31 am
Mitch is replaying his interview with Clay Bennett from July, 2007.
GOD.
Clay Bennett is such a snake.
April 11th, 2008 at 7:46 am
ARGH CLAY BENNETT YOU SNAKE!!
April 11th, 2008 at 7:47 am
what Laporbo is true, McLendon said in an email that he and Ward did not want to own a team here. So if we can keep the pressure up long enough (or hell, just win the court case and keep them here until 2010), they might back out, causing a majority vote within the PBC to sell.
April 11th, 2008 at 7:51 am
Plus, that could be even more evidence against Bennett. McLendon and Ward never wanted a team in Seattle, so Bennett probably only got them to join his ownership group under the promise that he would move the team, meaning he had the intention before he ever even bought them!
April 11th, 2008 at 7:56 am
This is a monster scandal - we need to find support with a 60 minutes or some other national show to “undress” the NBA.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:04 am
I feel bad for the team to have to go through this…
I guarantee Durants agent is pissed about all of this and if this team moves he won’t be resigning.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Prentice is a major TOOL!!
April 11th, 2008 at 8:18 am
Read this run down
http://www.keepthesonicsinseattle.com/archive/2008/04/10/Proof-of-Past-POSTS.aspx
April 11th, 2008 at 8:18 am
From the Times article:
“Murray said there’s no role that she, as a senator, can play in the dispute”
It’s a good thing Slade didn’t feel that way when he was a Senator, or we wouldn’t have an MLB or NFL team. Our state leaders are the best I’ve ever seen at saying “this needs to be done- somebody should do it.” What leadership!
April 11th, 2008 at 8:19 am
I’ll admit I have not been covering this issue as closely as many of you have, but the most interesting thing to come out of this latest story to me is this:
“The city obtained thousands of e-mails as part of discovery in its lawsuit and included them in a motion filed Wednesday in New York federal court.
“The motion seeks to force the NBA to turn over 20 categories of documents, including financial statements for every team in the league. The city argues the NBA has been complicit in Bennett’s scheme to move the Sonics before the KeyArena lease expires.”
I had been under the impression that it had already been decided that the NBA was going to have to provide all those documents to the city of Seattle. Turns out this has not yet been decided, and it will be decided in federal court in NYC.
So, I would say it’s a pretty good bet that the NBA has been waiting to see what the ruling on this is. If the judge rules that the NBA does not have to provide any of those documents, then the NBA might not be worried at all about this going to trial. If the judge rules that the NBA has to provide documents that the NBA really does not want to reveal, then I think it’s likely this will not go to trial.
So I would say that how the judge rules on this motion for discovery is pretty important. Anyone know when that ruling will be made?
April 11th, 2008 at 8:42 am
I still believe the court of public opinion is our greatest asset at this point. Focusing on the FACT that Clayton “Rhymes with SATAN” Bennett is a barefaced liar in every way imagineable will keep this low-life from gaining any traction in his attempt to weasel out of this situation.
As Chairman of Dorcheter Capital he has to deal with clients (I assume) who have entrusted him with Million$. This is Enron level mistrust Satan has shown. Keep up the pressure.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Another thing to keep clearly in mind is the email to Stern by Satan denying any previous plans to move. The obvious conclusion from this is that Stern was not as deeply embedded in this deception as we had originally believed. Satan lied to him too.
And it’s hard to get past the creepy man-love tone of Sir Lie-a-lot. This is all such a huge embarassment to Stern I almost feel sorry for him.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:01 am
My impression was that the order to turn over the docs had already been made…but the NBA was dragging their feet, defining “relevance” very narrowly, etc.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:01 am
There’s a clear, documented pattern now:
The NBA cared little whether Seattle kept the Sonics or not. They threw Sonic fans under the bus (none deserved it).
They feigned an effort around ridiculous arena demands. They threw a bunch of Washington elected officials under the bus (some didn’t deserve it, really).
Their true clubhouse agreement and attitude became public. They threw Aubrey McClendon under the bus (he fully deserved it).
The emails have shown the entire sports world what was really happening behind the lies. Stern faces a choice. I can’t imagine that it’s anything other than him or Bennett who goes under the weight of this rolling disaster next.
Stern’s only other option is to try to keep up a brave front and try to convince the other 29 owners to make Bennett and this entire fiasco a part of their club and their legacy. The probability of that is diminishing rapidly. Where is Clayton Satan and what will Stern say next? The bus is rolling…
April 11th, 2008 at 9:08 am
YES!
Clayton “Rhymes with SATAN” Chairman,
Dore-Cheater Capital.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Can someone fix the link that is causing the formatting to be all messed up…please??
April 11th, 2008 at 9:10 am
The audio clip of Brian on KJR is found here.
http://www.kjram.com/cc-common/podcast.html
This blog entry coverges much of the same ground.
One addition of note in the radio interview was the revelation that the Schultz group vote was 3-2 against sale initally but flipped to 3-2 for sale. I assume the 2 against were Walker and Stantion. Schultz for sale. Not for sure without looking further who exercised the other two votes and who was the flipper. Likely a Schultz ally like his colleague at Starbucks was with him and the flipper was probably the representative for all the lawyers and deal makers in the ownership group as payment for their work on the sale from Ackerly to Schultz, I’d guess. Based on Walker’s recent comments the side letter about “good faith” was likely a major part of getting that vote. If it was the lawyers and dealmakers as flippers wanting and swayed by that side letter it may have mainly about appearances or self-deluding confidence in it rather than real belief in it. And of course they wanted to get their money out. The NBA should not allow dealmakers in the ownership group. They do not necesseraily meet the general qualifications of deep committment to long-term and deep pockets.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:38 am
this page hurts my eyes…
April 11th, 2008 at 9:41 am
What is going on with the page? I think the white needs to be moved back here..grey is hard to read on green.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:42 am
“I had been under the impression that it had already been decided that the NBA was going to have to provide all those documents to the city of Seattle. Turns out this has not yet been decided, and it will be decided in federal court in NYC.”
