Recent Stories with tag nba

The legal wrangling over the relocation of the Seattle Sonics to Oklahoma City is finally coming to an end.

This week, 2007-08 Sonic season ticketholders--those enrolled in a marketing program called the Emerald Club--started to receive settlement checks as a result of their participation in a successful class action lawsuit against the Professional Basketball Club LLC, the former owners of the Sonics and the current owners of the OKC Thunder.

To date, and likely forever, these checks are the only direct payment to former fans for the loss of a beloved sports franchise that had been in Seattle for 40 years. (Disclaimer: I was a former Sonics season ticketholder, a member of the Emerald Club, and a member of the class in the lawsuit. My wife and I received our check yesterday.)

When former Seattle Sonics owner Clay Bennett announced that he intended to move the team to his home state of Oklahoma, he and his co-owners were challenged with lawsuits. The City of Seattle sued to enforce a lease that would have held the team here until this year. Howard Schultz claimed that the new owners he'd sold to had lied about their desire to keep the team in Seattle.

The City's case, which seemed like a slam dunk, fell apart at trial when former Mayor Greg Nickels was dismantled on the witness stand. (Sherman Alexie's testimonial that the NBA players were "Greek gods" was of limited legal utility.) The City’s case turned what should have been a perfunctory contract enforcement proceeding into a circus and the city, probably wisely, folded the tent and settled without ever learning the court's decision. Schultz quietly canceled his lawsuit shortly afterward.

That left only a strange little case that resulted in this week's delivery of checks to former ticketholders. Robert Brotherson, Patrick Sheehy, and Carolyn Bechtel, the three Sonics ticketholders named in the suit, had, as it turned out, a legitimate case....

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The Seattle Storm are a WNBA-best 14-2, and have won all ten games at KeyArena. Let's learn a little more about them, shall we?

Lauren Jackson

As a Sonics fan, your pleasures come from the past. Like checking out Shawn Kemp's 1995-96 game log. Kemp dominated opposition that year, scoring 20 points or more in 41 games and leading the Sonics to a franchise-high 64 wins.

Lauren Jackson is replicating Kemp's best season with the Storm this year. Like Kemp, Jackson easily posts up slower or smaller defenders. Or she steps back and shoots from outside. Jackson can dominate the boards, as she did last night against San Antonio when she grabbed as many offensive boards as the entire Silver Stars team.

Jackson's game has a facet that Kemp's never did--three-point shooting. Left alone 22 feet from the basket against San Antonio, L.J. didn't hesitate to fire in a three-pointer. She has 29 for the season, tops on the Storm.

In truth, Jackson is more dominating than Kemp ever was. Jackson has won two MVP awards, and looks headed for another this season. She won WNBA player of the week last week for the 17th time in her career, most in WNBA history.

Jackson's sporting a new look this season. Red hair, for one thing. But she also seems a step faster. Storm broadcaster Dick Fain speculated on last night's broadcast that this could be because Jackson played in her native Australia during the WNBA offseason, a much less strenuous task than her usual offseason stop, Russia. Hope is that the reduced wear and tear will allow Jackson to play a full season, something she hasn't been able to do the past two years. Injuries kept Jackson from playing in the playoffs since '07. Not coincidentally, the Storm have lost in the first round of the playoffs each year.

Jackson finished with 31 points and 15 boards in the Storm's 86-72 win over San Antonio. The Storm have won five games in a row. They next play Saturday at Los Angeles, a game to be televised on ESPN2.

When Garfield High grad Will Conroy joined the Houston Rockets last month, he became the ninth player from a Seattle high school to play for an NBA team this season. This from the 25th largest city in America. Started me wondering--where does Seattle rank as far as sending players to the NBA? The answer: second. Only Chicago (13) has had more players go from city high schools to the League. Amazing in itself, but even more striking when you look at the numbers by population. There, 206 fertility becomes even more clear. Graph!

 

That's right--among large cities, Seattle is the best NBA breeding ground in the nation. (I mapped the top 50 U.S. cities by population.) We're well ahead of second-place Miami, and absolutely housing such supposed basketball meccas as Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York. Some larger cities, like San Francisco, Jacksonville, and Austin, haven't sent a single guy from a city high school to the league.

Now. A word about the data, which comes from Basketball Reference. What's available is high school and city. So this doesn't take into account someone like Carmelo Anthony, a Baltimore kid who went to prep school in Virginia. Also, "city" is narrowly defined by actual city boundaries. So Los Angeles, for example, is only L.A. proper, not cities within L.A. County like Compton and Inglemoor. Metro areas aren't considered, so Seattle doesn't get credit for Jon Brockman of Snohomish High or Marvin Williams of Bremerton High, only those guys who went to in-city high schools. ...

