The NBA owners approved the move of the Sonics (can’t call them the “Seattle Supersonics” anymore) to Oklahoma City. Clay Bennett, Oklahoma Raider, says that he “is thrilled much more for the people of Oklahoma City more I am for me”. Yeah, I’ll bet. The people of Seattle, on the other hand, well, you can just go **** yourselves.
David Stern, making the announcement of the move, showed us exactly how firm the ground is that they are standing upon. A local reporter started asking several rather aggressive questions about whether or not Stern had actually READ the e-mails between the Sonics ownership group that showed, without question, that they had lied to everyone within earshot about their intentions. What does David Stern do? He gets all testy with the reporter asking the question and lectures him. That’s always good. Get really snippy and self-righteous when you know you are screwing people over. And then, when asked about the possibility of Seattle getting another franchise, he said that he might, but he didn’t like the fact that Seattle actually was suing the Sonics to stay and play the last two years of their valid and legal lease at Key Arena. The difference is between Charlotte, which did get another team after their original one left, and Seattle is, apparently, that Charlotte made nice, didn’t sue anyone and asked really, really nicely if they could have another team, pretty please. Stern, the magnanimous Napoleon he is, took pity on poor little Charlotte and they have another team. Seattle, on the other hand, has some nerve to actually sue anyone! Breaking a lease, all the local politicians being lied to… They all amount to nothing, and how dare you insinuate anything to the contrary!
I really won’t miss the NBA. I haven’t watched it in years, and I certainly wouldn’t have ever gone to any more games. But when the radio sports announcer read off the list of players since the inception of the franchise, I couldn’t help but get really sad and very angry. Yet another example of how greedy, rich, powerful white guys can do anything they want, no matter how badly it reflects on them, and get away with it. No conscience.
This reminds me so much of George Bush’s Iraq war. He knew that he was going to start a war. He wanted it, and was going to have it. But yet, he would say all the right things which he knew to be lies of the worst kind to make people stop asking questions during the run up, so it would make it seem like, in the end, he had no other choice but to follow through on something they knew they were going to do all the time. And we had a war. And now, Seattle has no basketball team.
I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, equating the two things. Not at all, so please don’t take it that way. What I am saying is comparable is the mindset of the two architects involved. "I want this, I am going to do this, but I need to lie to everyone to make sure they believe I am doing this the right way." They knew they were doing something underhanded that, if discovered, would not be looked upon kindly by the people involved. But, in the end, they were discovered and they showed no shame regarding their actions and the lies they spoke. Who cares if the "little people" get screwed over? We got what we wanted, so that's all that matters.
The attitudes of the ruling class of this country suck.
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