The motion in NYC is not a deciding whether they have to, its a motion to compel setting the timing in order for the NBA to have to turn those papers over within 21 days. Don’t get the two mixed up.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:42 am
I don’t notice anything different? I can see fine…
April 11th, 2008 at 9:44 am
the huge link about halfway down the page has messed up the formatting for some people (like me!) and it sucks
April 11th, 2008 at 9:51 am
mine is fine too.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:55 am
The Gov has proven she is good at damage control.
She headed off the SOS group so as to avoid any embarassing uprising at her rally.
Promising something within 72 hours……guess who is going to be back in town in 72 hours?
Chopp.
She just bought herself some time until Papi gets home.
Sorry you guys fell for it.
Guess that is what happens to political rookies.
I hope that my opinion is proved 100% wrong, and if that occurs I will immediately retract and apologize. But until that happens this is how I see it.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:58 am
P.S. An idea for signs for the game:
Save our Sonics!
Truthfully!
April 11th, 2008 at 10:02 am
This is how I see this playing out
-over the next 5-6 days, we’ll see even more bad emails coming out. These emails will focus more on how the ownership group conspired to deceive the NBA.
-The national media will continue to pick this story up and will publicize how Clay has duped everyone.
-The governor will meet with the city and work out a plan that convinces the city that the state’s “IOU” is good and that the funding will be there next year.
-Balmer’s group will publicly request a meeting with the NBA BOG and together with the mayor, will present their plan prior to them meeting about relocation
-In an effort to save face and to avoid the court case, The BOG, will reject the move with the stipulation that the same offer the city is offering Balmer is extended to Clay, or if Clay doesn’t want to own the Seattle team, Balmer will purchase the team from Clay. The NBA will offer Clay an expansion team in 2010 unless he is able to find another team to move before then.
-=cysco
April 11th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Has this made Sportscenter yet? I’ll be watching the next installment. I would hate to be the guy who has to quote Clay’s Bromance Email. There is NO WAY I could do that straight-faced.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:07 am
By this time yesterday the first round of emails had hit the news. Where is the second round they mentioned yesterday?
April 11th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Bennett: David, you had me at hello.
Stern: Clayton, you complete me.
America: Ewwwwww
April 11th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Slade Gorton will be on the softy show within the hour.
Will be a good listen.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:19 am
I can’t quit you!
April 11th, 2008 at 10:19 am
given the effect that the first round of emails had, I suspect that we won’t see anything else until Monday. To get the most impact from a news story, you never release it on Friday. If you want maximum coverage you wait for Monday.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:29 am
I only mentioned round 2 of emails today because both Brian and Brunner said more coming today.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:35 am
I saw this and instantly thought how you could do one of these things with the players. Show how much they would deteriorate playing with Clay and co.
http://www.wintrest.com/if-celebs-moved-to-oklahoma/
just some fun.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Going to Vegas on the 19th, sure wold love to go with the BOG denying relocation or at the very least delaying the vote until October. It would make the trip so much better!
April 11th, 2008 at 10:47 am
What time is Slade going on KJR?
April 11th, 2008 at 10:48 am
On Monday they will be releasing the results of the 2 DNA samples taken from that one specific hotel room the night of the OKC Hall of Fame Ceremony.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Some food for thought:
I totally doubt Nike will let KD stay in OKC after his NBA rookie contract is up.
Seattle, complete with its own Niketown and lack of a big impact, highly visible Nike athlete since GP left (not to diss Sue Bird, LJ, or Ray), is a much better fit for KD and his endorsements than OKC…
I wonder how big of an impact NBA/Player-affiliated endorsers/advertisers may be trying to have for/against this move behind the scenes… advertising makes the world go around, right?
April 11th, 2008 at 10:51 am
I don’t know why I included all of the /’s… sorry!
April 11th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Has anyone else heard the dramatic reading of clays e-mail on KJR. Very funny.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:58 am
“Has anyone else heard the dramatic reading of clays e-mail on KJR. Very funny. ”
Is it podcasted?
April 11th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Yes under E&I
April 11th, 2008 at 11:03 am
the huge link about halfway down the page has messed up the formatting for some people (like me!) and it sucks
Yes…please…
it is the post by Zonics at 12:01am
April 11th, 2008 at 11:09 am
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39453023@N00/2403341087/
April 11th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Brian, I read your post above about your meeting with the Governor. I am sure you must feel honored to meet with her and want to keep the lines of communication open. Unfortunately, you are beating a dead horse.
This Governor is the cause of our problems not the solution. The Sonics arena has been an issue for her entire term in office. Every year for the last four years some group has come to Olympia looking for a solution. She an Frank Chopp have not only not provided a solution, leadership or encouragement, they have been insulting to some of those who went out of their way to help. Passing up the $150M offer from the local ownership group is unforgiveable. If there is no consensus in Olympia it is only because she and Chopp have built a consensus to oppose it. They are ostly Democrats down there. Are we to believe a Democratic Governor and Speaker of the House cannot get their way with their own party? Unbelievable!
It is also unbelievable that she would suggest she was lied to by Bennett. Everyone in the state expected him to move the team if no solution was found. Of course, Bennett is going to be exploring his options in Kansas City and OKC while simultaneously working with the state of Washington. This is only good business. The burden of finding a solution was the Governor’s all along. Chris Gregoire failed to work on a solution during her first three years in office. Now it is too late. Hopefully the voters will show her the door in November. I don’t want her managing my tax dollars or the affairs of this state anymore.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Zonic’s comment was edited so it won’t screw up everyone’s formatting.
Remember, tinyurl.com is your friend.
Big Chris
April 11th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Just finished the big 92 page document. Exhibit 33 on page 35.
This is from August of 2006! Talks about not wanting to own the team in Seattle:
[Aubrey McClendon]
yep
[Tom Ward]
I just can’t imagine doint that. I don’t blame Clay. We could have found so many ways to make it happen. Clay has a pretty good group with the three of us. I assume that I will be ready to sell there and work on a team here if they build a new arena, but we shall see….
