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Sent this to Jill Bames:
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A question I've never gotten my ethical bearings on -- the potential move now of the Sacramento Kings to Seattle. As you see it, should a Seattle basketball fan feel sheepish about the situation in general?
The new franchise will, or won't, be (or feel like) the Sonics on a civically psychic level?
Certainly you have a strong perspective on the general issue of sports teams relocating, the ethic that applies, and the tendency for it to turn out to be emotionally satisfying, or to manifest good karma so to speak, or not ...
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I'm looking for something a little more satisfying than "hey, they did it to us, so why should we feel bad about doing it to them?" If I accidentally cut a guy off in traffic, and that guy jumps out of car and starts hollering at me at a stoplight, and I lower myself to his level (meaning the level he was at during that incident, not during his life generally!), then I'm not going to feel good about my decision that night.
We certainly know how we felt about that Oklahoma City businessman hijacking the Sonics -- especially right before the big emergence.
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On the other hand, if the city of Sacramento is in a position --- > like they're customers who simply choose not to purchase enough pickle sandwiches to justify having Chik-Fil-A set up a chain in the area, then that's another thing. Is Sacramento getting its team yanked for refusing to kowtow low enough to the NBA? I dunno.
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Would muchly appreciate anybody being able to give us a rundown of the state of their franchise. I can see they have a huge young center, DeMarcus Cousins, who gets 17-18 points and 10-11 boards. He looks like he's a 12-week diet away from a bodybuilding competition.
Tyreke Evans scored 20 per ballgame as a 20-year-old and now gets 15; perhaps there's a pattern emerging here as to the classic NBA dry rot with young players needing a compass heading. Are Cousins and Evans potentially players the Sonics* could win their next conference with?
Only one other guy that Dr. D has a nodding acquaintance with. I think their kid Isaiah Thomas once said that if Larry Bird were black, he'd be just another good guy. And with that I'm a leeeetle bit more in need of help myself, than able to offer any.
What, exactly, would it take for the Kings to become a powerhouse franchise?
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No doubt, the NBA arranged for the Sonics to keep their nickname, and to stay at the front of the line, if they didn't squawk about the Thunder. Is Stern going to make sure their draft envelope has a bend in the card, do you think? We mean the question seriously.
Trades these days seem to be prearranged out of the commish's office. They've set up about 8 teams with twin marquee players, or that's my impression, and it would be nice if we're on the agenda to get a Chris Paul type parachuting in. We wonder whether the NBA is incentivized to feature the Sonics, to say hey look, if you lie back and enjoy it you'll be glad you did.
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They're bringing Big Bad Kevin back, right? And Frank Hughes was always one of my very favorite sportswiters, a model of what a young, SportsCenter-type beat writer should be. Totally plugged in, very good judgment, can hang around the ballplayers and not fret about the fact that --- > to the players, he's a geek. Because he is secure in what he does. Reminds me of Geoff Baker to tell ya the truth...
A delightful bit of serendipity that he works his ESPN gig out of Sacramento these days, or do we have that right? He used to. Wonder if Seattle has any shot at getting him here to cover the Sonics. Frank Hughes rox.
Every pro sports franchise should come with its own Geoff Baker, John Clayton or Frank Hughes. I think there's a Frank Hughes inside Jason Churchill somewhere - that's the kind of place we always thought he was headed, at some point. :- ) The two even look alike.
Alternatively, Chris Hansen could give Silentpadna a call. There's plenty of time for Russ to come up to speed.
Nothing like Live At the Hardwood,
Dr D
The dirty politics in the commishoffice, the dirty refs, the obnoxious players, the lack of serious work ethic among the big stars, the constant player movement, the lack of regional loyalty...BLECH...Seattle was better off without a basketball team.
You'd be getting the particulars from me, but I'd be calling Doc for the prose.
Not a bad gig if you could get it.
Fact is I'm not really sure. Probably won't know until it actually happens. When they left I felt like I'd been lied to by Clay Bennett, even though intellectually I knew when Howard sold to an out of town owner they were probably going to leave. I'm sure the people in Sacto feel like they've been lied to by the Maloof's. Heck, when it comes to the Maloof's if I shook their hand I'd count my fingers afterwards. I'll believe the deal is done when I see a press conference, not just a few tweets or texts with no real attribution, just "sources say". But moving this particular franchise isn't anything new. Sacramento got them from Kansas City, and I think Kansas City got them from elsewhere (Cincinnatti?) but I haven't looked it up.
What I really don't know is how long it will take me to think of them as the Sonics. I still feel like OKC is the Sonics, because of the players still on the roster that played here.
Stealing a BELOVED franchise from a city, one which supported the team with all it's heart and had no chance or say to keep it, and taking an ignored, not supported, bankrupt team off of a cities hands for it. Sac-Town has had opportunity after opportunity to step up and support the Kings and they haven't. The Sonics were just bought, lied to, and then moved. Just taken.