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From the group Manther (myspace!), comes this lament about the Sonics. It's true, we do still miss them. Part of the reason I avoid NBA basketball is that watching it makes me miss them more. Even looking at the box scores sends me into a funk, especially when former Sonic Kevin Durant records another 25-point game. Anyhoo, here's what Manther--appearing along with a guy in a replica Squatch costume--has to say.

Via True Hoop

Someday, you will do it. You won't have a co-worker's birthday party, a seasonal gutter cleaning, or brunch with an ex. Someday, you will watch sports all weekend. If, perchance, this is the weekend, here's how it should go:

FRIDAY
5 p.m.: Find a nearby bar with a good happy hour and some decent TVs to watch the Trail Blazers visit Cleveland on ESPN. Can Roy outshine Lebron?

7 p.m.: Start drinking water, you've got to get in your car soon.

7:45 p.m.: The Blazers game ends just in time for you to make your way to a local high school hoops game. Maybe you go see your alma mater, maybe you just go somewhere nearby. Most games start at 8 p.m. on Friday, here's the full schedule of games.

SATURDAY
9 a.m.: Oh boy is this an exciting day of college hoops. Chomp some cereal while watching Kentucky point guard John Wall, sure to be the first-overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft. Haven't seen Wall yet? Here's a taste. The Wildcats play Indiana, the game's on CBS.

 

11 a.m.: Your Washington Huskies face their toughest test of the year, facing undefeated Georgetown in the John Wooden Classic in Anaheim. Georgetown big men Greg Monroe (6'11") and Julian Vaughn (6'9") comprise the best front line the Huskies have seen this year. On the other hand, Isaiah Thomas and Quincy Pondexter are the most talented scorers Georgetown have yet seen. Game's on FSN.

Garcia

1 p.m.: Roll down towards KeyArena, where Gonzaga will play Davidson at 4. (Buy tickets here.) While you drive, flip on ESPN 710 to hear Dave Grosby's call of the Seattle U/Eastern Washington game, live from Cheney. Can Seattle U's Charles Garcia take over the national scoring lead? He's second at 26 ppg right now, one point first-place Aubrey Coleman of Houston.

1:30 p.m.: You've got a few hours before the Gonzaga game, so head over to Winterfest at Seattle Center to see an exhibition by the Hot Dog USA Jump Rope Team. Afterwards you can take a spin on the ice rink for just $5 (plus a $2 skate rental).

4 p.m.: Two seasons ago, Davidson bounced Gonzaga out of the NCAA Tournament behind 40 points from Stephen Curry. Curry's in the NBA now, so the Zags have a good chance of exacting revenge against 2-6 Davidson (one of their wins came against "Fredonia State," which I think is from a Marx Brothers film).

5:30 p.m.: Check your web-enabled phone to see who won the Heisman.

6:30 p.m.: The Zags game is over. I give you two choices:

a) Drive down to Kentridge High to see one of the best high school hoops games of the year. Kentridge and guard Gary Bell, Jr., host defending state champs Federal Way at 7:30 p.m., or,

b) Back to WinterFest to check out the trains and get some dinner. (And maybe an Orange Julius). Kill time until the 9:30 p.m. showing of SonicsGate, the documentary about the Sonics' departure from Seattle. Everyone who comes to the one-week run of the show will get a free DVD of the movie. You want to get there early because Sonics legend Slick Watts will be at tonight's showing.

10:30 p.m.: That was a nice day. Drive home and rest for FOOTBALL SUNDAY....

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Storm mascot Doppler hands Simmons swag

ESPN.com's Bill Simmons, a.k.a. "The Sports Guy," was in Seattle on Tuesday to sign copes of his new bestseller, The Book of Basketball.

Kevin Pelton, who writes for the Seattle Storm (where he explained Doppler's appearance at the signing) and Basketball Prospectus (where he reviewed TBOB last week) was in attendance and shares this report.

Sport Restaurant was a great venue for Bill Simmons' book signing in all respects but one: It turned out to be far too small to hold the masses of Simmons' faithful readers who descended on Sport to get an autograph and share a brief moment with their favorite writer. By the time I arrived, at 5:30 p.m., a line was already forming an hour and a half before Simmons was scheduled to begin. By the time he arrived, people snaked through the lobby of the Fisher Pavilion and the line continued out the door and outside around Sport despite the persistent rain.

Of course, short of KeyArena, I'm not sure where that many people could comfortably fit. By the time I left, around 10, the line was still going strong, though no longer outdoors. I'm told by others who lingered longer that it took nearly four hours before the last book was signed.

