Another sports post. One newer subscriber, named Lara, just hit “delete”. Which is good, given her inbox.

Some history compliments of Wikipedia:

“On July 2, 2008, the Seattle SuperSonics, an American professional basketball team that competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA), moved from its original city of Seattle to Oklahoma City. The team began to play as the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2008–09 NBA season.”

That is a woefully incomplete summary because it doesn’t get at the buyer’s subterfuge and the associated anger of the SuperSonic faithful. So let’s give Wikipedia a second chance to flesh that out:

“In months before the settlement, Seattle officials released emails exchanged by members of Bennett’s ownership group, alleging that they indicated that some members intended to move the team to Oklahoma City all along, and had not negotiated in good faith. As a result, Schultz sued to rescind the sale and transfer the team to a court-appointed receiver. He dropped the suit after the NBA noted that he had signed a binding contract not to sue Bennett’s group and argued that his proposal would violate league ownership rules.

In 2019, Schultz said, ‘Selling the Sonics as I did is one of the biggest regrets of my professional life. I should have been willing to lose money until a local buyer emerged. I am forever sorry.'”

This thievery made it especially painful for woebegone Sonic fans to watch the Oklahoma City Thunder win the NBA title last June. So much for karma?! And then, insult to injury, to watch them have the best regular season record this year.

And possibly repeat as champions. But not so fast said a 7’4″ Frenchman for which OKC had no answer in the Western Conference Finals.

Now that you’re hip to Seattle basketball fan’s pain, this is the best paragraph you’ll read today. From Yahoo Sports.

“. . . there’s a harsh financial reality facing the Thunder. With Holmgren and Jalen Williams both becoming max contract players next season, the franchise currently projects to have $260 million on the books for 2026-27. That puts them about $40 million above the second apron, which would lead to $500 million in salary and luxury tax penalties on top of all the penalties that come with being a second apron team.” 

Half a billion dollars. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer franchise. Karma is back baby! And now we relish in the schadenfreude of watching Clay Bennett’s OKC Thunder slip into mediocrity.

Postscript. Notice Schutlz said “one of the biggest regrets”. The biggest was just recently raising the price of DanDanTheTransportationMan’s morning coffee.