Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn yesterday met with NBA Commissioner David Stern in N.Y. "to tell him Seattle wants to bring back professional basketball," according to Thompson & Young of the SEATTLE TIMES. The visit "came as a surprise" to reps of hedge fund manager Chris Hansen, who is proposing to spend up to $800M "to partially finance a new arena and buy an NBA team." Hansen's spokesperson Rollin Fatland said, "What the hell is that about? I'm not aware that anyone asked him to do it." McGinn's Assistant Communications Dir Aaron Pickus said that the meeting "was part of an East Coast work trip." The Seattle City Council and Metropolitan King County Council are currently considering a proposal to build a nearly $500M "state-of-the art sports and entertainment venue in the Sodo neighborhood." The public contribution "would be capped" at $200M (SEATTLE TIMES, 6/12).
THUNDERSTRUCK: A group called "Save Our Sonics" held rallies for months after the franchise left Seattle in '08, and group leader Brian Robinson said, "A lot of Sonics fans don't want to admit it, but they're kind of taking some joy in, 'See, I told you so. The NBA could have been fun and it could have been ours.'" He added, "There's definitely a lot of people who are really angry, but it's definitely subsided in the past few years, the overall anger. I think there's a certain amount of people this year more than previously that seem to be kind of enjoying this." Robinson: "The people who said basketball doesn't have a future (in Seattle) or isn't fun or can't work or we aren't missing anything, they are wrong, we are missing something" (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/10).
THE HEAT IS RISING: The AP's Tim Booth writes, "Outside of South Florida, there may be no larger collection of Heat fans for the next two weeks than in the Pacific Northwest." There is "very little connection remaining between the current Thunder team and the former Sonics." Thunder Fs Nick Collison and Kevin Durant are the only two players "who actually played for the Sonics in Seattle." What seems to "irritate Seattle residents the most is hearing references to Sonics history, which Oklahoma City owns a share of as part of a settlement reached with Seattle" (AP, 6/12). In Tacoma, John McGrath writes under the header "The Team That Got Away... ." McGrath: "What's frustrating about [Thunder Owner Clay] Bennett is that every move he's made has been accompanied by the sound of 'ding!-ding!-ding!'" (Tacoma NEWS TRIBUNE, 6/12). In Seattle, Danny O'Neil writes, "My favorite team in this year's NBA playoffs has been anyone playing the Thunder, but even that doesn't quiet capture the emotional desperation of my fear that the franchise formerly known as the Sonics is going to win the title this year." Collison and Durant are "eminently likable and totally professional." O'Neil: "I hope each wins an NBA title. I just hope they do it after changing teams" (SEATTLE TIMES, 6/12).