The response was fueled in part by the fact that Simmons, as Steve Kelley wrote about for The Seattle Times, has been the major media figure most supportive of Seattle in the wake of the Sonics' departure. In his brief remarks to the lucky handful of people who got spots inside Sport before the signing, Simmons declared that Seattle was a natural stop for his tour because he still considers it an NBA town. Fans demonstrated that by pulling their Sonics jerseys and other memorabilia out of their closets, and Simmons happily took shots at the former ownership group in the books he signed.

With any tour, there's a natural tendency for each stop to become "the favorite one," but Simmons' fondness for Seattle and empathy for Sonics fans is legit. He even talked up Seattle during a video interview he taped at last night's Portland appearance with The Oregonian. (http://bit.ly/1I0SxF) Now, if only Simmons would have ranked Gary Payton a little higher in his Hall of Fame pyramid ...

[ED NOTE: Simmons may be thinking a little less fondly of Seattle after being pulled over for speeding on his way to Portland.]

Hoops fans, we bring you live to Seattle Center on this, the first night of the NBA season. Let's take a walk around the grounds and get a sense of the excitement.

Here, at Memorial Stadium, we have...a rec league soccer game. How about the EMP? Hmm...two teenage girls sitting on a heating grate. And at Key Arena? Nothing.

Well, maybe Seattle's premier sports bar, the Sport Restaurant and Lounge, at Fisher Plaza, will be packed with hoops aficionados. Let's see.

Okay, walking past the Jamal Crawford, Nate McMillan, and Todd McCullough jerseys to the bar, and here, for tip off of Cavs/Celtics, the first game of the season, we have...me. And my friend Nathaniel, who has to file a story about the game for The Sporting Blog.

(Nathaniel, who under the pen name Bethlehem Shoals is co-author of the mind-alteringly awesome Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac, is one of two nationally-respected NBA writers who, oddly, live in this the largest American metro area without an NBA team. The other, stats whiz Kevin Pelton, has chosen to travel to Portland for opening night (here's his story).)

This can still be a basketball event! First, though, perhaps management wouldn't mind turning up the game audio, and down the Crosby, Stills and Nash song? Thanks.

Midway through the game, we have expanded our numbers almost to double-digits! Four other NBA fans have shown up at Nathaniel's Twitter invitation. Down the bar, a Cavs fan arrives with his (clearly bored) girlfriend just in time to watch his team collapse against the Celtics....

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Along with the ever-exciting baseball playoffs and must-win games for our top two local football teams, sports fans can enjoy a couple of non-sports events this weekend.

Sonics Movie

Well "enjoy" may be the wrong word for the emotions you'll feel at the premiere of Sonicsgate. The film about the Sonics' departure from Seattle, featuring interviews with major players like Slade Gorton, Kevin Calabro and Sleepy Sam Perkins, debuts tonight at SIFF, with an encore presentation Saturday at Pacific Place. Friday's screening is sold out, but you can get tickets for Saturday's here.

Tonight the film's producers are hosting an after-party at Spitfire, here are the details on that.

Seahawks Book

Mark Tye Turner, author of the Seahawks "fan-oir" Notes from a Twelfth Man, will be reading from and hosting a trivia contest surrounding his book tonight at F.X. McRory's. The trivia is free; first prize is a round of drinks and a $25 F.X. McRory's gift certificate. Should be a fun time and a moment to send happy thoughts to Matt Hasselbeck's ribs.

 

When former Seattle Sonics owner Clay Bennett first announced the he intended to move the team to his home state of Oklahoma, he and his co-owners were met with a slew of lawsuits.

The City of Seattle sued to enforce a lease that would have held the team here until 2010. Howard Schultz sued claiming that the new owners he'd sold to had lied about their intentions for the team.

From the outside, it looked like a sound strategy: hold the team here for two years and bleed the new owners hard enough to force a sale to local owners.

But the plan fell apart when Bennett’s skillful attorney Brad Keller dismantled the Mayor, the City’s experts and, seemingly, the entire case on the witness stand. The City settled with Bennett for a few breadcrumbs and Schultz dropped his suit.

Bennett was gone and so were the Sonics.

But under the radar, off the front pages, three Sonics season ticketholders launched a lawsuit against Bennett and the Professional Basketball Club (PBC) claiming that they had been lied to. And now, just over a year after the Sonics left town, that little lawsuit is working its way to trial and is the last, best hope to finally get some satisfaction and legal leverage against an arrogant ownership group that many feel lied, cheated, and stole from Seattle.

This week, all 2007-08 Sonic season ticketholders received notice about their participation in a class action lawsuit against the Professional Basketball Club LLC. The documents contained in the notice outlined the history of the case and asked ticketholders if they would like to be represented in the class or decline participation.

Behind the legal talk, the documents bear witness to a remarkable case. Robert Brotherson, Patrick Sheehy, and Carolyn Bechtel, the three ticketholders named in the suit, had a compelling complaint.

