The End of an Era

Last night, I heard the news that the team formerly the Seattle Supersonics was officially moving to Oklahoma City. The city reached a settlement with the ownership allowing the team to move next year.

It is a sad day in sports. There's so much I want to say that I don't even know where to begin. Growing up in Tennessee, we didn't have a NBA team but I did watch it all the time on TV. I would play basketball all the time, even had a hoop at my house. I grew up in the heydey of NBA with Bird, Magic and Jordan. And during that time, I saw the Supersonics. I liked their team and their players like Shawn Kemp aka "The Rain Man", Gary Payton, Nate McMillian. I still remember that Finals back in 96 when they played the Bulls.

Then when I moved to Seattle, I started really following the team and guys like Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis. I was living there when they got sold to Clay Bennett and his group from Oklahoma. And honestly, I felt they were going to move. There wasn't one point or time where I felt that Bennett wanted to keep the team there in Seattle. His whole intention of buying the team was to move it. I kept hoping through the losing that somehow he might see that tradition still means something, that fan loyalty means something, that honor meant something.

Yes, I know professional sports is a business. But it is also more than that. Unfortunately, that side of it was not shown by Clay Bennett or his associates or by David Stern and the NBA. I lost respect for David Stern because of this. That is something I never thought would happen.

I do hope that there is a team that is put in Seattle, hopefully soon. Maybe it'll be a situation like in the NFL when Art Modell moved his team from Cleveland to Baltimore and the Browns came back a few years later. Maybe Seattle will have its Sonics again. But there won't be Kevin Durant on that team. There won't be a 2008-2009 Seattle Supersonics team. But there will be a huge bruise on the image of the NBA in my book.