CPHawk":1gs1enyg said:
I understand the hate for Stern, he's a king douche bag, but why no hate for your own civic leaders in Olympia and Seattle who pretty much kicked Stern in the ass? You have to ask yourself, if only our local guys would have just shown they would try would the Sonics be gone? Right now I would bet good money Stern wouldn't have let the Sonics move had they just tried a little bit, hell the Sac group has an agreement for a new Arena that is as stable as RGIII ACL, and we offered at least double what the Kings are worth, and they aren't moving.
To me the issue was the 95 remodel of Seattle Center. Plus the lease not being the type of lease that the NBA later figured all teams needed to make money with. Stern himself was shaking hands and kissing babies when the 95 remodel occurred, saying the arena was state of the art. Then 10 years later, after many folks felt the two other stadiums got forced upon them, it was going to be a hard sell to get people on board to build the Sonics a new arena. NBA was not happy.
Plus the fact that Ackerley and company chose a configuration to discourage the idea of sharing it with the NHL and the whole thing was just one calamity after another. Schultz couldn't get what he wanted, Stern was snubbed and away we go. Though many knew the endgame, Bennett was presented as willing to work with the locals prior to giving up on the region. It wasn't until after the fact that the Ballmers of the world tried to rally late. Relocation had already been approved before the rallying cry was on from what I remember.
I doubt Stern would have been an ally to stop relocation like he was with Sactown because our politicians didn't give him reason to. Bennett wasn't credible and was scorned here prior to filing for relocation but the league could see it was poisonous by the time they allowed him out. Of course he helped along the fight but that is for another day.
Yep, the governor, city council, mayor and state legislature all helped make it a layup to get the team out of town. They all can take a leap but most are gone except for a few major dickheads.