FanHouse ClayBennett

While George Karl is on the verge of leading the Denver Nuggets to their biggest playoff victory since Dikembe Mutombo was seen clutching the ball on his back chanting "Yes! We win!" in leading Denver to a shocking first-round win over the Sonics in 1994, Karl's former NBA city may be without basketball for good.

When Oklahoma City Thunder chairman Clayton Bennett left Seattle without an NBA time after 41 years in July 2008, he promised to reward the city with $30 million if antiquated KeyArena was approved for refurbishing by the conclusion of 2009 and Seattle did not have a new team by 2013.

One of the few current players vocal and active during Clay Bennett's franchisal flight to Oklahoma City was Seattle native Spencer Hawes, a youngster who grew up watching Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton. Hawes spoke out against the relocation of the Sonics, and even showed up to a major "Save Our Sonics" rally wearing a Payton jersey.

In his first pro game in Oklahoma City Sunday, Hawes let his friends back home in the Emerald City know they wouldn't be forgotten by wearing this Sonics green and gold suit, complete with a Space Needle tie.

As virulent the hate for Clay Bennett and his team of business ninjas has been in NBA fan circles (and in, um, Seattle), the man is a hero somewhere: Oklahoma. A familiar refrain from Sooner State fans and those sympathetic to the region has been "don't blame the fans, we deserve a franchise." The sentiment's honest, and while some of us may snicker when the Thunder fail to sell out in the first two weeks of the team's history the OKC fan base is honorable and deserving.

But because of the deep, deep mistrust of Bennett and the distaste his deceitful flight caused, to see regional magazine Oklahoma Today bestow the owner with an "Oklahoman of the Year" award raises more hackles than champagne glasses. Deadspin posted a press release from Today touting Bennett's work to bring the NBA to the state. Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry has a stabbing quote.

Things aren't terrific in Oklahoma City. The Thunder had trouble selling out the Ford Center early this season, though the sales team managed to fill the building for Wednesday's epic matchup with the similarly terrible Clippers. (Mad daps; that's the upset of the year so far.) But more fans in the house meant there was a bigger opportunity to disappoint. Falling behind an awful team by more than 20 points will do the trick: the Thunder heard their first home boos of the season.

It's hard to blame Seattle fans like SonicsCentral's Brian Robinson for crowing about the predicted reality in OKC.

Even I thought that the honeymoon would last longer than this. ... The biggest problem I see coming forward is that the franchise has no tools in place to get better. ... [B]ased on complaints about the in game product it sounds like they are trying hard to save money. Skimping on everything from mascots giving out T-Shirts to music, etc. Now they are in a situation where ownership had to make a Nov. 1 capital call from partners, [Aubrey] McClendon, [Tom] Ward, and [Clay] Bennett have completely lost their asses in the stock market and McClendon is even reportedly trying hard to sell his share of the team.

How can this team put out the money for major free agents? They know they will have to overpay to get a guy to play for the worst team in the least desirable city for an NBA player to live. ... It is stunning that it has fallen apart so quickly. I would have never, never expected them to have boos and critical articles written just 11 games into the season.

From Seattle, the sour grapes are perfectly understandable. For the rest of us, it's sad to see a newborn franchise wilt so effortlessly. Cap space and draft picks don't give you carte blanche, it appears.

We're less than two weeks into Oklahoma City's first real NBA season, the first two weeks the fans of OKC have had a team that's really their own. OKC hosted the Hornets famously well, selling out the Ford Center and giving Chris Paul's young squad one of the most devoted home crowds in the league.

This OKC team isn't so good. The Thunder, 1-4 and not expected to win more than 20-25 games, are much less compelling than those old Hornets, despite the presence of Kevin Durant. Watching a losing team just isn't that fun. So should it really come as a surprise that OKC has already failed to sell out a home game? Its second home game, held last Sunday night, drew 1,000 less fans than capacity. Its second game ... on a weekend ... in its first season. Sure, the opponent was Minnesota. But there are (unfortunately) a lot of Minnesotas in today's NBA.

Of course, 18,000-and-change fans is more than have attended recent Sonics games in Seattle. And it's been noted that the team could sell more season tickets if it wanted, and clear away all those extra single-game tickets. And the economy is putting a damper on recreational spending across the board. But considering the backbone of Clay Bennett's argument in relocation was that Seattle fans didn't really care about the Sonics, it's pretty damning when Game #2 in OKC doesn't sell out.

By the way, the undefeated Hawks visit tonight. Think we'll get non-sellout No. 2?

Bruce Schoenfeld of the New York Times Magazine has an absolute must-read on the birth of the Oklahoma City Thunder, a striking profile that digs deep to expose the nuance of Clay Bennett (he doesn't own a pair of cowboy boots and owns a literary bookstore in Aspen), the circumstances which led to the brief post-Katrina visit from the Hornets, and the death of Seattle basketball.

The biggest news item in the piece, however, might be this nugget regarding David Stern's efforts to keep the Hornets in Oklahoma City permanently.

