Sonics owner Bennett fires back at Seattle

After a week of bad publicity, Sonics owner Clay Bennett is striking back — accusing Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels in court documents of a "Machiavellian plan" to force Bennett and his fellow Oklahoma City-based owners to sell the team back to Seattle investors.

In a federal court filing, Bennett's lawyers also say Nickels' office concealed evidence that a proposed $300 million KeyArena expansion floated by the mayor would have cost more than that.

The latest legal argument, filed Wednesday in Seattle, says documents obtained by the Sonics' lawyers show the city's lawsuit "has nothing to do with the last two years of the [Sonics' KeyArena] lease."

"This litigation and the recent media frenzy the City helped ignite are part of an agreed-upon strategy between the City and a potential purchaser of the Sonics," said the court filing, referring to a local investor group led by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

The Sonics' filing accuses Seattle officials and Ballmer's group of trying to hide the truth from the public by insisting that some documents turned over to the Sonics' attorneys remain confidential.

Due to objections over what can be made public, major portions of the evidence the Sonics are citing were redacted in Wednesday's filing.

Sonics attorneys are seeking a court order to publicly reveal evidence of what they call the city's "significant duplicity."

Seattle developer Matt Griffin, a partner in Ballmer's group of potential Sonics buyers, insisted that some of the documents be shielded from public disclosure, Sonics attorneys said in the filing — the latest volley in the increasingly antagonistic lawsuit filed by Seattle to hold the team to its KeyArena lease through September 2010.

Sonics' attorneys argue in the new filing that Griffin and Seattle officials are "desperate" to keep the documents secret "because they detail the City's complicity and its coordinated effort to use this litigation to make 'the Oklahomans' bleed cash in a hostile media environment."

Former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, who is representing Seattle in its lawsuit, said today he has not seen the latest filing.

But Gorton said the Sonics — not the city — started the fight over the KeyArena lease when the team announced it wanted to seek arbitration to escape the lease before it expires in 2010.

Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr could not immediately be reached for comment.

Jim Brunner: 206-515-5628 or jbrunner@seattletimes.com