[Aubrey McClendon]
yes, I had lunch with him last week and he said he was out in Seattle, he wanted to tell CIB himself, but I prepared Clay for it - Clay is pissed!
[Tom Ward]
Clay told me yesterday that Larry is officially out. What a lame excuse. We could have buired for a year to see what was going to happen and sell then if he needed to. It is no different today than when he committed. I don’t think that you and I really to own a team there either but we are better partners.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Keith, where did you get the document?
April 11th, 2008 at 11:39 am
WOW! That is perhaps the most damning email sequence I have seen. Unbelievable how dumb these guys are. How could they not know this had a high probability of resulting in litigation and therefore it was a terrible idea to express the truth through email???
April 11th, 2008 at 11:45 am
So….it has been said that the City really cannot sue the Sonics for the breach of the Good Faith Effort clause in the sale. My question is if the City could sue the team for not trying to put a Good Faith Effort towards the season, which has led to a result in lost revenues (via the lease).
It seems to be that if Season Ticketholders can sue the Sonics for this…the City should have just as much grounds, since their financial performance is directly related to the ability of the Sonics to put a Good Faith Effort into winning.
I always say that I’m against “frivilous” lawsuits…but a City suing seems kind of about that…
April 11th, 2008 at 11:45 am
http://www.950kjr.com/cc-common/podcast/single_podcast.html?podcast=eliseandian_podcasts.xml
Clay’s Email on kjr.
This is awesome.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Otto: It is on Kiro tv. But I put the link and you should find on this thread. It was around 2:30am that I put it on.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:47 am
WOW! That is perhaps the most damning email sequence I have seen. Unbelievable how dumb these guys are. How could they not know this had a high probability of resulting in litigation and therefore it was a terrible idea to express the truth through email???
- Well…I actually read that this sort of proves that perhaps Clay was attempting to bargain and get an Arena despite the fact that he would’ve most likely lost the rest of his ownership group.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Hmmm…I guess that is a legitimate angle. I was operating under the assumption that Clay would want to sell as well if they got an arena in Seattle, but you have a good point.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:52 am
You combine that email, with the other email about Inpassioned of getting a team into OKC…and the arena/relocation package difficult. ANd its a slam dunk he is a ahole.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Is it just me or does the email transcript KeithR referenced above seem pretty poorly stated? Honestly, I’m having a hard time understanding what they’re trying to communicate due to the poor sentence structure, spelling, and grammar. Maybe it’s me - KeithR, can you summarize your interpretation of their conversation? I know it was shady. I just want to know how shady.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Myk, I can see your take as well. But it definitely shows they didn’t have a united group dedicated to finding a solution here which is what they were supposed to be doing. And it’s one exhibit out of many….. I really liked the fact that it was so early - 8/06, stuff after April 07 when they’d be turned down on the Renton arena could be seen as understandable. But to have this kind of talk back in summer of 06 is especially bad for them in my view.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Exhibit 19, pages 36 - 37 of 132 (big PDF), supporting documents, is the place in the League Approval of the sale that requires:
“For a period of 12 months following the date hereof, the Team shall, and the Owners shall cause the Team to, use good faith best efforts to negotiate an arena lease, purchase, use similar arrangement in the King, Pierce or Snohomish Counties of Washington as a venue for the Team’s games, to be used as a successor venue to Key Arena; provided, however, that the process described in this sentence and entering into any such arena lease, purchase, use a similar arrangement shall be at the Team’s own discretion.”
http://www.king5.com/sharedcontent/northwest/pdf/4-Lawrence-exhibits3.pdf
They don’t have to sign a lease, or purchase, but they have to give to “use good faith best efforts to negotiate an arena lease, purchase, use similar arrangement”.
That document is dated November 1, 2006 (page 22). One year later he moves that date he was going to announce the relocation from 10/31/07 (not a full year, is it?) He thinks he’s made it a year, only, he tries the weasel out early and admits to trying to relocate before the year was up.
The KINGtv web has the documents, and supporting exhibits.
http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_041008SSB_sonics_deception_revealed_JG.4da472d0.html
April 11th, 2008 at 11:59 am
I’ll try again:
Exhibit 19, pages 36 - 37 of 132 (big PDF), supporting documents, is the place in the League Approval of the sale that requires:
“For a period of 12 months following the date hereof, the Team shall, and the Owners shall cause the Team to, use good faith best efforts to negotiate an arena lease, purchase, use similar arrangement in the King, Pierce or Snohomish Counties of Washington as a venue for the Team’s games, to be used as a successor venue to Key Arena; provided, however, that the process described in this sentence and entering into any such arena lease, purchase, use a similar arrangement shall be at the Team’s own discretion.”
http://www.king5.com/sharedcontent/northwest/pdf/4-Lawrence-exhibits3.pdf
They don’t have to sign a lease, or purchase, but they have to give to “use good faith best efforts to negotiate an arena lease, purchase, use similar arrangement”.
That document is dated November 1, 2006 (page 22). One year later he moves that date he was going to announce the relocation from 10/31/07 (not a full year, is it?) He thinks he’s made it a year, only, he tries the weasel out early and admits to trying to relocate before the year was up.
The KINGtv web has the documents, and supporting exhibits.
http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_041008SSB_sonics_deception_revealed_JG.4da472d0.html
April 11th, 2008 at 11:59 am
TJKK, my take is that one of the potential buyers bailed when they started talking about having to try to keep the team in Seattle. The other two (McLendon and Ward) are dogging him for that and saying that they want to see what happens for a year, assuming it wouldn’t work out in Seattle. If for some reason it did work out here, they say they would probably sell.
So, it really shows they had pretty much no intention of owning the team in Seattle. Now, Clay isn’t on this thread, but it is still 2 of the other principle owners saying they really don’t want it in Seattle.
That’s my take.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:59 am
KeithR…where did you get the document you’re citing with the email transcripts?
