NBA Pussy Footin' On Sonics?

[SeaWolv]

Seattle lost a team for a reason, because your fans suck...

You don't seem to have your facts straight. The Sonics had excellent attendance for several of the years prior to the theft of the team by OKC owners. The worst year was the year they left and everyone knew it and made a conscious choice not to pay those thieving bastards.

As for the building, it was renovated just 12 years prior to new ownership complaints. As others here have said, the demand for a new facility was made on the heals of the city paying for a new baseball park ($372M) and a new football stadium ($430M). Had ownership been patient a deal could have gotten done. Instead they made ultimatums. I would stipulate that Initiative 91 didn't help matters.

 

[chris98251]

If I remember the building was good enough for now, but they wanted to renovate in the Future to get a Hockey team in, part was the NBA not wanting to share a venue, secondly they wanted seating expanded from 13,026 if I remember to 17,000. Then Stearn came to town and was not given a red carpet, Nichols made him wait when he showed up to his offices as well. That pissed Stern off and it was never going to work after that. Oh and when Slade Gorton got involved they dug up some dirt to sling about how he was trying to leverage the situation and Seattle backed off completely.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

I'm surprised anyone would believe a word they hear at this point. A decade plus later, all talk. Rinse and repeat.

 

[fire_marshall_bill]

I heard from a Youtuber that it was a done deal. Apparently not. I've watched a combined 3 hours of the NBA, if that, since 2022. It's just skinny big guys who prance around like they're guards, and guards who lob 3 pointers. You can't breath on someone without a foul being called.

 

[SonicHawk]

Seattle lost a team for a reason, because your fans suck...

Sonic fans are great. It's tough knowing an entire generation of basketball fans don't have a team to call their own in a city that loves basketball. Seattle had been a mid football city and an A+ basketball city.

Yeah, the Key wasn't quite up to par by the end -- but the new owners simply didn't give a **** about us anyways. I went to the rallies, I led the largest facebook group in protest. The Sonics were my #1.

I still watch the NBA because I love basketball, but I haven't spent a dime on the NBA since 2008. I've long moved on from my hatred of Howard Nutz and the NBA hasn't expanded since that time. I actually opposed the relocation of the Kings when there was a time that that looked like it was happening because those fans didnt deserve it either.

For a couple of years UW basketball kept the lights on and were competitive. The Storm have always been an excellent basketball product (seriously, go to a Storm game and have yourself a good time). But I have since resigned myself to accepting that the NBA won't return to Seattle. The NBA just doesn't have the expanse of talent to be competitive with more teams and it's such an international product now that if expansion happened it would have to be to outside the borders.

 

[FrodosFinger]

Sonic games at the Seattle center arena were a blast back in the day before they renovated the arena I think in 93’. I was 9 years old when they won it all in 79’. Lonnie Shelton was a freak

 

[hedgehawk]

I loved the Sonics. A joy to watch and see a few games a year in person. I don’t like how basketball is played nowadays. No defense and almost every shot is a 3 pointer. It’s boring. I liked when a shot mattered. 90-87 types of games. Every possession meant something to the result.

 

[AROS]

I loved the Sonics. A joy to watch and see a few games a year in person. I don’t like how basketball is played nowadays. No defense and almost every shot is a 3 pointer. It’s boring. I liked when a shot mattered. 90-87 types of games. Every possession meant something to the result.

Like minds.

 

[Ruminator]

At least we got to enjoy a few decades of the Sonics during the best years, before all of that final score 132-141 ridiculousness.