S.O.S. (Save our Sonics) Why you should care

It's been a couple years now since the Sonics were stolen from Seattle and it still hasn't gotten any easier. I'm clearly not the only one who's still bitter and sad about the team of his youth being stolen from him as evidenced by the demonstration at the Blazer's vs. Thunder game last week. I won't go into too much detail about this since I sadly wasn't able to participate, but if you're curious about it you should take a look at this blog which chronicled the events. It was largely organized by the good people at Sonicsgate which have easily been the largest entity for bringing awareness to the unfortunate events that led to the Sonics being taken away from Seattle. They produced a documentary titled "Sonicgate: Requiem for a Team" that has received numerous accolades and awards that I would encourage you to watch for free on their website if you're curious about the aforementioned events. What I want to focus on is two-fold, why people who aren't from Seattle should care and secondly the surprising strength of the basketball talent in Seattle.

So you're not from Seattle and don't really care about a team who moved across the country? Here's why you should, because it could happen to you. Seattle isn't a bad place to have a franchise, matter of fact it's one of the prime places to have one. Seattle is the 14th largest television market in the United States of America. It is also home to numerous large corporations that have shown great support to other professional sports teams in the area, like Microsoft, Nintendo of America, and Boeing to name a few. It is also home to several billionaires like Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Paul Allen. So with all of these benefits to be in Seattle how could they lose a professional sports franchise? It had to be the fans fault then right? Not exactly, even in the last 5 years of the franchise being in Seattle they still filled the Key Arena to 90% of the capacity. Numerous players have come out and spoken about their feelings on the fans of Seattle, like Gary Payton in this clip:

Additionally, a current NBA player for the team who was formerly known as the Supersonics (Nick Collison in Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team) spoke out about his feelings on the fans of Seattle and how Seattle has become his home even though he is no longer employed in that city. So who's to blame? Most people blame the government officials from the Mayor to the State Legislature and/or 2 greedy owners who manipulated a situation to profit themselves (Schultz the former owner and Bennett the current owner). I could go into greater detail about the factors that led to this sad event in the history of Seattle but I'd urge you to check out Sonicsgate . They have produced a fantastic documentary which clearly outlines the departure of the Supersonics in a way that a quick summary would not do justice. The point is that the fans aren't the party at fault, it was influences outside their control that took away something they loved and it could happen in other places. The Supersonics were a highly successful team prior to the events that led to them leaving town. They won an NBA title and were one of the most successful teams of the 90's. That's why you should care about a team moving across the country and a different city hijacking it's history, because if it can happen in Seattle it can happen virtually anywhere.

I'll make an additional post soon in regards to the talent rich Seattle area for basketball.

Lastly, while myself and many other Supersonic fans may sound bitter, in my experience most of us still have love for a lot of the players on the Thunder and wish them well. Kevin Durant was beloved in Seattle and I haven't heard a Supersonics fan speak poorly of him or any other player on that team. We wish them well, but as for their franchise, I wish them abject failure for what Clay Bennett did to our team and City.