Tag Archives: nba

News, Sports

Seattle to NBA: Do We Get Our Sonics Back or Not?

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Future Sonics owner (knock on wood) Chris Hansen, speaking to the media yesterday in NYC

The city officials and NBA-owner-wannabes of Seattle and Sacramento presented the merits of their respective fan bases and arena deals to league owners Wednesday in New York City, and what have we learned? Nothing. In fact, we actually know less.

Here were the facts heading into Wednesday:

  1. Chris Hansen and his group of Seattle investors have purchased the Sacramento Kings, pending NBA approval.
  2. Leading Sacramentonianites will be permitted to lobby NBA owners to cancel Hansen’s purchase agreement, and are touting an alternate bid for a new arena in Sacramento.
  3. NBA owners will vote on whether to approve Hansen as an owner—and his plan to relocate the Kings to Seattle—at their April 18-19 Board of Governors meeting.

The cities made their pitches in two two-hour blocks at the St. Regis Hotel. The principals, including NBA commissioner David Stern, then met with the media. And the only new information conveyed was that we can scratch #3 off our facts list. Stern now says that the question “Seattle or Sacramento?”—an easy decision for tourists—may be too complex for NBA owners to answer by April 19.

Stern indicated that the owners are specifically interested in the construction timelines for the new arenas that have been proposed in each city, and any potential political and regulatory obstacles. The league presumably also wants to assay the economic strength of the two markets, potential fan and corporate support, and the personalities of the future owners. Which of these factors is most important? Which presentation was best? No one who matters is saying.

Sure, you can find plenty of speculation and opinion. The Sacto group “offered the most intriguing sales pitch of the day,” writes Art Thiel of SportspressNW. “If I was confident going in, I am even more confident now,” King County Executive Dow Constantine told Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times.

Hansen and Steve Ballmer made Seattle’s presentation, with support from Mayor Mike McGinn, Constantine, and current Kings owner George Maloof, who told owners he wants the Hansen deal approved. From Hansen’s four-minute press conference, you can sketch how the Seattle group tried to differentiate their bid from the Sacramento one. “We’ve been working on this for 883 days,” Hansen told the media. (Sacramento lead bidder Vivek Ranadive got involved just 2 weeks ago.) Hansen: “Seattle is doing very well economically, we’ve got the right kind of industries growing.” (Sacramento’s major industry is the state government of California.)

But it’s all conjecture. As former St. Regis resident Ernest Hemingway once said: “Never confuse movement with action.”

The biggest question remains unanswered: If the NBA cancels Hansen’s purchase agreement, by what mechanism would the league force the current owners to sell to the Sacramento group? As I have written here before, this fact—that a purchase agreement has been signed, that the Kings are not a beef cattle up for auction—is the single strongest factor in the Seattle group’s favor. KCPQ’s Aaron Levine tried to get clarity on the issue by asking Stern if the fact that a purchase agreement has been signed pushes the needle Seattle’s way. Stern refused to answer.

So, after a hotly-anticipated day yielded nothing, we count down until…well, who knows? The Sonics’ move to Oklahoma City for the 2008-09 season was not official until July 2, 2008, when Clay Bennett’s ownership group reached agreement to buy out the final two years of the KeyArena lease. If you’re wondering how long the NBA could let this drag on, the answer would seem to be at least another three months.

My recommendation is this: Ignore all of it—yes, wipe this meandering article from your mind MIB-style—until the NBA owners announce their decision. Nothing you learn between now and then will be authoritative, and nothing you can do between now and then will be influential. Meantime, enjoy this exclusive video I obtained from highly-placed league sources showing Steve Ballmer’s part of the presentation.

News, Sports

NBA in Seattle Inches Closer as League Gets Relocation Application

At a news conference in Minneapolis yesterday, NBA commissioner David Stern announced that the Sacramento franchise has applied to move to Seattle and play this fall in KeyArena.

This is step two of a process that will end in 70 days — on April 18 (Mark your calendars!) when NBA owners will vote on the proposed sale and move. Stern said that he has combined the vote on the sale and move, even though the sale requires a 3/4-majority, and the move only a 1/2-majority. Which makes sense — with the new owners wanting to move the team to Seattle, purchasing authority without moving authority would make no sense, and vice versa.

