The process of getting the Sonics back to Seattle has hit the last major hurdle before the green and yellow make a comeback. Pending league approval we will have a team back in Key Arena next fall. As expected Seattle fans are starting to take a lot of flak from the good fans of Sacramento. Since day one of the Sonics apostasy I knew we would have to tear out the hearts of another fan base in order to bring them back, unless...
There was a league expansion. As always the biggest problem with expansion is the dilution of the NBA talent pool. In order to keep conference symmetry we would need to add 2 teams. Increasing the total size of the league to 32 teams. While each team would have a full 15 man roster that would mean there would be 30 new players’spots to fill. So we would add about 6.6% percent more players to the league but these new players wouldn’t be top level talent. Instead it would more than likely lead to each player moving up one position more on the depth chart. So basically, we would have a league where a bunch of players who would be better playing as the second best player trying to lead a team. It would also create a major talent gap when a team is lucky enough to have a true super star. I would not want a more watered down league. I like to watch the NBA because the best of the best are playing. I have a passing interest in college basketball, but the talent is noticeably worse and the further watered down the league gets the closer to the college game will become. So yeah, little long winded and veered off course but I am against expansion.
After expansion the next idea I hear is Seattle targeting a different team. Truly the dream option would be to get back our team from OKC. Problem is as long as that team is a perennial title contender they will be able to sell enough seats to keep the team economically viable. If we were patient and waited ten or so years for them to be western conference bottom dwellers. We could get our history and our original team back. By that time the Sonics memory will be too distant, too diluted by years of inactivity. After OKC the next best alternative would be either be the Clippers, the Grizzlies or the Hornets Pelicans but for totally different reasons.
The reasons for the Clippers are simple they are the second Banana in Los Angeles that market already has a team. (And as much as it pains me to say it the Lakers are THE marquee franchise in the NBA. Also might have a blog idea tearing apart the notion as the Knicks as a marquee NBA franchise, but that is for a later day.) Problem with this is the team is currently really good and good teams make money so right now this has no real chance of happening but it would make sense when it came to not hurting a fan bases feelings too much. (All though I'm hypothetically sorry for Billy Crystal in this scenario)
Next team is Memphis. To be honest this and New Orleans are my two favorite options for a team. Neither team has been in the market very long. Neither team is in very large metropolitan areas (41st and 46th (Quick mad double parenthesis OKC is 43rd)). Both teams are in the bottom 9 in revenues, so they would both be very logical and we wouldn’t face the vitriol from the fan base like we are from Sacramento. The only problem is both team aren't for sale, and the NBA (Stern) really wants a team in New Orleans for whatever reason. So both those teams are out simply because they are not on the market.
So, now Sacramento seems to be the best option mainly due to the fact they are available. Teams don't come on the market all that much so whenever there is an available option we need to strike. Also there is already a team within a hundred miles. I have friends in Bellingham WA which just so happen to be very similar in distance from Seattle who cannot wait for a team back in the area. It's not that I have nothing against Sacramento but we are a better market for the NBA. We are a bigger market 15th in terms of metropolitan area and a richer one. $50,733 vs. $46,106. In terms of population and money Seattle is by far the more attractive market. This whole ordeal reminds me of wanting to get a promotion at work. In order to move up in the company and get what I deserve I will have to displace someone, who very well could be qualified and competent at the job, but I'm just a better fit. It's simply just survival of the fittest, we are the better adapted organism you’re competing against. It’s a sad reality and having gone through a similar situation (although ours was a mess of lies and conflicting intentions) we only hope we have left your fan base with a viable plan to bring a team back to the market. As a fan base we have utilized the power of the internet to give a voice to the average NBA consumer. When taken as a whole all the talk we have been doing for all these years has become a roar that the NBA no longer can ignore.
In the end, I guess the only real reason I'm not sorry is selfish. All the other words I wrote were just excuses justifying the means. My excitement for a team greatly outweighs my guilt of stealing your team, and for that I'm truly sorry.
(I intentionally left out any Maloof talk because everyone knows how bad of owners they are. It would have been like shooting frozen fish out of a freezer section, so easy it doesn’t need to ever happen.)
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