More E-mails Emerge In Sonics Deposition In Seattle Trial
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City Of Seattle Unearths More Damaging E-Mails
Against Sonics Owners In Trial Deposition |
Despite Sonics co-Owner Aubrey McClendon’s “repeated denials that relocation was always the plan, two additional potentially damaging e-mails were revealed” Friday in a transcript of his deposition in the city of Seattle’s lawsuit against the team, according to Jim Brunner of the SEATTLE TIMES. McClendon in an August 13 e-mail to Sonics Owner Clay Bennett apologized "for the major flap over comments published” in the Oklahoma Journal Record, in which McClendon said, “We didn’t buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here.” McClendon in the e-mail wrote, “I’m so sorry, the truth is we did buy it with the hope of moving to Oklahoma City.” McClendon, when asked about the e-mail, said, “The plan was to try and get a deal done in Seattle and if we couldn’t get that deal done in the next year then we would look at our options, the best option of which would probably (be) move it to Oklahoma City.” Meanwhile, after “controversy erupted in Seattle over large political contributions” made in ‘04 by McClendon and Sonics co-Owner Tom Ward to an anti-gay marriage political committee, openly gay Oklahoma County Commissioner Jim Roth “offered to contact Seattle media to defend McClendon.” However, McClendon said of the controversy in an e-mail to Roth, “The reality is it just improves OKC’s chances of getting them (the Sonics) here year after next” (SEATTLE TIMES, 5/24). In Seattle, Greg Johns wrote McClendon “maintained throughout the questioning that he and his partners always understood the Sonics would remain in Seattle if an arena deal could be reached, a fact he said caused several Oklahoma investors to drop out of the group.” McClendon: “Clay made it clear to everybody that you needed to be prepared to own a team in Seattle for a long time to come, and that actually chased away about half our group” (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 5/24).
PLAYING DEFENSE: The SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER’s Johns today writes Seattle City Councilman Nick Licata, who in ’06 told Sports Illustrated that the Sonics “provide ‘close to zero’ cultural value, now says he was totally wrong.” In an April 30 deposition conducted by Sonics lawyer Paul Taylor, Licata said that he has “come to understand professional basketball supplies significant cultural value for many residents.” Johns notes Licata is “mentioned prominently in the Sonics’ suit against the city as an example of how little Seattle cares about whether the team stays or goes” (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 5/28). Meanwhile, Sonics lawyers yesterday filed a motion “aimed at preventing” KJR-AM host Mitch Levy and author Sherman Alexie from testifying at the trial. The motion described Levy as “'an entertainer' who 'mixes sports and other topics apparently believed to appeal to his target audience' of men 25-43.” The motion identified Alexie as a “writer known for his profanity-laced columns about the Sonics” (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 5/28).
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