Howard Schultz has only fans' admiration to gain

It was already a fiasco. Now it's a soap opera.

On Monday, the Oklahoma Raiders' efforts to steal the Sonics veered further into the bizarre when the Times learned former owner Howard Schultz is prepared to sue to get his team back.

Upon learning of the news, I rushed to the closest Starbucks to buy a latte.

After consuming the drink, however, reality settled. Schultz's dire attempt to right his wrong is the longest of all shots. And though he probably won't admit it, he's motivated in part by a desire to suppress fan anger. If Seattle becomes an NBA ghost town, he doesn't want to walk around fearing for his coffee beans.

Since selling the team in July 2006, Schultz has been able to avoid his great mistake without penalty. He could've continued to skirt the issue and lived on, guilty but wealthy. So his decision to litigate the Raiders — and consequently, put his basketball failures back in the limelight — shows both contrition and an honest admission that he was bamboozled.

Ultimately, this effort only figures to get Schultz a considerable legal-fees tab and a heap of disappointment. Nevertheless, he has given the city an even stronger case to keep the Sonics in their KeyArena lease through 2010.

Schultz's lawyers will argue that Clay Bennett and his Raiders lied to Schultz when they bought the team nearly two years ago. On the day the sale was announced, Schultz smiled and talked of how wonderful this ownership change would be for Seattle. He trusted the new owners would make that now-infamous "good-faith effort" to keep the team here.

Of course, even if your middle name was "gullible," you knew to question the Raiders' motivations. So now, instead of being cast as a gluttonous villain who jumped on the best deal possible, Schultz will be portrayed as a naive businessman. In truth, he's probably somewhere in between.

At least he's trying something, though. Perhaps he was talked into doing this because the city is desperate, but who cares? Right now, there's not time for infighting. There's only time for one battle: the fight against the Raiders.

It's not over. Just when we think this situation has reached hopelessness and maximum oddity, it gets stranger.

Rich people — they're so illogical.

It spurs their business genius. And it makes it awfully fun to watch them fight.

Wondering what David Stern has to say about this development.

During a Monday conference call with reporters before this bombshell, the NBA commissioner made dismissive and misinformed comments about the recent e-mail revelations that prove how disingenuous the Oklahoma Raiders have been.

"I haven't studied them," Stern said of the e-mails, "but my sense of it was that Clay, as the managing partner and driving force of the group, was operating in good faith under the agreement that he made with Howard Schultz. His straight-and-narrow path may not have been shared by all his partners in their views, but Clay was the one making policy for the partnership."

In response, allow us to unleash Amy Winehouse's favorite phrase:

No, no, no.

Good faith? No, no, no. Bennett, straight and narrow? No, no, no. Bennett, the driving force even when he's not the richest partner?

No, no, no.

Stern ought to actually study those e-mails.

He would find that Bennett lied to him.

On April 17, 2007, shortly after state lawmakers balked at Bennett's lousy idea to build The Richest NBA Arena Ever in Renton, three of the Raiders exchange e-mails. Tom Ward asked about moving to Oklahoma City and avoiding "another lame-duck season in Seattle."

Replied Bennett: "I am a man possessed! Will do everything we can. Thanks for hanging with me boys, the game is getting started!"

Who knew Bennett, monotone in interviews, could communicate with such passion?

Four months later, in an e-mail swap with Stern, Bennett told The Commish he had never discussed relocation with his partners, and he was still committed to his Oct. 31, 2007, deadline for an arena solution in Seattle.

"I have never wavered and will not," he wrote to Stern.

The Commish has been deceived. Nevertheless, he carries on with a loyalty that makes it seem like the Raiders are bossing him.

Apparently, Schultz took a look at those e-mails and got angry. Now we have a little more hope to cling to, though it might soon evaporate.

Later this week, the NBA Board of Governors will vote on Bennett's request to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City. It's just a formality. It will pass.

After that, only court battles will remain. The city versus the Raiders in June. The Raiders versus Schultz, TBA.

The man who sold out now wants to buy back in.

It's weird, yet wonderful.

Now, if the Tooth Fairy will testify that Bennett conned her when he was a child, the Sonics might have a real chance to stick around.

Jerry Brewer: 206-464-2277 or jbrewer@seattletimes.com. For the Extra Points blog, visit seattletimes.com/sports