The NBA just isn't the same with out the Supersonics

As the NBA season gets underway, most would think of how the Miami Heat will do with the additions of LeBron James and Chris Bosh, who are both joining perennial All-Star Dwyane Wade. Or talk about the possibility the Los Angeles Lakers will win their third straight NBA championship (which would also be their second three-peat under coach Phil Jackson). Or if 2010-11 will be the final hurrah for Shaq.

But I'm not going to talk about those topics above. Today, it's tough for me to watch the NBA these days for one particular reason: the Seattle Supersonics are no longer there, and what pisses me off about that the most is the way they were heartlessly taken away from a city that embraced the team so well for 41 years. A team that had countless stars like Dennis Johnson, Jack Sikma, "Downtown" Freddy Brown, Shawn Kemp, and Gary Payton. A pair of noted coaches in Lenny Wilkens and George Karl. And a team that has the city's only major league championship, winning the 1979 NBA title--and that very trophy is still in Seattle as it sits at the Seattle Museum of History and Industry.

In 2006, Howard Schultz sold the team to Clay Bennett, a businessman based out of Oklahoma City that temporarily housed the New Orleans Hornets after that team was displaced because of Hurricane Katrina. During the press conference introducing Bennett as the team's new owner, he promised that the team would stay in Seattle. Now this is where my hatred of Bennett, Schultz, and NBA commissioner David Stern begins.

In that same press conference, Bennett showed anyone that rooted for the green and gold of the Supersonics how much of a two-faced liar he was. It was clear what Bennett's intentions were upon gaining control of the team from Schultz. He wanted to move the team to Oklahoma City as soon as he possibly could, and--when his ownership group agreed to a deal with the city of Seattle about the team's lease with Key Arena--he succeeded in doing so. The team would be renamed the Thunder and began play with the 2008-09 season.

Next up is David Stern. He continually slammed Seattle politicians because he thought they weren't doing enough to either fund a new arena or fund a potential renovation of Key Arena. At the time of the Supersonics' last year in Seattle, Key Arena had a seating capacity of 17,000, which was too small by Stern's standards. And Stern made it radically clear that if the Supersonics left town, Seattle would never have a team again. Stern essentially slapped the city right in the face with that comment, and I cannot wait for the day when he is no longer the league's commissioner.

For all I care, all three of these men can go to hell for their roles in the loss of the Pacific Northwest's first modern and original pro sports team. And because of that, I will never root for the Oklahoma City Thunder or set foot in a Starbucks as long as I live. Stern and Bennett never apologized to the fans in Seattle for their cowardice, and if they ever do down the road, they won't be getting any forgiveness from me. Schultz apologized to the fans for allowing the sale to happen in the first place, but that isn't enough either.

And before I finish this entry, I'd like to give "Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team" a plug here. It's a documentary film about the rise and fall of the Supersonics, and the lingering anger that remains from its fans in Seattle after the team was heartlessly moved out of town. I've seen the movie in its entirety and I thought the producers and the writers of the film did an excellent job in not just keeping the memory of the Supersonics alive, but also went did an excellent job in going in-depth into the more scandalous reasons behind the loss of the team. If you haven't seen it yet, you should because you won't regret watching it.