April 11th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Ok…
Why does the start of Bennett’s e-mails to David Stern uses so much “physically descriptive” words?
I mean, it really sounds kind of romantic.
Dude, I try to be a grown up about this, but just exactly how “good” of a friend is David Stern to Clay Clay?
There’s no way Stern will force Clay to sell now if David and Clay are TIGHT LIKE THAT!!!
April 11th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
HOLY CRAP!!!
Call the Governors number (1-360-902-4111) NOW!!
The person who answered the phone actually had the nerve to ARGUE with me when I wanted to leave a message. WTF!!
I stated that I will actively any effort by Governor to keep the Sonics in Seattle but so far she has not shown enough leadership on the issue and it will affect my vote.
She replied “yeah, but we can renovate Key Arena and Clay can still move the team whenever he wants”, in a tone that I did not care for at all.
Really? So explain to me how it is to our advantage to disregard $150 million by Ballmer’s group when we still owe $40 mil. on the Key regardless. Explain to me how it wouldn’t be to our advantage to have a plan in place before the BOG meeting, assuming the Governor in sincere in her desire to keep the team?
“Hmm. OK, fine. I’ll pass along the message.”
Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course, but I think in this case, her job was just to take the message and pass it along without the “back talk”. Pissed me off.
I am not a regular contributer here, but I check in almost daily.
PLEASE, everyone, do us all a favor and call the Gov. and shut up the people who are trying to silence the people who care about this team.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
TJKK, my take is that one of the potential buyers bailed when they started talking about having to try to keep the team in Seattle. The other two (McLendon and Ward) are dogging him for that and saying that they want to see what happens for a year, assuming it wouldn’t work out in Seattle. If for some reason it did work out here, they say they would probably sell.
So, it really shows they had pretty much no intention of owning the team in Seattle. Now, Clay isn’t on this thread, but it is still 2 of the other principle owners saying they really don’t want it in Seattle.
That’s my take.
- I would agree with this…honestly, this just shows why it is so hard to prove the whole “Good Faith” part of anything. Does it count if only Clay made an effort? Does it matter if the Good Faith clause would’ve led to them selling to a local group anyways>>
Who knows…
April 11th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/home/home.jsp
So has anyone tried to suggest to Starbucks that their owner step up and stick to his guns regarding the “good faith” efforts? It would be an interesting angle if there were a significant amount of people addressing the “save our sonics or no more starbucks” stance directly to this online suggestion box. Thoughts anyone?
April 11th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Everybody needs to vote on the poll on ESPN.com (on the home page right now) that asks whether or not the NBA should allow the Sonics to leave Seattle. Right now “Yes” in winning.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
espn now sonics!
April 11th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
SONICS ON TV ON ESPN!!!
April 11th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
http://basketbawful.blogspot.com/2008/04/thursday-afternoon-man-love.html
haha gotta love some thursday afternoon man love!
April 11th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
David M Brown: I was trying to say that I hope people get on the phone with her. As in we should call/email her along with the rest of the people we need to call/email. Sorry for the typo, it was late when I wrote it.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Please fill me in!!!
April 11th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
What constitutes a ‘Good Faith Effort’? It isn’t unusual to be talking to other parties if your lease is running out and you are losing money in your current location. Businesses do this all of the time.
I believe the best argument that he failed to make a good faith effort is not what he did, but what he didn’t do. He failed to talk with the Mayor about the Key remodel plan. He failed to explore talks with Sabey, Freeman and the Muckleshoots. He did not talk to the Ballmer group, apparently. There were options that he would not look at because they might have led to the team staying in Seattle. The only solution that he would consider was the most expensive choice. It is hard to negotiate with someone that does not want to compromise to resolve the problem. The emails indicate they did not want to solve the problem in Seattle. McClendon and Ward both indicated they would sell if the team stayed here. We have to prove he sabotaged the efforts to enable the relocation in order to establish there was no good faith effort.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Yeah, Myk, I’m with you. I’m not saying it’s a smoking gun, just an especially nice piece of the pile that I hadn’t seen mentioned.
Repeating Paul’s link from above since multiple people asked:
http://www.kirotv.com/download/2008/0410/15849359.pdf
It’s a big old 92 page PDF, but you can skim through it fairly easily.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
My post with the link is in moderation, but I just found it from Paul’s post earlier. Search on “April 11th, 2008 at 1:10 am” in this thread.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Without a definition of “good faith best efforts” there is nothing to challenge. It’s too vague. There’s no measurable.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Sonics situation was on Outside the Lines. Gary Washburn from the P-I was on.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
On the ESPN pole……just an FYI, the cookie trick works there too. Must delete cookies then can vote again.
;o)
April 11th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Really? I was wondering when we would get on that show. How was the coverage? Was it biased either way? How did it portray it for us?
April 11th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
They already took off the poll.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
SONOFABITCHES!
April 11th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Gotta say I’m pretty surprised at the (granted unscientific) poll results. The whole midwest, south and east coast (except MA) are fine with the move. And these are people visiting ESPN.com/NBA, so they’re probably hoops fans. I guess we really are out in the middle of nowhere for the rest of the country…
April 11th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
THEY ARE GOING TO SHOW THE POLL RESULTS ON ESPN RIGHT NOW!
April 11th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
“Without a definition of “good faith best efforts” there is nothing to challenge. It’s too vague. There’s no measurable.”
That is not true at all. In fact, “good faith and fair dealing” is basically imputed in every contract. There doesn’t have to be an explicit definition of what “good faith” is in the contract, because it is so hard to define. Courts typically use the “you know bad faith when you see it” standard. A court would have no problem finding a lack of good faith in these dealings, no doubt.
That being said, in order to sue based on breach of good faith, you have to be a party to the contract. Unfortunately, the only one that could really see for breach of good faith would be Howard Shultz (or maybe some of the other minority owners, but i’m not sure on that issue).
