Tag Archives: Clay Bennett

Sorry, Not Sorry

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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 SuperSonics 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 Sonics 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 Clay Bennett’s OKC Thunder slipping into mediocrity.

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

Websters—2011

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As these new entries in the 2011 Webster’s dictionary illustrate, the English language continues to evolve. Remember, to truly learn new words it’s important to integrate them into your speech as much as possible.

• dinorossi—to repeatedly come up just short of one’s objective. Also rossied or d-rossied. I hit the jump hard and caught major air but rossied the landing.

• notredame—of or pertaining to a once great individual or group that is loathe to accept its obvious decline. Also notredamed; notredamenation. Like Ancient Romans, 21st century citizens of the United States were caught off guard by their collective notredamenation.

• christopherhitchens—the incessant turning of events and topics into unmitigated negatives. Also c-hitched. I enjoyed Lester Brown’s newest book until he returned to form and c-hitched half way through.

• obamathon—something doomed, over time, by unrealistic expectations. Also female-obamamama; conservative-obamanation. It became clear early in the season that Jake Locker’s Heisman Trophy campaign was an obamathon to the voters.

• tigerwoods—to forego one’s family and reputation for extramarital sex. Also tdub; tdubbed; tdubbing. The South Carolina Governor said, “The hell with it, where’s my hiking boots and map of the Appalachian Trail? I’m tdubbing it.”

• claybennett—1) to say one thing and do another; 2) to steal. Also cbennett; cbenn; cbenned; claybennetted. 1) Whenever I call her, it’s someone else, think she cbenned me? 2) I didn’t have my wallet and was really hungry, so I claybennetted some powder donuts.

• nancypelosi—to fake smile even when deeply angered. Also nancypelosied. Despite the auditor’s obnoxiousness, I nancypelosied my way through the IRS interview.

• hailegebreselassie—to dominate opponents at different times and in different contexts, also gebb; gebbed; hgebb; hgebbed. Again, Ron gebbed Dave and Lance throughout the 2010 cycling season.