Seattle SuperSonics Trial Underway

Sonics owner Clay Bennett is due on the stand today in Day 2 of the Sonics vs. the City of Seattle. Follow along at the Seattle Times' excellent blog coverage of the trial.

For those who haven't been following the case, Bennett and a couple of other Oklahoma City businessmen partnered up to purchase the Sonics from Howard "Starbucks" Schultz. Schultz was fed up with trying to get a stadium deal done in the city (the city has financed new stadiums for the Seahawks and Mariners and even extensively renovated the Sonics' own KeyArena, all in the last 15 years). Bennett and friends claimed to be acting in good faith to get a deal done to keep the team in the city, but as more and more evidence comes out, it seems that that was never the plan.

Now the city of Seattle is suing the Sonics to force them to play out the last two years of their lease in KeyArena. Honestly, I don't think it looks good for Seattle at this point; the Sonics owners really slammed the city in their opening court brief, and I can't see two more "lame duck" years in Seattle as good for anyone - the city doesn't want to support these owners anymore, and I can't say I blame them.

While the Donaghy allegations have been the crisis stealing the most headlines from this amazing NBA Finals (really? Dick Bavetta is officiating in the Finals this year after he was a person of interest in the Donaghy investigation? Seriously?), I honestly think the situation out in Seattle should be the year's biggest embarrassment for the league. Just look at the emails that went back and forth between Bennett and Stern. Stern was

1. not very professional, typing in lowercase and scattered punctuation (though I guess that REDACTED could be a "Sent from my Blackberry" notice), and
2. completely buttered up by Bennett's smooth talking. He had the wool pulled over his eyes, and now he's trying to defend himself and his owners.

Now speaking of Blackberrys, it's worth mentioning that I was really strongly opposed to the way Gary Bettman kept the Predators in Nashville (or at least America) and out of a better situation in Hamilton (that's a post I still need to write). But the difference between that situation and this one is this: I don't think that a team with 40 years of history, a team that has won a Championship, should be forced out of town because they won't pay for the owner's new toy. That's what's happening now, and I don't think there's anything the court can do (especially when the Sonics effectively closed their brief with "If you make us stay, we'll make you wish we left,"). As J.A. Adande put it, there were a number of reasons to keep the Sonics in Seattle, and a number of other ways to work with the OKC market; but in all likelihood, there's nothing that can be done now. Now we're just waiting on the courts.

But while we wait, I'll be watching the Celtics go for Green 17 tonight. And before that, it's time for France-Italy in this amazing Euro 2008.

Just wanted to throw out there, fun fact, I wrote about this subject for my Microeconomics in Policy Decisions class. I never thought I could cite Bill Simmons in a paper for my major and get an A.