We shouldn’t get to hung up on whether or not “good faith” has been breached in a legal sense. The biggest damage this does is to the reputation of this ownership group, and the league itself. Stern has the unenviable position now of supporting an ownership group that everyone knows lied to him, and to this city. It certainly calls into question the legitimacy of the entire league when they support a brand-new owner who has lied to everyone involved.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Everybody needs to vote on the poll on ESPN.com (on the home page right now) that asks whether or not the NBA should allow the Sonics to leave Seattle. Right now “Yes” in winning.
Just another example that people are clueless and just believe what the papers are saying. They don’t know the whole story. Very disappointing but we expected this.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
This just shows what we’re up against. Bennett and Stern control the media.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
The poll doesn’t mean that much to me. It just shows that people are misinformed due to Bennett and Stern having so much sway in the media.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Here is the link:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/index
Let’s get on it!
April 11th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
not sure how telling lies to the commish about making the effort is vague, either you are trying to find a solution, of a way to move the team, and the email is pretty clear in the desire, and reaching out to okc makes that point.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
All this E-Mail news with Clay & other OKC owners is big news and potentially a huge help to keeping the Sonics here.
But we still need an arena solution and the GOV is the one who needs to bridge the gap from 225 million > 300 million.
I would also recomend e-mailing & calling her office today & as BR reminds us - share a respectful message that we hope she will support the funding for the arena re-model .
From listening to BR on KJR last night - it sounds to me like the hope is she will find a way to get other Olympia leaders to sign off with her on a letter of commitment - saying they will committ to finding the 75 million when they come back into session. If it is signed by the right people BR seems to think this could work & be a credible commitment that Nichols, Ballmer & the NBA owners could all trust.
Let’s hope so.
If this happens I really believe Stern & other NBA owners would welcome the chance to now vote against Clay’s move request & this would then force him to sell. These e-mail reveal some HUGE problems for Stern & the league that they do NOT want dragged through a court case with Stern & Clay & maybe other owners having to go under oath.
If Stern ws complicit in Clay’s bad faith efforts he & the league are in deep trouble. If he is not - Stern has to be ticked off at Clay’s dishonesty with him and with the mess he is creating. I have no sympathy for Stern in this as he of course has been a huge part of this mess all along.
If the GOV finishes her part in solving the arena funding > SOS is looking real good IMO. If she is full of talk & not walk - giving SOS token lip-service then it’s another story.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Vote:
http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/index
And I think the poll is probably confusing…people think a yes is to keep them there
April 11th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Cookie thing doesn’t work for me. Go for it everyone else.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Any legal issues around sueing Clay &/or the NBA for failing to abide by the “Good Faith Effort” should be thought about not just by - Could we win the case …. but by could this be part of the pressure put on the league - a threat - a hassle - a PR problem etc. that they would simply not want to deal with - and given the public nature of such a case it would be viable with the strategy of planning to settle somewhere along the line.
Hard to say how realistic it is - but people sue all the time for dumb stuff they probably cannot win on - but in the process they wear an opponent down & get a big settlement.
Al things being equal… the threat of such a case or the reality of it could be a positive for SOS as part of the pressure to put on the league to quit screwing seattle & get rid of Clay who is bring on them nothing but problems.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I think someone whould make 2 sonic uniforms with Gregoire’s name on the back.
1. A Seattle Sonic uniform with the #1 & her name
2. An OKC sonics uniform with the number “0″ on the back & her name.
The we send/give them to her & ask…. which one do you want people wearing around Washington next fall?
April 11th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
City of Seattle, just hang tough. Get the remaining emails and financial docs and roll on to court. Bury them.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
only 6,800 votes so far and when i voted No on should the NBA allow the Sonics to leave Seattle it went up a couple of points! Its unreal how much the media in other markets dont know about this issue. I emailed a NBA writer at the daily news in Philly about clays emails, and he said all that he knows is that bennett wants a new arena and the people in Seattle wont pay for it, even though they did for the M’s and Seahawks. I had to briefly explain the real facts to him hoping he spreads the word around or dies his own research. He did say that he loves visiting Seattle and would never visit okla city on purpose!
April 11th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
League can’t force Clay to sell…but the e-mails make it pretty apparent that guys like McClendon & Ward have no interest in owning a team in Seattle long-term.
If the relocation request is somehow denied, they’ll bail - and Clay can’t go it alone…
April 11th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
“What constitutes a ‘good faith’ effort?” Thats the million dollar question nobody has the answer too. Bennett is a weasal but I hightly doubt that any lawyer worth anything would let a side clause like this void the sale. This contract wasn’t written on napkins. Say Bennetts lawyers are the worst in the world……Shultz isn’t going to go after him anyway. What’s his motivation? So he can take back ownership and return the profits? He is too shrewd to do that. No way in hell.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
voted about 30times already on the ESPN poll. Went up 2 point in our favor. I will keep voting and clearing my cookies and cache all day.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
“If the relocation request is somehow denied, they’ll bail - and Clay can’t go it alone…”
Hmmm….how many months ago was I saying stuff like this?
April 11th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
voted about 30times already on the ESPN poll. Went up 2 point in our favor. I will keep voting and clearing my cookies and cache all day.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
A no vote by BOG would force a sale i believe.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I truly believe we’ll get a No vote if Gregoire can convince the city to bridge the Key remodel. Let’s hope this happens within the 72 hr window and we can fill the Key with chants of “Gregoire! Gregoire!” on Sunday night.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Surfing on m laptop and voting on my desktop for the past 15 mins. “NO” vote was at 43%., now is at 46% for NO to leave Seattle.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
JJ: There is no reason to send her an OKC uniform. She made it clear to Brian, Paul and I yesterday that she wants to keep the team here. She has always said that, and I do believe that she does, but right now it is not enough for people to WANT to the team to stay here we need people to take extra steps to MAKE the team stay here. She is mad about being lied to now and that might make the difference.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-JFiD5_D1I
MUST SEE Gov. Rally yesterday.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/index
Link for the poll.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Not sure what the Governor can realistically offer Chopp that’ll get him to change his tune, but I’ll play along for 72 hours and see what happens.
