It has been five years since the city of Seattle had a National Basketball Association team to call its own as The Seattle SuperSonics departed in 2008 for Oklahoma City. The team left their name and team history in the Pacific Northwest as they became the Oklahoma City Thunder. Recently the city of Seattle was very close to luring the Sacramento Kings to the Emerald City, but an 11th hour deal to keep the Kings in Northern California has been all but finalized which will still leave Seattle without an NBA team, but for how long?
The Sonics had a rich history in Seattle which saw Lenny Wilkens, “Downtown” Freddie Brown and Dennis Johnson lead the team to its only NBA Championship in 1979. The 1990’s produced point guard Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp who led the Sonics to the NBA Finals in 1996. There was always a love affair between the city of Seattle and the Sonics until 2005 when things began to go sour. Former Sonics guard and head coach Nate McMillan left after a 52-win regular season to become the head coach of the Portland Trailblazers.
The Sonics went on a rapid decline which saw the franchise endure three consecutive losing seasons for the first time since 1984-1987. Sonics owner Clay Bennett and the city of Seattle could not come to an agreement on a new arena which paved the way for him to move the team to Oklahoma City.
Millionaire Chris Hansen is the man that is leading the charge to bring NBA basketball back to Seattle. His group offered more money to the Maloof family who currently own the Kings, but when pending Kings owner Vivek Ranadive agreed to give up potential revenue sharing from the big-market NBA teams, the NBA team owners along with NBA commissioner David Stern would not allow the Kings to leave Sacramento.
The city of Seattle is the 15th largest metropolis in America and it is worthy of another basketball team. Other cities that have NBA teams took notice when the original Sonics left in 2008 as they are all now scrambling to avoid the same fate. Cities such as New Orleans and Charlotte are now on their second NBA franchise respectively, but steps have been put in place to keep teams in those cities. When current New Orleans Pelicans owner Tom Benson purchased the team last season, the NBA only allowed it on the premise that the franchise would remain in New Orleans. The Charlotte Bobcats began play in 2002 and by 2005 the state-of-the-art Time Warner Cable Arena was built.
There is always the idea of putting an expansion team in Seattle, but it would be prudent to add a team in the NBA’s Eastern Conference as well. When the Brooklyn Nets left the state of New Jersey last year, you wonder if the NBA would ever consider bringing a team back to the Garden State? The Nets were never successful in attracting fans so it is a long shot.
Hansen is looking to build a new arena in downtown Seattle that will not only house an NBA team, but a National Hockey League franchise as well. In February 2014, current NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver will succeed Stern so it will be at his feet to bring a basketball team back to the Pacific Northwest. In the next few years we are bound to see the NBA once again open for business in Seattle.
Leave A Comment