Taking the Sonics was like breaking in and stealing someones brand new 50 inch HDTV from their living room wall, while taking the Kings is like tripping over a 1970's 20 inch tube tv (tube broken of course) on the curb and walking up to the door and ringing the bell and asking if you can throw it in the back of your pickup to use for spare parts and the owners saying, "Eh sure, might as well keep it out of the landfill".
I am not even a Sonics Fan (Go Blazers!) and I can see the world of difference here. I hope the Sonics are reborn using the corpse of the Kings and if I were you I wouldn't feel even an inkling of guilt or shame over it!
To me what matters most is how it goes down. With Seattle Clay Bennett bought the team with promises that he'd do everything in his power to keep the team here and then proceeded to tell whopper after whopper (and get sued over it - still a shame that they didn't let the judge make his decision). Bennett was buddy buddy with David Stern (who is very worthy of disdain) and used his influence to lie and cheat his way to a team.
Hansen comes out and says I want a team and I want to move it to Seattle. He buys the property for the building, offers up a sweetheart of a deal to the city, and then proceeds to offer $200 million more than the estimated worth of the franchise in Sacramento to move it? Can't hate that. Just can't.
Honesty, it's an amazingly rare commodity these days. Gotta respect it.
- Ben.
Thanks for helping a brudda out.
Back when I cared about basketball, I do remember this. Rochester Royals------>Cincinnati Royals------->Kansas City/Omaha Kings------->Kansas City (only) Kings------->Sacramento Kings
. . . the Kings are a complete mess. After the Sonics left Seattle I switched my allegiance to the LA Clippers, who as we all know were pathetic. I guess I have a thing for losers. In any event, I pay a lot of attention to the NBA, and the Pacific Division in particular and Sacramento hasn't won even 40 percent of its games in years. Nor are they about to soon.
Cousins is by far their most talented player - and one of the most talented big men in the league. How talented? MVP level skills. Unfortunately, he's 13 years old and acts like it. He's likely one of those players who will become great only after leaving for his next paycheck. It's hard to build a decent team when your best player is an uncoachable knucklehead.
Tyreke Evans had a great rookie season then poof, he disappeared. Injuries were part of it, but even healthy he's a man without a position. Doesn't have the handle to play the 1; doesn't have the shot for the 2 or the size for the 3. He's a nice complementary player, would probably flourish as the sixth man on a good team. Best shooter on the team is Jimmer Fredette, which perhaps tells you all you need to know.
The two guys who are actually supposed to be their point guards average a total of about 4 assists per game. Cousins passes the ball better than either. They do have some good young athletic forwards but they're very raw.
On the questions of moral ambiguity: Sacramento fans have supported the team exceedingly well. Used to be one of the toughest arenas in the Association. Attendance only began to fall off long after they started fielding horrible teams. If the team had recovered, so too would the attendance. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The city - the mayor is Kevin Johnson, great Phoenix point guard of the past - has tried everything it can to get a new building built. I think the market is just too small, the media money is tiny compared to what's available elsewhere.
Still, if I lived in Seattle I'd have a hard time becoming a fan of this team.
That Stern had nothing to do with stuff like giving Durant to Clay Bennett, and doesn't have that kind of nefarious influence...
Or do you mean that even given such an ability, the commish's office wouldn't spend any on Seattle?
Any chance that Hansen puts Pete Carroll at the helm?
No, a team like that needs a player carousel, and fortunately in the NBA that carousel spins pretty freely ... it does look however like they've got some considerable deadwood contracts going? Pro-basketball-reference.com
I meant that the league does not control trades, drafts, etc., in the way you intimated they might in order to help Seattle rebuild. On franchise movement, you're right. The NBA, like almost every professional league, lets owners move their franchises as they want. It builds franchise value and by that makes the league a more valuable enterprise. I did not mean to imply that Stern actually cared about any team's fan base. He works for the owners, same as Selig.
It's not true that the league controls trading. The league OWNED the New Orleans franchise when it was dictating acceptable return for Chris Paul. Obviously, that situation ought never have been allowed to exist, but it did, and Stern vetoed the Laker trade for Paul because it didn't give the team the means to rebuild. I hate to admit it cuz I think the guy's a meglomaniac, but in this instance he was right. The Clipper deal gave New Orleans way more future value and flexibility.
To answer your question directly - there is no way the Association gives draft favors to Seattle. 100 percent none.
. . . in the NBA is far more constrained than in MLB, where you work to build an organization. The NBA has no organization. You simply cannot win without stars, big stars. Even model small-market or mid-market teams, eg, San Antonio (not just Duncan ut Duncan plus Robinson), can only thrive is they get lucky and get those stars through the draft. One player can turn a team around.
In that sense, you can re-make a horrible team, but only if you get really lucky.