If Chopp denies again, he will hereafter be referred to by me as Buttnugget.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
only 6,800 votes so far and when i voted No on should the NBA allow the Sonics to leave Seattle it went up a couple of points! Its unreal how much the media in other markets dont know about this issue. I emailed a NBA writer at the daily news in Philly about clays emails, and he said all that he knows is that bennett wants a new arena and the people in Seattle wont pay for it, even though they did for the M’s and Seahawks. I had to briefly explain the real facts to him hoping he spreads the word around or dies his own research. He did say that he loves visiting Seattle and would never visit okla city on purpose!
- Maybe I am too close to the situation…but I almost voted incorrectly the first time cause I misread the question as to say should the Sonics stay in Seattle.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Menace: There is a well defined legal definition of “good faith”. Paul can address that more when he returns to town.
Schultz has a chance to change from being goat to hero if he steps up now but he also doesn’t have to. Half his old ownership group didn’t want to sell and Stanton who is in the new ownership group was part of that old group.
Schultz could sue, void the sale due to documented “bad faith” at the time of the sale, and the new ownership group could take the team. One of the other owners should also have standing and they could do it without Schultz.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I think ESPN just dump 1000 votes in our favor.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
She is mad about being lied to now and that might make the difference.
- Honestly…if this helps get things going then great. However, from a completely unbiased perspective I think this is a bunch of bullsh!t…and why most people can’t stand politics. Nothing that happened over the last two days made the deal any “better”. The value of the deal is intrinsic in the deal and can not be made better by Bennett being something that most people already knew.
Like I said…if this forces her into action GREAT. But, I still shows lack of leadership because she isn’t doing it because she believes it is the RIGHT THING TO DO…but instead because she is mad about being LIED to.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I meant disqualified my 1000 votes.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Schultz has a chance to change from being goat to hero if he steps up now but he also doesn’t have to. Half his old ownership group didn’t want to sell and Stanton who is in the new ownership group was part of that old group.
- I honestly think there is a 0.0000000000000001% chance that Schultz would do this. However, I have to say I really don’t understand why he wouldn’t at least try. This guy really cares about his image so it would seem like a completely no lose situation (assuming the legal fees were covered and a side deal to sell to Ballmer was already written)
OTH, I found it honest-to-god surprising that when he was in Pike Place Market there were people asking for his autograph. Not because I don’t like him…but seriously…who wants Howard Schultz autograph?? What value is that to anybody? I wouldn’t have any use for Steve Ballmer’s autograph…or Paul Allen…who would actually want to get one from Schultz?? Anyways, the whole point to that rant is that perhaps he feels “loved enough” from all these odd fans of his.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
We need leaders with Conviction.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
I found this interesting comment by J.A. Adande:
Charlie (ATX): What’d you think about those e-mails from Clay Bennett that came out yesterday? That guy is the scum of the earth, terrible for the NBA Stern should step in.
SportsNation J.A. Adande: (3:40 PM ET ) The e-mails didn’t reveal anything we didn’t already know as far as the proof of ownership’s intent to move the Sonics without a good faith effort. You’d have to be super naive to believe otherwise. What I found interesting was just how much Bennett was sucking up to Stern…the level of his affection. hah. What a kiss-[xxx]. And now i blew up in his face. The one thing you don’t want to do is make Stern look like a fool. And these e-mails showed Bennett was playing him.
Interesting that AJ thinks that David Stern did not know about Clay Bennett playing with him.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
to Director Brian; and others who may have input,
do we need to depend on the govt. for a certain amount of funding ??
and, what is the general public opinion concerning the “Emerald City Center” option ??
a newcomer to the discussion, this is the shiner
April 11th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
After reading that line in the email with Bennett saying, “Thanks for hangin in there with me boys!!!!”, all i can seem to picture is him typing that, jumping up and shooting a couple revolvers in the air with a huge cowboy hat on like yosemite sam
April 11th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Can someone give me a rundown on the “Outside the Lines: piece? Did it seem biased or fair?
April 11th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Steven Pyeatt, do you guys know if anyone (or you yourselves) has attempted to talk to ANY of the previous owners about this?
I know Wally had comments but thats all.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOu9gu5OOJo&feature=related
KD’s better is better than your better.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Clay Bennett email fiasco just got some nice exposure on the Jim Rome TV show. Even though Rome is off, the fill-in girl had a couple of nice takes. Satan (uh, I mean Clayton) and his cronies have created this mess. Now the question is, what will Stern’s public reaction be? I’d love to hear what those two are currently talking about behind closed doors. Besides their Brokeback desires, you gotta wonder if Stern is givin’ Clay the third degree, or simply telling him, “Don’t worry about it… this will all die down shortly.”
Can’t wait to see how this thing plays out.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
YES IS WINNING! EVERYONE GO VOTE NO!
http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/index
April 11th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
“Brokeback Bennett”
Not that there’s anything wrong with it.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
“Schultz has a chance to change from being goat to hero if he steps up now but he also doesn’t have to. Half his old ownership group didn’t want to sell and Stanton who is in the new ownership group was part of that old group.”
“Schultz could sue, void the sale due to documented “bad faith” at the time of the sale, and the new ownership group could take the team. One of the other owners should also have standing and they could do it without Schultz.”
Could very well be true. But is it realistic to think that a $350 million dollar deal can be completely voided based on a side note “good faith” clause? I don’t think it is. I don’t necessarily trust lawyers…..but they aren’t dumb. I know OKC is desperate for a team……but they aren’t completely stupid in terms of contracts.
Say it is voidable…….Shultz just makes some calls and collects the profits back. Spends some cash to sue them for ownership of a team he already sold. Wins. Then sends a check to Bennett and the team is back in their hands. Sounds easier said than done to me. Sounds impossible to me.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
“Schultz has a chance to change from being goat to hero if he steps up now but he also doesn’t have to. Half his old ownership group didn’t want to sell and Stanton who is in the new ownership group was part of that old group.”
