Can Seattle's Sonics fans switch allegiance?

Letters of condolence have been flooding in from around the country. There's nothing quite like a franchise move to bring people together.

It turns out, a significant chunk of the United States has felt the pain that Sonics fans are feeling on this star-spangled weekend.

E-mail notes have come from Houston Oilers fans, who still remember their hurt after that team left for Tennessee. Baltimore Colts fans have written to say they still get woozy at the sight of horseshoes.

In the strange days since the-team-formerly-known-as-Sonics and the City of Seattle reached an agreement that sent the basketball team to Oklahoma City, I've heard from Hartford Whalers and Winnipeg Jets fans.

One person wrote, admonishing me to stop whining. "If Minnesota can lose the North Stars, then anything is possible," he said.

Self-described "die-hard" San Diego Clippers fans have written to say they hate the Los Angeles Clippers. Charlotte Bobcats fans have offered their team to Seattle today. "Take the Bobcats, please," one man wrote. He wants the return of the Hornets.

And, more than any other group of fans, I've heard from Cleveland Browns partisans. Maybe no set of fans felt more anguish over losing a team than Cleveland's football fans.

I even got an e-mail from a 90-year-old former Brooklyn Dodgers fan who said he will hate Walter O'Malley, the team's former owner who moved the team to Los Angeles, "even from my grave."

Teams move. Seattle's isn't the first.

The wait for another NBA team in Seattle could be a long one. And even then, the team the city might get is going to be just as bad as the one that just left.

Here's the dilemma: If you still love the sport and still want to see the games, where do you transfer your love? Where do you go to fill the void?

No self-respecting Dodgers fan started rooting for the Yankees. I doubt many Colts fans surrendered their hearts to the Washington Redskins.

When the Philadelphia Warriors left for San Francisco, I promise no Warriors fans started rooting for the New York Knicks, or the despised and envied Boston Celtics.

But there is another NBA basketball team in the Northwest, the Portland Trail Blazers, and it is packed with people from Seattle.

Owner Paul Allen also owns the Seattle Seahawks. The Sonics uniform number 10 of Blazers coach Nate McMillan still hangs from the KeyArena rafters. The team is leaving, but his mark is indelible here.

In Portland, Brandon Roy, the former University of Washington All-American, has emerged into an All-Star and one of the most gracious, selfless players in the game. And, although he has been the center of trade rumors, Seattle Prep's Martell Webster has grown into a dangerous scorer for the Blazers.

Ex-Sonics assistant Dean Demopoulos is McMillan's top assistant and another assistant, Maurice Lucas, once threw elbows and expletives and grabbed scores of rebounds as a Sonic.

Now, I don't imagine many Sonics fans can dig deep enough into their souls to root for Portland. There still is an undercurrent of anger toward Bill Walton and a jealousy of Clyde Drexler.

I'm just saying the Blazers have legs.

According to their master plan, which if anything appears to be ahead of schedule, they are three years away from competing for an NBA championship. This is a good team on its way to becoming great.

Greg Oden, Portland's first-round pick in 2007 who missed all of last season, is healthy again. He is the rarest of NBA commodities — a gifted, true center.

In last week's draft, Portland took the first-round pick, all-purpose guard Jerryd Bayless, that the-team-formerly-known-as-Sonics should have taken.

Roy is the kind of Oscar Robertson-type guard who makes his teammates better. Portland's kids, players like forward LaMarcus Aldridge and scorer Travis Outlaw, have matured.

And general manager Kevin Pritchard is the league's next true boy wonder.

I know all about the Portland-Seattle rivalry. I've heard stories about the bloodbaths that were the hockey games between the Buckaroos and Totems — and those bloodbaths were just in the stands. I know it would be hard to suddenly think of Portland's team as Seattle's team.

I know gas prices are steep and pricey Portland tickets are scarce.

But I also know the Trail Blazers are going to win big in these next few years. And after suffering the Sonics of Howard Schultz, Wally Walker, Clay Bennett and Sam Presti for most of the past decade, watching a winner might be a refreshing change of pace.

Go Blazers? Probably not. But on this star-spangled weekend, it seems better than all the alternatives.

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