What the national media is saying about the Sonics

Stern's teaching a bad study lesson

What's happening in Seattle isn't right. The NBA is enjoying a big run of positive press, with a fun regular season filled with headline-making trades leading to an intriguing postseason filled with fantastic matchups. But what's happening in Seattle isn't right.

The situation with the Sonics has stunk since the league approved the sale of the team to Clay Bennett, an Oklahoman whose idea from the beginning was to ensure Seattle's failure... and then move the team to Oklahoma City.

The only person who looks worse than Bennett and his co-owners is David Stern. At least the owners were transparent about their motives.

Stern summoned his Rumsfeldian best by calling the blatant lies "good faith." Asked about the e-mails, Stern said, "I haven't studied them."

He hasn't studied them? How much studying do you need to understand e-mails written as if they were messages on a MySpace page? David, understand one thing: This isn't Proust we're talking about here. These aren't elevated, nuanced concepts. They proved what everyone in Seattle suspected, or outright knew, all along.

— Tim Keown, ESPN

No hijacked team

I know it feels good to blame the Oklahoma City fans and take potshots at their city, but from the e-mails I'm getting from Oklahoma, those fans don't like how this is playing out, either.

They already proved they can sell out an NBA arena for an entire season, and they're definitely ready for an NBA team, ... but they don't want somebody's hijacked franchise under sleazy circumstances and they don't want to be held responsible for killing 41 years of basketball in Seattle.

If anything, they'd love to get the Hornets back because they've already established genuine ties with the players on that team. I just don't think you can blame the Oklahoma City fans for what's happening here. They didn't ask Bennett to steal someone else's team.

Here's why the Seattle situation should matter to everyone who cares about sports: After being part of the city for 41 years, the Sonics are being stolen away for dubious reasons while every NBA owner and executive allows it to happen, including David Stern, the guy who's supposed to be policing this stuff.

I think it's reprehensible to watch someone hijack a franchise away from the people who cared about the team and loved it and nurtured it through the years. It belittles not just the good people of Seattle, but everyone who loves sports and believes it provides a unique and valuable connection for a city, a community, family members and friends.

— Bill Simmons, ESPN

Few chapters remain

In some ways, it has the feeling of a Montreal Expos "finale." There are still a few chapters to come, even if the conclusion is clear.

The Seattle Sonics, the oldest Big Four professional sports franchise in Seattle, are en route to Oklahoma City. The only thing left to be determined is when.

So, update your scorecards. The NBA once had three franchises in the Pacific Northwest (Sonics, Vancouver Grizzlies and Portland Trail Blazers), and soon it will have just one.

New Orleans and Memphis, née the Charlotte Hornets and Vancouver Grizzlies, respectively, are not working as markets and their teams could soon be portable.

— Matthew Sekeres, Toronto's Globe and Mail

Honor your word

They lied and got caught. They embarrassed the league, which had been acting as if it believed the Sonics were legitimately trying to work things out in Seattle. They have a lease. They should honor it. And since honor is not something they seem to have, consideration of relocating to Oklahoma City should be canceled until the Sonics owners really do make that "good faith" effort they claimed to be making a year ago.

— Jonathan Feigen, Houston Chronicle