In a word…..WOW. So THAT is what that letter was all about when they agreed to the sale. This is a complete stunner that Howard Schultz is pissed and wants the Sonics back from that lying scumbag thief.
“It’s not money damage. It’s to have the team returned. The theory of the suit is that when the team was sold, the Basketball Club of Seattle, our team here, relied on promises made by Clay Bennett and his ownership that they desired to keep the team in Seattle and intended to make a good-faith effort to accomplish that.”
OH SNAP, it’s on now! But will it work? Who knows. Maybe this is simply a PR stunt to try and get back in good graces around the NW. If you haven’t followed it much, Howard Schultz has avoided the whole Sonics issue like the plague. The only thing he’s said over last year or so is “NO COMMENT”. He’s been vilified as the biggest reason this team was/is headed out of town. And nobody besides Bennett’s group and Howard’s group has laid eyes on this letter from the beginning, and it could be very difficult to actually define in court what “good faith effort” really means. But we do already know that e-mails have surfaced claiming that Bennett never wanted to keep the team here and clearly was trying to get the wheels in motion for the move well before the mandated deadline agreed to from the beginning.
Does Schultz really want to own the team again? He’s been raked over the coals, but let’s face it, Schultz isn’t a moron. He built Starbucks from nothing, and somehow convinced millions that $4.00 for a cup of coffee and steamed milk is a good thing to do every day. The early speculation is probably that he’ll attempt to win this thing, and if he does ultimately pull it off, immediately sell it to Ballmer and Stanton’s group to go with the Key Arena remodel. So this could be just a pure save-face move in an attempt to right the wrong. But if it means keeping the team here, SO WHO CARES what his motives actually are??
The other thing to consider here is maybe, just maybe, Schultz has some current NBA owners that are friends from when he owned the team? Maybe, just maybe, they will be upset with Bennett’s antics and lying and being so eager to run from a great market? Maybe they’ll see what’s happening here and realize if they vote against the move, Schultz and local ownership could very well get the team back and Bennett could go away? Questions, on top of questions, on top of questions.
The other angle here is that, back in early 2006, Howard Schultz, Wally Walker and David Stern went to Olympia to campaign for a $200-million dollar renovation of Key Arena. Stern was 100% behind the renovation at the time. It was perfectly acceptable just 2+ years ago. Now there is a $300-million dollar renovation of the same building on the table. I wonder what Stern would say under oath as to why that suddenly isn’t good enough?
If anything, it’s yet another fly in the ointment for Bennett to try to take his toy and go home. If the NBA has any sense whatsoever, they will at the very least delay their vote later this week on the move until they get all the litigation straightened out. Good lord, what a freakin‘ MESS the NBA has on their hands right now. And they’ll get zero sympathy from me, you, and a ton of others! At least it’s another chance to expose Bennett for the liar that he is and get that dirty laundry in full public view.
The real beauty of Schultz’s lawsuit is that it focuses on keeping this Sonics team, here and now. None of the promises of expansion in x amount of years, none of the talk of trying to steal a team from Memphis or New Orleans or Charlotte or wherever else. As bad as they were to watch this year, they are still our team, the only team we’ve ever had, or ever cared about, with our history and our tradition. As Brinkhater has said all along about this, the NBA sucks when you are really bad and your owner is trying to get the hell out of town! But when you are winning and competitive, it can be a great thing to watch. Look at how the western conference has been this year. You have teams with 50 wins that are on the edge of even making the playoffs. Think any of those cities hate the NBA right now? Neither do I.
Kudos to Howard for recognizing the situation.
Moving on, we are about to enter the dog days of WSU stuff. There will be some recruiting news for hoops and football, of course, mainly premium content at other sites. We’ll chime in where we can on that. But this is really the end of steady news that we will see for the next several months. So obviously the content around here will taper off a bit.
We’ll have a few more things coming up, including a post-spring look at the defense and offense, among other things. So stay tuned.
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