City just said "no" to pro basketball

Seattle was mostly quiet this week after we learned our professional basketball teams had been sold out to a bunch of Oklahomans.

That's because shrugs don't make any sound.

Our oldest pro team, the Sonics, the one that put the city on the sports map and gave it its first championship and ticker-tape parade, is probably leaving after 40 years. In another era that would have been big news. Instead it was the small talk of the town.

As in: "Too bad about the team. Have you heard how hot it's going to be this weekend?"

Not long ago the threat of being jilted by our baseball team, the Mariners, caused U.S. senators to leap into action and sports boosters to launch a months-long save-the-team political campaign.

We've just been told we have a year to rally to keep the Sonics, or else they're gone.

The response so far?

"Oh. When does football season start?"

The feeling is more than just resignation that the team is leaving. We've only known about it for two days and we're already over it.

When did Seattle stop caring about its Sonics? And why?

I dropped by the mayor's office Tuesday and heard him say three times how disappointed he is that the team was sold. But he said it with far less conviction, or emotion, than when he pulled his support for the monorail a year ago.

In fact the whole city mustered a lot more passion for the ill-fated monorail than it has in years for the Supes.

Even the sports junkies don't seem all that vexed.

I tuned in to Sports Radio 950 KJR. This is the same station that led a civic crusade to save the Mariners back in '95. Day after day, for weeks, hosts such as New York Vinnie whipped listeners into a mania to build that team a new stadium.

This week the station is as measured as NPR. Mostly they are discussing who is to blame. They can't decide. Howard Schultz? Mayor Nickels? Nick Licata?

Finally someone called in and suggested it might not have much to do with our leaders. It might be that the people of Seattle don't much care about pro basketball anymore.

One of the hosts, Dick Fain, agreed. He said talking about the Sonics the past few years has been practically impossible because almost nobody calls in.

"Cities don't lose teams if they have rabid fans," he said. "The support here is not what it used to be."

This team — this entire sport — sure lost me. I grew up in Ohio worshipping Slick Watts from afar. When I moved here in 1985, I worked across the street from the Coliseum, at a restaurant called Chicago's. I often made it to the games only after halftime. The tickets were so cheap it was worth it.

The Sonics star was a scoring machine named Tom Chambers. Then it was the fabulously bald and menacingly named X-Man. Soon after, the team drafted Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton and was on its way to the NBA Finals in 1996.

A decade into listening to most of the season on the radio and going to as many games as I could, I just stopped caring. The good seats became priced more like nights in a hotel. The play morphed into a physical slugfest with little artistry. The owners fretted more about the condition of the corporate suites than the quality of the players.

I can't fathom taking my kids to an NBA game now. It would cost at least a hundred bucks. More like two if we wanted to be close enough to see the game.

Speaking of money, there's also the NBA's relentless thirst for government handouts.

Licata, the City Council president who notoriously said the impact of the Sonics leaving Seattle would be "close to zero," says any ill feelings over the sale of this team have been dwarfed by public animosity at the idea of subsidizing them.

Seattle's a different city now, more like San Francisco with its exorbitant housing prices that strain the family budget. And its wealth of other things to do.

"I think in the context of where we are as a city, people feel the incessant demands of professional sports are just out of control," he said. "It's not worth it. It needs to be reined back in."

One of the new Oklahoma owners said that "the people of Seattle have to make a decision about how important NBA basketball is to them."

It seems that decision's already been made. And it is: "Not very."

Some are blaming the politicians for losing the Sonics. That's not it. The Sonics lost us. The politicians just did what we wanted them to do.

And that was to say "no."

Schultz says he was disrespected. Not so. He was told what he didn't want to hear. No, sorry, we are not going to pay all your expenses while you keep all the profits.

Maybe that was the real sound heard 'round Seattle this week. It was a city finally telling professional sports "no." Enough is enough.

Now that we've said it once, we shouldn't be shy about saying it again.

Danny Westneat's column appears Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.