“Schultz could sue, void the sale due to documented “bad faith” at the time of the sale, and the new ownership group could take the team. One of the other owners should also have standing and they could do it without Schultz.”
Could very well be true. But is it realistic to think that a $350 million dollar deal can be completely voided based on a side note “good faith” clause? I don’t think it is. I don’t necessarily trust lawyers…..but they aren’t dumb. I know OKC is desperate for a team……but they aren’t completely stupid in terms of contracts.
Say it is voidable…….Shultz just makes some calls and collects the profits back. Spends some cash to sue them for ownership of a team he already sold. Wins. Then sends a check to Bennett and the team is back in their hands. Sounds easier said than done to me. Sounds impossible to me.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
If Gregoire really thought the team was gone before, and now sees that the team could stay she may see the value in making this happen now.
If she thought, based on the lie, that the team was gone and it could be years before another team could be here then there really wasn’t a good reason, to her, to risk having the state vote be no.
She, unlike sports fans, might not expect to be lied to.
If this is the case she make take this as a personal item as well.
She should be encouraged to act.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Someone needs to come out of left field and finance an arena for the Supes so we can just say, there now you have to stay.
Nintendo, save us again here in Seattle!
lol
April 11th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
They just talked about it a little more in-depth on The Rome Show. Jason Smith of ESPN Radio said Stern should now ban Bennett from the NBA and force him to sell the franchise. Roger Lodge had an even better suggestion. He said (joking of course) he had a worse punishment. Clay Bennett should be forced to bring the Clippers franchise to OKC.
CLASSIC!!!!
April 11th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
“do we need to depend on the govt. for a certain amount of funding ??”
Yes, unless someone steps forward with $75 mil in loose change…but damn think of the Coinstar fees …
“and, what is the general public opinion concerning the “Emerald City Center” option ??”
I’m not the general public … but in my opinion it doesn’t deserve to be talked about as any kind of realistic option at all and isn’t worth mentioning. (Others disagree, I’ll let them state their case if they want). As a proposal I could have gotten behind it before the original remodel but it’s about 3,650 days late and a billion dollars short to talk about it now.
The Emerald City Center is at this point nothing more than a Powerpoint presentation missing 1) a team, 2) a piece of land to put the arena on and 3) a billion dollars in solid, REAL financing which they don’t have yet. You and I could have put together a model and called a press conference and we’d be as far along as that group.
Search the archive for March 08, there’s already been a couple of threads discussing this in detail.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Hilarious article from The News Tribune:
http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/sonics/story/332435.html
Love it.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Otto, I read the Orlando Sentinel article and left a comment under the name “ZenDoc”. I encourage everyone to leave comments around the country, especially in papers where they have an NBA franchise in that city. We need a groundswell of support to stop this crime. Here’s the link to the article posted originally by Otto:
Orlando Sentinel chips in:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_nothingbutnet/2008/04/everything-seem.html
Please feel free to comment there or elsewhere, then please give us the links to the posts.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
“Say it is voidable…….Shultz just makes some calls and collects the profits back. Spends some cash to sue them for ownership of a team he already sold. Wins. Then sends a check to Bennett and the team is back in their hands. Sounds easier said than done to me. Sounds impossible to me.
Sounds impossible to me too. But when there’s already an ownership group that includes one of the former owners with potential legal leverage (so Howie’s not needed, IMO) in Stanton, and one of the wealthiest men in the country in Ballmer, why not let Stern wipe his ass with Bennett and broker / force a sale of the team to the new group? Everybody comes out on top except the Okies, who’ve burned their bridges.
I also don’t think Howard is necessary in that the league had its own good faith agreement with Bennett to work to try to keep the team in Seattle for a period of time. They may not have intended to hold them to that agreement, but now that Bennett’s making a fool out of the comish, I could see them possibly using that contigency to force Bennett out.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Another funny article:
Olympics Purchased by Clay Bennet and Promptly Moved to Oklahoma City
http://tinyurl.com/4gqoh9
April 11th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Following the Orlando article were 2 comments, which mentioned David Stern, which is what I was responding to - David Stern’s culpability and lack of leadership in all of this:
Bennett and Stern have murdered an NBA franchise of 41 years (that’s a LOT of memories) in Seattle.
Please continue to support our efforts to Save our Sonics.
Thank you,
Fans just like you
Posted by: Seattle Fan(s) | April 11, 2008 at 02:13 PM
Is it any wonder that the NBA has lost so many fans over the years? The NBA has lost it’s way and David Stern is the biggest reason. He has become so out of touch with the everyday fan that I wonder if the NBA will ever get back to it’s glory days in the 80’s and 90’s.
Posted by: Beebop | April 11, 2008 at 02:27 PM
I agree that David Stern is the biggest problem, mostly because of his huge ego. Bennett did what he needed to do to schmooze him and kiss lots of behind and Stern ate it up & vowed to protect him & get him his team. Whereas the Washington State legislature didn’t kow-tow to David Stern. He thought if he came and told the legislature that they needed to pony up more money for the $500 Million arena that everyone would just fall into line because David Stern had spoken. I think he expected to be revered as a big-time expert and thought it would be no problem to get Clay his money, but the legislature had more pressing problems to deal with. Bennett & Stern didn’t feel that they needed to grease the skids at all or work the political process. The legislature thanked David Stern for his testimony, but the proposal never got out of committee.
David Stern then took that as a personal affront because he is so thin-skinned and was offended that they didn’t show him the respect that he feels that he deserves. I think that David feels that he’s above the rest of us, which is why he’s so out of touch with the fan base. He runs his good old boy network and the owners don’t seem to mind because he also caters to them. They don’t seem to care that he is leading them and the NBA into oblivion, when it could have been a much more popular sport. No decent commissioner who knows how to lead would have allowed an established team (41 years) with a loyal fan base to leave a major U.S. market (Seattle is #13 or 14 in the country) for a much smaller market (OK City is #45).