Stern clarified the nature of the pitch Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson will make before the Board: He will be able to suggest an “alternate plan,” and the Board will decide the issue on the merits of the two plans. If you were wondering why Chris Hansen wanted city and county backing of his proposed arena before going after a team, this is why — so he can demonstrate the strong probability that he will indeed be able to build a new arena in Seattle, just as Sacramento promises the same.

The drawback to Johnson’s plan is that the Hansen/Ballmer group already has a purchase agreement in hand. As Stern says, Johnson’s as-yet-unnamed investor group would have to “buy the team in Sacramento.” How they’ll do that remains unclear. Stern says the owners face “difficult decisions.” As previously discussed, the sale and move is considered very likely to be approved.

Here is the full transcript of David Stern’s comments on the move — or you can watch them yourself on this video from KING 5. For the latest news on the Sonics move and the proposed new arena, I strongly recommend following KING 5’s Chris Daniels on Twitter @Daniels5.

The latest with the Seattle/Sacramento situation is that have had submitted a signed agreement for the team to be sold to a very strong group from Seattle. We have had an application to have the team moved from Sacramento to Seattle. I have convened the appropriate committees and told them that as we get more information and more data, we will be sending the information to them because they’ll have to make a recommendation to the Board (of Governors), which will likely decide the issue both as to the sale and move in April at our board meeting. And the mayor of Sacramento has advised that he will be back to us soon with a proposal from a group to buy the team in Sacramento and build a building in Sacramento with a substantial subsidy from the City of Sacramento. And so we’re abiding events. The Seattle application is to play in KeyArena, which, we’d be there for two years, possibly three. There is no final approval with respect to a new building in Seattle, but events are well underway, moving in that direction. So they don’t currently have a building, but they propose to improve Key as a temporary facility while one is being built. And my guess is — it’s likely — that the mayor of Sacramento will appear before the Board with an alternate plan. And that’s why we have a Board of Governors: To make difficult decisions like this one.

(Here Stern responds to a questioner who is inaudible.)

I don’t think it’s a bidding war. There’s a series of issues that are defined by our constitution that have to be considered. And one of the things that our board is mandated to consider is the support for the team in the prior city. So there are real issues for the board to consider — about the buildings, about the likelihood that they’ll be built, about the support in both cities…I think I might have composed the standards, but sitting here today I can’t remember what they are. But there are a lot of them. And actually, to confuse it just a little bit, the application to transfer ownership requires a 3/4-vote, the application to move requires a majority vote. And so I did the sensible thing, I combined the committees and I said “You guys figure it out.” We’ll see how that works.

You can buy that Sonics bobblehead for $75 from Gasoline Alley Antiques.

News, Sports

Seattle’s “New” Sonics Team Not Likely to be Super Soon

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DeMarcus Cousins (photo by Scott Mecum via Wikipedia)
DeMarcus Cousins (photo by Scott Mecum via Wikipedia)

Give a starving man a burger, and he’s not going to ask whether it’s made from organic beef. So it is with we local basketball fans, who miss the NBA too much to quibble about the composition of the team we’re likely to get. Which, not to be harsh, but when we talk about the Sacramento Kings, we’re talking more “what-Burger-King-doesn’t-want-you-to-know” than grass-fed.

The Sacramento Kings have one good player. This is not hyperbole, it is documented statistical fact. According to John Hollinger’s widely-loved Player Efficiency Rating, only one Kings player rates among the NBA’s top 50.

That player, DeMarcus Cousins, is an immature hothead. This too is documented statistical fact: Cousins is the NBA leader in technical fouls with 12, and yesterday managed to get ejected from a game during halftime.

Cousins’ problems do not end there — he is out of shape, an inconsistent defender, and gambles too much on both ends of the floor.

On the other hand, Cousins is a rare talent. His combination of a 6’-11″, 270-pound body and world-class athleticism is once-in-a-generation. And he is a multi-faceted player — Cousins leads the Kings in points, rebounds, and steals, and is second in assists. He is unstoppable at the basket, and is a decent outside shooter. Eventually, he’ll be a threat from three-point range à la Sam Perkins or Rasheed Wallace.

The rest of the Kings one cannot say as many nice things about. Starting point guard Isaiah Thomas is a local hero — a Tacoma kid who starred at the University of Washington — but he is simply too short to be an effective defender against starting NBA point guards. Starting shooting guard Tyreke Evans struggles with an important part of his job description — shooting. I could go on, but I don’t want to depress myself.