Convinced that the city was ready to go national, Bennett tried to buy the Hornets and keep them in Oklahoma. According to a letter [Hornets owner George] Shinn subsequently wrote to Stern, Stern recommended that he sell.

"You pressed me to sell the team," Shinn wrote. "You even told me that owners were asking you, 'What's wrong with George - why doesn't he sell his team[?]' " Shinn's response made it clear that he, too, coveted the new territory. "We need to immediately begin laying the foundation for what I believe will be great relationships in Oklahoma City," he wrote. "I believe there are several options that we have, none of which involve returning to New Orleans."

Clay Bennett and his cronies officially confirmed the league's worst kept secret today by announcing that his franchise has been dubbed the Oklahoma City Thunder. So does this mean after stealing basketball from Seattle he now has his sights on Golden State's mascot?

After all, Thunder, seen above destroying Harry the Hawk in a dance competition during the 2007 All-Star Weekend, has been the Warriors' mascot for over a decade. From Matt Steinmetz of the Examiner (via GSoM):

It will be interesting to see how the NBA handles this little issue ... if at all. Can it really have a team in one city with the nickname of "Thunder," and an official NBA mascot for another team named "Thunder?"

That just can't be, right? It'd be like the Knicks having a little Irish guy named "the Celtic" perform at halftime. The NBA is usually so savvy when it comes to branding and marketing, but everything else about this whole OKC debacle has been backwards and hamfisted, so I guess this shouldn't be any different.

My guess is that 11 years of tradition will be flushed down the drain and a name change will be forced, although it would be kind of cool (in a trainwreck/professional-wrestling-type of way) to simply let Bennett embrace his role as the league villain and actually kidnap Thunder from Oakland.

Seattle had very little remaining hope of a happy end to its battle with Clay Bennett and friends over the Sonics franchise. Moments before a judge was set to decide several weeks ago whether the Sonics would be forced to remain in the Emerald City for two more years, the city settled with Bennett for a package including some cash, maybe some more cash later, and a case of Lil' Smokies.

Only the lawsuit of Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO and former Sonics owners, remained in Bennett's way ... and only barely in play, at that. Schultz claimed Bennett broke a significant clause of his purchase agreement by not making "good faith efforts" to get a new arena built in Seattle. Schultz was almost surely right: all signs have pointed to the fact Bennett wanted out of Seattle from the day he began discussing a purchase of the team.

But Friday, according to The Oklahoman, Schultz dropped his suit, citing the belief his case would fail as a reason.

That seems plausible. Also plausible: Schultz heard David Stern's threats of making things very expensive if the lawsuit stayed alive, or the whole thing was a temporary face-saving, PR maneuver in the first place. Who knows? Honestly, who cares? The Un-Sonics are now the Thunder. Hopefully, Seattle gets the team it deserves soon. But the damage, as they say, has been done.

The Team Formerly Known as the Seattle SuperSonics still has no official identity beyond NBA OKC (catchy!), but Clay Bennett and Friends now own the franchise's D-League affiliate. The Un-Sonics announced their purchase of the Tulsa 66ers today. Bennett bought the squad from serial D-League owner David Kahn for $2.5 million, reports Sportsline (via Ridiculous Upside, which had two -- two! -- D-League scoops today).

Smart move, of course. As I argued the last time sole ownership came up in discussion, the cost of running your own D-League franchise -- basically a minor farm team you can choose the coaches, roster, system and location -- is negligible when you're stacked enough to also own a full-fledged NBA team. And the benefits are enormous. The Spurs (with Ian Mahinmi) and Lakers (with Coby Karl) were able to develop prospects, getting them big-league burn with top-level competition while making sure they actually got some burn regularly in the D-League.

Slowly, as more teams acquire their own franchises and others find use for their affiliates, this thing will blossom. The number of call-ups was actually a bit astounding last year, to the point where it no longer became a story when a D-Leaguer (like Ramon Sessions) was successful without too much 'this is novel!' fanfare.

The lawsuit from Howard Schultz, the Starbucks CEO and former Sonics owner who claims Clay Bennett's group violated an agreement by discussing relocation literally the second they bought the team, quietly rolls on. The first trial movement is expected in 2009, but Schultz is talking already. In a court filing this week, Schultz says NBA commissioner David Stern warned him about the ramifications of continuing the suit.

Schultz said Stern told him "that if I did not join in the settlement ... I should realize that it will become very expensive for me and my partners, and he implied that I should reconsider my position."

Schultz said he then told Stern the settlement did not contain strong enough assurances about the NBA locating a team in Seattle and that Stern told him "the NBA would offer no further assurances in that regard."

This doesn't amount to much pressure from Stern, I think. It will be expensive for Schultz ... and Bennett and the NBA. I'm not sure there's a way in which the NBA can make it more expensive for Schultz, prohibitively expensive. Stern already failed in attempting to get the suit dismissed. The commish could try to run up the costs -- he did request $1.5 million in restitution from Tim Donaghy -- but he's unlikely to pick Schultz clean.

Basically, Stern's just telling Schultz that he will lose. It's unsavory at best and maniacal at worst. But it's far from unexpected. Stern is simply a man possessed when it comes to the Un-Sonics.