But David Stern is nothing if not vengeful and I believe he has vowed to get his revenge on Seattle and Washington State for not kissing his ring or whatever else. Do you think this Clay Bennett - OK City fiasco will stimulate the owners to finally get rid of Mr. Stern and get some real leadership and vision in place and keep the Sonics in Seattle or do you think they’ll just ignore it, become more out of touch, and approve the Sonics robbery & move?
Posted by: ZenDoc | April 11, 2008 at 03:35 PM
April 11th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Yes, unless someone steps forward with $75 mil in loose change…but damn think of the Coinstar fees …
- Don’t you get the fee waived if you get your coinstar turned into a Starbucks Gift Card?? I’m just sayin….
April 11th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
GREAT POST Zen Doc!
Summed up the situation nicely!
April 11th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
The story was reported on the local news last night here in Phoenix.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I posted this on ESPN Boards:
http://boards.espn.go.com/boards/mb/mb?sport=nba&id=general&tid=2643435&lid=98
April 11th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I posted this on ESPN Boards:
http://boards.espn.go.com/boards/mb/mb?sport=nba&id=general&tid=2643435&lid=98
April 11th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/sonics/2008-04-10-Seattle_N.htm
USA Today is sure behind the times.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Please Go to the ESPN Poll and Vote NO! on “Should the Sonics be allowed to Move to Oklahoma City”? Right now, most people are voting “YES” - let them move. We need to get out the vote and send a message. This is a National Poll of course. Get out the vote by talking to others and sending them this link:
http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/index
VOTE “NO” on this poll.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
That was you SeattleFan? I am DA GLOVE of UDUB. lol.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
I won’t quit you!
April 11th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Yeah it was. Good to have you on my side haha.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Paul Silvi calls Bennet a dumbass.
http://www.king5.com/video/sports-index.html?nvid=235105
April 11th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
I’m SEAsprtsfan lol
April 11th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Aubrey: “Hey Clay. Make sure not to say anything anything bad on this call. The line could be tapped”
Clay: “Yeah yeah.”
Aubrey: “Hit me up on that intranet thingy. We’ll talk turkey.”
Clay: “Yeeee haaaaaa”
April 11th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
LOL Menace that’s good stuff.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
“I’m SEAsprtsfan lol ”
haha. Lets take it to em’.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
I can’t get that video to work.
April 11th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
“The Emerald City Center is at this point nothing more than a Powerpoint presentation missing 1) a team, 2) a piece of land to put the arena on and 3) a billion dollars in solid, REAL financing which they don’t have yet. You and I could have put together a model and called a press conference and we’d be as far along as that group.”
What is this…….an arena for ants? It needs to be at least 3x this big to work.
April 11th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Definitely, I heard there was more stuff going to be revealed today. Anyone heard or seen anything yet?
April 11th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Correction on the ESPN poll: It says “Should the NBA allow the Sonics to Leave Seattle”? and 52% of the voters are saying YES and only 48% of voters are saying NO - don’t let the Sonics leave Seattle. We need to get this vote turned around. I found out that you can vote more than once on the poll if you leave the site and come back. You can just hit the back button from ESPN then click on the link again, which is here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/index
Let’s get this poll turned around! Hey, I just checked and it has just changed from 52% Yes and 48% NO to 51% Yes and 49% NO ! Yea!!! We’re starting to make a difference in the poll. We need to boost the NO Vote - Just Say NO to the NBA, David, and Clay!!!
NO - Vote NO - Swing the Poll in Seattle’s favor!
April 11th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
10 years from now, I hope we’re locked in a heated battle with Portland fueled by a “Oden v. Durant - who really means more to their team?” storyline, and all of this will just be some nasty “almost didn’t happen” side story.
April 11th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I am also wondering about the supposed stuff to be released today. Was that accurate and just never came out? Or was it unsubstantiated?
April 11th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
We need to get the word out there that this is not just a Seattle issue. If the NBA allows the move after all of Bennett’s underhandedness and shady dealings, it will set a precedent that owners can do whatever they want and still get their way. No team will be safe.
April 11th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
“What is this…….an arena for ants? It needs to be at least 3x this big to work. ”
The good news is … no public funding required, just honey … delicious honey.
April 11th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
“What is this…….an arena for ants? It needs to be at least 3x this big to work. ”
Reminds me of Spinal Tap and the mini-Stonehenge … “and oh how they danced, the little children of Stonehenge”
April 11th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Bottom line…. Great sports city that rarely gets back what it puts in, but we never care because we are loyal.. why can’t we just find some loyal owners for the supersonics. We all know that if we had some owners who treated the team like their family we would never be in this position.. People around this city are totally reasonable to ask us for a few years to put together an arena plan after the amount of stadiums we’ve help finance over the last ten years.. And yes, if David Stern allows this to happen after what has been exposed recently (pretty obvious to anyone who actually cared) then not only is the NBA going to have a huge amount of lawsuits in the future the face of sports all over the united states will change.. Hi I’m from Florida, I just bought the L. A. lakers but I want to move them to Key West because the people here don’t have a pro sports team.. I can’t wait until the Sonics fans finally get good owners and some good defense… then it’s on.. by the way Bennett, doesn’t matter how much money you have.. CAN’T SPEND IT IN HELL, YOU BITCH!!!
April 11th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
OH YEAH, GREGOIRE.. YOU SERIOUSLY NEED TO TAKE A CLASS ON INSPIRATION AND ACTION… TALK DOES NOTHING AND YOU HAVE HAD ALOT OF CHANCES TO INSPIRE AND BRING THE PEOPLE TOGETHER…LET’S DO THIS
April 12th, 2008 at 5:23 am
so keeping the team in seattle is NOT dependent of govt. funding ?
may i have direct email contact with Brian Robinson. steve ballmer, john stanton, jim sinegal, and matt griffin ? …or contact websites ?
would another 175 mil work ?
April 14th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
where is April 12, 13, 14 commentary ?