If you read Sactown Royalty, the best of the Sacramento Kings fan blogs, you’ll see that alongside the justifiable anger about the prospect of losing their team is some gallows humor. To paraphrase, it’s basically: “Can you believe we’re fighting to keep this team?”

Sonics fans will remember the sentiment. While we were all hectoring our legislators and damning David Stern, the basketball team we were trying to save was perpetrating embarrassments like a 168-112 loss. There may even be a relocation blues phenomenon–one Kings blogger has charted a decline in the team’s play since the sale was announced.

If there’s a bright side to look on, its that the Kings are helping secure a better draft pick with little or no emotional damage to their future fans. If the season ended today, the Kings would have the league’s 7th worst record and a 1 in 8 chance of landing one of the top three picks in June’s draft. Continued awfulness would push them down the standings and potentially up the draft order.

The downside, of course, is that if the team loses a lot, they are even worse than we thought. You may not care right now, Seattle. Just want you to know that come November you could be leaving KeyArena with a bad taste in your mouth.

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Sports

What Makes Everyone So Sure the Sonics Really Are Coming Back?

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Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer’s plan to buy the Sacramento Kings and move them to Seattle was presented as a done deal when the news came out earlier this week. However, Sacramento’s efforts to keep the team have dominated headlines ever since. What makes people so sure the Sonics really will come back? I’m here to tell you.

Q: Sacramento is putting together a counter-offer, funded by billionaires, to buy the team and keep them where they are. What happens if the NBA takes that offer?

A: The NBA can’t just “take an offer.” This isn’t an auction. NBA owners will vote, likely in April, on whether to approve the specific sale agreement between the Hansen/Ballmer group and Sacramento’s current owners, the mercurial and nearly-insolvent Maloof family. If the NBA rejects the sale, the team goes back to the Maloofs.

Q: Couldn’t the Maloofs then sell the team to the Sacramento group for the same price?

A: They could, but why would they? Now they have the leverage of a bidding war. They could drive the price up further and keep the franchise in a period of uncertainty–the last thing the NBA wants.

Q: Has the NBA ever cancelled a sale agreement?

A: They have, actually. In 1994, the league blocked the sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves to a group that intended to move the team to New Orleans. However, the league’s decision had less to do with the possible relocation of the team than the fact the new buyers — headed by a boxing promoter — didn’t actually have the cash to buy the team; their financing plan relied on unknown investors, unsigned loans, and future revenue from an unbuilt arena. Even so, the NBA’s rejection of that deal was called “stunning” at the time.

Q: If the sale is approved, won’t the NBA owners still have to approve the move?

A: Yes. And NBA commissioner David Stern has promised Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson the opportunity to argue that the team should stay before NBA owners vote. But NBA owners typically like to support the rights of their fellow owners to move their teams wherever they want. You may remember a team called the Seattle SuperSonics that wanted to move despite a massive outcry from fans, protests from two U.S. Senators, and a proposal to keep the team in Seattle by one of the richest men in the world. The NBA approved that move 28-2.

Q: So it’s a 100%-absolute-sure-thing?

A: Of course not. The NBA could find that Chris Hansen’s wealth is entirely tied up in risky Somalian goat futures. Steve Ballmer could be revealed as the true identity of Jack the Ripper. Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson could have compromising photos from the Annual NBA Owners Nazi Dress-Up Orgy. Nothing is 100 percent, but barring some unforeseen circumstance, the Kings will play here as the Sonics this fall.

Q: Is it fair that Sacramento fans are likely losing their team?

A: No, it is terribly unfair. It was also terribly unfair when the Kings left Kansas City for Sacramento under shady circumstances. It was unfair when the Sonics left for Oklahoma City. It’s unfair that society says we have to wear pants to work. If you’re going to wait around for life to be fair, you’d better bring a book.

You can buy that Sonics bobblehead for $75 from Gasoline Alley Antiques.

News, Sports

The Sonics (and the NBA) are Coming Back to Seattle!

sonicsnodder“You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” — Trad.

Our fight seems so silly now. You wanted a new home, we wondered what was wrong with the old one. Soon we stopped trusting each other, even stooped to name-calling. You started thinking you’d be better off with someone else. And — we’ll admit it — sometimes we thought that too. But then you left.

And we went crazy.

We made movies for you, we bitched out our friends for talking to you, we tried to pretend you didn’t exist. We even stalked you 3,000 miles away. We had to have you back. Of course we’ll build you a new place. Need a loan?

