Well, folks, the end of an era has come to pass.  The Seattle Supersonics are no more.

Franchise majority owner Clay Bennett and City Of Seattle officials reached an 11th-hour setllement yesterday afternoon which provides the city with as much as $75 million in cash payments - $45 million due now, and another $30 million due in 2013 should the city/state approve plans by the end of 2009 to renovate Key Arena and the NBA cannot secure Seattle another NBA franchise.

On paper, this is a good deal for the city.  It pays off the remainder of the previous loan from ten years ago to renovate Key Arena.  It allows Bennett to move the team to Oklahoma City, which is where he wanted it to begin with.  It allows the state legislature and Seattle City Council a only year and a half - a blink in political terms - to secure $300 million in approved renovation funding for Key Arena in their efforts to receive that $30 million additonal payment.

However, with a little digging, it's not difficult to discover that millions of people - taxpayers who have approved and paid for arena renovations in Seattle - have been hornswaggled, fleeced, had the wool pulled over their eyes.

David Stern, NBA commissioner, said a year and a half ago that should Seattle lose its NBA franchise, the NBA would not look to Seattle as a possible location for an expansion (not likely) team or a possible relocation destination for a long time to come, and that Key Arena, regardless of renovations, was not an NBA-class facility..  Yesterday, Stern stated that Key Arean, with those $300 million in renovations, is an NBA-class facility, and that if the funding is approved, then the NBA will work on getting Seattle another team right away.  Well, which is it, Mister Commish?  The good people of Seattle are threatened by the Sonics' owner, then by the NBA commissioner?  And now, some two years later, it has been revealed that, a) Bennett and the rest of the owners had no intent whatsoever to keep the team in Seattle, b) No 'good-faith' effort was made by the ownership group to coordinate and negotiate with government and civic leaders for either the renovation fo Key Arena or the construction of a new facility, and c) there are emails and documents that show these truths.

In terms of a timeline, it took Bennett and Stern two years to steal an NBA team from a city with a rich 41-year history of professional basketball, and how.  But, the question of why is what nags at us all.

Why was Bennett allowed to make such a thing happen?  Why didn't the other NBA owners deny Bennett?  Why didn't Stern ever say "No"?  Why didn't the state or city or county leaders ever step up and propose something that would work for all parties involved?  How did Greg Nickels allow this to happen?  Where was Christine Gregoire?  The saving of the Sonics in Seattle was left to the fans, a small group of die-hard loyalists who identify with the city partly because of the Sonics' and their tenure in Seattle that spanned five decades.  Why was this the case?

Simple: greed.

Greed, avarice, wanting.  Call it what you want, all the officials and owners and representatives and yadda yadda yadda are greedy and wanting for money.  If it wasn't only about money to the city - the $75 million buyout is a fair sum, considering the lease contract that was in place prior to the settlement agreement - then why didn't anyone ever propose public ownership of the Sonics, a la the Green Bay Packers?  The FANS own the Packers, and there is a limit as to how many shares any one fan can own.  They are a solvent, profit-making professional sports team, and there is no reason at all that a similar structure would not work in Seattle with the Supersonics.  If it wasn't only about money to the owners - they DO own the franchise, after all - then why did they pay such an exorbitant sum for a franchise in such disarray if their intentions all along weren't to move the team to a new location?  If it wasn't only about money to former owner Howard Shultz - he sold the team to the highest bidder - then why is he now suing Bennett and the rest of the owners for breach of contract because of their failure to negotiate with government leaders in good faith?

There are many unanswered questions floating around right now, and a great deal of anger is rising from the fans of the Sonics.

Unfortunately, the people in control of the entire situation, from start to finish, showed only one thing above all else: apathy.

So, Seattleites, you and yours are worth $75 million.  How does it feel to be deceived, stomped on, and then spit upon by the NBA and city leaders?  How does it feel to be so sadly undervalued and so easily dismissed?

None of this should surprise any of us, anyway.  The NBA is going the way of the WWF.  Entertainment for entertainment's sake.  Big money right now, and thanks for the tax breaks.  Build me a new arena or we're moving to [fill in the blank].  Oh, sure - the refs are honest.

Since all of the people involved who brought this horrible day upon us all aren't ashamed of themselves and their actions, it is up to us to be ashamed for them.  It's no consolation, of course, but at least it's righteous, and that is a lesson to be learned by everyone who had a hand in the Supersonics leaving Seattle.