In early 2007, the Sonics sent out a renewal package to all season ticketholders. In the brochure, which featured a letter signed by Clay Bennett, the Sonics offered all ticketholders a commitment that if they bought tickets for the 2007-08 season, they could buy tickets for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 season at the same price. They called the program the Emerald Club.

It was clear that the club was hoping to salvage at least some business for the season. Some might say they were desperate.

The three plaintiffs took the offer at face value and bought the tickets. They might also have believed that the offer meant the team was staying for the final two years of the lease.

(Disclaimer: The author is a former Sonic season ticketholder and a member of the Emerald Club; as such, he is a member of the class in the lawsuit)

One year later, while the lease fight was heading for court, the Sonics emailed all Emerald Club members and said that, with the lease up in the air, they would not send out renewal packages, but would notify them when the case was settled. The Sonics never called back.

The plaintiffs believe that failure to offer them the right to buy season tickets at the 2007-08 price, even if the team was in Oklahoma, is a breach of contract.

Mark Griffin

“When we first started on the lawsuit, the Professional Basketball Club owners basically laughed at us,” said Mark Griffin, an attorney at Keller Rohrback who was appointed by the court as class council. “They said it was ludicrous to hold them to a contract promise to let the plaintiffs buy tickets at the 2007-08 prices. They asked the court for a summary judgment and probably thought the whole mess would be swept away.”

It didn’t work out that way. The case landed in the court of the Honorable Richard A. Jones in the United States District Court. Jones is a Seattle native, the brother of Quincy Jones and, no doubt, someone who attended Sonics games in the past. Probably a lot of games.

Jones is known as an excellent judge, a keen legal mind and an even keeled jurist who decides cases based on facts. He made a summary judgment in February 2009. The judgment, which can be read online at www.sonicsclassaction.com, dismissed most of the PBC’s claims and threw out the plaintiffs claim that the brochure and subsequent action constituted a violation of the state’s consumer protection act.

But Jones left intact the plaintiffs claim that the Sonics entered into a contract with ticketholders and then broke that contract. He ruled that all season ticketholders in the Emerald Club were a class for the purposes of the suit. He further ruled that the plaintiffs had suffered damages, though he could not rule on what the amount of the damages could be.

He wrote: “These, however, are not issues that the court can resolve as a matter of law. A jury must decide what damages are, and whether those damages were within the reasonable expectation of the parties when they entered the Emerald Club Contract.”

And those words no doubt sent a chill down the backs of the Professional Basketball Club LLC.

Judge Richard A. Jones

“He did a very smart thing,” said Seattle attorney Michael A. Maxwell. “The case appears to be unique, and where there is no precedent to rule on, you turn it over to a jury. In effect, the judge ruled that a Seattle jury would decide the amount of the damages. I doubt that was what Bennett wanted to hear.”

Maxwell believes that Bennett does not want to take the stand on the record in Seattle and does not want to face a jury.

Griffin agrees. “Anything can happen with a jury, and anything is a scary place to be for them.”

Both point to language in the summary judgment that calls out the PBC for “deceptive practices.” Judge Jones clearly spelled out a pattern of deception. If the case goes to jury in January as planned, the jury is going to hear one hell of a lot of information that, frankly, Bennett doesn’t want out. You know, like emails from the NBA telling Bennett that the Emerald Club brochure was a bad idea.

I say ‘if’ because it’s likely Bennett will want to settle.

“I’d bet he’s dialing his phone like crazy right now trying to get a deal done,” said Maxwell.

Cheering the case on from the bleachers is former season ticketholder Eric Tirnauer, a former Emerald Club member.

“It’s great,” said Tirnauer, a rehabilitation therapist in Seattle. “When I got the Emerald Club brochure in 2007, I definitely thought it meant they would ride out the lease. My wife and I purchased the tickets in the belief we could buy the same seats at the same price for the following two years. This lawsuit is proof that we were misled.”

Tirnauer is understandably bitter about the loss of the Sonics. A long time fan who moved to Seattle in part to be closer to the team, he has tried to put the hard feelings behind him, but some pain still bleeds through.

“I still haven’t been back to a Starbucks and never will,” he said. 

But is money enough to heal the wounds?  “No,” he said. “There isn’t enough money to replace the pain of losing the team. But it is a chance to flip Bennett off one last time. I really hope they win the case.”

Tirnauer probably isn’t alone in thinking that every little hurt helps. Nickels lost his job, the Oklahoma Thunder is a pathetic excuse for a team, and Bennett and co-owner Aubrey McClendon have been hurt by the economy (McClendon had to sell his prized wine collection to raise capital, poor fellow). On the other hand, we don’t have the Sonics.

But we have this lawsuit. For now, it’ll do. It’ll do.

You can buy that Sonics pin for $35 at Gasoline Alley Antiques.