Fans shouldn't give up on Sonics

With the franchise in limbo, with the ultimate direction in doubt, with the team so young it's barely out of driving school, what's an NBA fan in Seattle supposed to do?

With the owners in a rush to return to their homes in Oklahoma City. With every magazine, sportswriter and coach predicting an avalanche of losses for a franchise that has made it to the playoffs only once in the past five seasons, how can a fan feel good about the new year?

No season in the Sonics' 41-year history in Seattle is starting with more uncertainty and more anxiety than this one.

The city is fighting to hold the team to the letter of its lease, which has three seasons remaining, while the franchise is trying to shake and bake its way out of it.

There is a doubt cloud squatting on top of KeyArena.

Is this The End?

Or is it a new beginning?

Can Seattle save the Sonics?

Or is the march to OKC inexorable?

What are you supposed to do if you've grown up rooting for this team? How are you supposed to cope with the possibility of losing a franchise you love?

Certainly, the inclination is to kiss them off now. Begin the grieving today, on opening night in Denver, before you become attached. Cut your ties before the owners cut out your heart.

Maybe you want to organize a boycott of the games. Make chairman Clay Bennett suffer. Make him ask his partners for more money and more money. Make sure he loses even more than the $30 million he is projected to lose this season.

But, if you love basketball, that's only hurting yourself, isn't it? That's quitting. That's playing right into Bennett's game plan.

A better idea, to borrow Lakers coach Phil Jackson's life philosophy, is to live in the moment. Forget your fears about the future.

Enjoy the season, because none of us — not even Bennett — knows if this is the final act in Seattle, or if there will be a new arena, a new lease and a new hope in town.

If you like the game, you'll like these Sonics. You'll see things you haven't seen in a while. You'll see a change in the culture. You'll see players willing to work. You'll see the kind of accountability this franchise hasn't had since Nate McMillan moved to Portland.

Watch this brand-new team because it will be like watching your kids grow up.

The change from Nov. 1 to Jan. 1, from Feb. 1 to April 1, will be dramatic.

This week, rookie-of-the-year favorite Kevin Durant and No. 5 pick Jeff Green will play the first of probably 1,000 NBA games together. Lose yourself in their evolution.

These Sonics will do things you haven't seen them do before. Chris Wilcox, the team's most athletic big man, will — surprise — give weakside defensive help. And he just might average 20 points and 10 rebounds a game.

Center Robert Swift is going to knock precocious point guards on the seat of their shorts when they drive into the paint.

Delonte West will stop dribble penetration, something Sonics fans haven't seen in a point guard since Antonio Daniels left.

Durant, a do-everything, 6-foot-9 phenomenon who doesn't turn 20 until next season, will learn something in Game 17 he didn't know in Game 16. He will adjust, for instance, to the grabbing, pulling, pushing defense of someone like Golden State's Stephen Jackson.

If you like basketball, I mean really like basketball, you can enjoy this season in Seattle.

No, the Sonics aren't going to make the playoffs. They could lose 50-plus games — again.

But this team can grow. And it can grow on you.

These players won't take nights off, like some of last year's players did.

This team will make the extra pass. It will dive on the floor for loose balls. It will push the pace.

And, I can assure you, these guys — the players on the floor and the staff making the basketball decisions — aren't Jones-ing for Oklahoma City like their owners.

You really think Durant has a thing for the Cowboy Hall of Fame?

You have every right to be angry with Bennett and his boys. You have every right to want to ignore their team.

But this franchise in this city ain't dead yet. And if the Sonics stay in Seattle, and if you truly like the game, you'll want to remember this new beginning. And you'll want to watch every evolutionary step Durant and Green take.

Don't give up the game just because the owners gave up on you.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com