Now you’re coming back. And we are SO HAPPY.

—

Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer have negotiated a deal to buy the Sacramento Kings. They’ll ask and almost assuredly get permission to move the team to Seattle for the 2013-14 season. After five seasons without, Seattle will have an NBA team again.

The NBA was not a runaway success when it first came to Seattle in 1967. There had been no huge public demand, no heroic local owner — at first, the NBA didn’t even disclose who the owners were. Only 4,500 people came to the Supersonics’ first home game; the team was frequently outdrawn at Seattle Center Coliseum by a minor league hockey team.

As the Sonics improved and hockey left, Seattle embraced pro hoops. In 1979 the Sonics moved to the larger Kingdome and won an NBA championship. The team led the NBA in attendance in each of the next four seasons. From 1975 to 1998, Seattle was one of the NBA’s most consistently successful teams, missing the playoffs just five times.

Then things went downhill. A storm of shrinking state budgets, terrible coaching, terrible drafting, a petty and tone-deaf owner, and clueless local leadership pushed the team into the hands of out-of-town owners, who moved the franchise to Oklahoma City over desperate local protests.

While most fans of the former Sonics were in one of the various stages of grief, one man was looking to the future. And, thank God, that man is really, really rich. Seattle-raised hedge fund manager Chris Hansen started quietly buying land south of Safeco Field for a potential new arena.

Once his purchases became public, he negotiated first with the city and county to get political support for a new arena, and then with the mercurial owners of the Sacramento Kings to purchase that franchise. The NBA must still approve the sale and the move, but barring Hansen’s $951-million hedge fund going under, approval is a formality. The result: Largely due to Hansen’s patient, low-key efforts, Seattle will have basketball again in October and a state-of-the-art arena soon after.

In the next few weeks, you may notice strange behaviors from local sports fans — penciling out season ticket budgets on envelopes, suddenly taking an interest in a confused 22-year-old named DeMarcus Cousins, standing wordlessly and worshipfully outside KeyArena. Our minds are in the future now too, instead of the past. In about nine months, we’ll be proud hoops parents.

You can buy that Sonics bobblehead for $75 from Gasoline Alley Antiques.

Business, News, Politics, Sports

Ballmer and Nordstrom Brothers’ New Triangle Offense May Get NBA’s Attention

Detlef's fast break on Twitter

Yesterday a buzz started building that something new was afoot in the attempt to bring the NBA back to Seattle via a new stadium. Insiders were whispering about a game-changer. This morning, it’s clear what that is: Hedge-fund manager Chris Hansen revealed three big investor names on KJR Sports Radio: Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, and Erik and Peter Nordstrom.

Geekwire explains why Ballmer might have wanted to let Hansen take lead on the project.

In retrospect, Mayor Mike McGinn’s visit with the NBA’s David Stern doesn’t look so hat-in-hand, though Hansen’s people claimed no knowledge of “Loose Cannon” McGinn’s plans. King County Executive Dow Constantine, an early political supporter of the effort, released this statement: “The names of Steve Ballmer and Peter and Eric Nordstrom add additional strength and credibility to this proposal, and even greater assurance of the financial stability of the investment team that is working to bring the Sonics back to Seattle.”

“Financial stability” is the key phrase in that statement, since the new stadium plan has been getting pushback, notably from the Municipal League of King County, who released a broadside of criticisms largely focused on financing assumptions and congestion mitigation issues. As summarized in the Seattle Times, the League’s argument referenced the speed at which KeyArena became “unsuitable” for NBA economics:

KeyArena didn’t deteriorate, the report says, so much as it was no longer big enough to accommodate the space deemed necessary for the new standard of arenas. If a region has to replace its arena every 10 to 15 years, it suggests that the new arena’s improvement fund should require annual deposits of at least $20 million. Are investors prepared, the League asks, to provide funding at that level?

If the investor group include Steve Ballmer and the Nordstroms, the answer to that question is suddenly less worrisome for people who’d like to see the Sonics return.

That leaves the concern, still, of the Port of Seattle and Mariners that two stadiums is company and three is a crowd. Yet the Port and the Mariners have different interests, I think–while the Mariners are fighting for market share, the Port may simply be looking for help (in addition to the $73 million in tax revenue they project to receive in 2012) paying for SoDo transportation infrastructure that is needed whether there’s a new stadium or not.