First of all, I'm surprised you 'deleted' my comment on your Seattle/OKC Battle blog post/thread.  Frankly, I can understand why you did, however - it's never fun to write something only to have that piece torn to shreds by facts, truths, and undeniable reason.

Therefore, with that in mind, I write this letter to you and anyone else that shares your opinion(s) and position(s):

In an effort to instill credibility to my board messages/blog posts and to those of other Seattle Supersonics fans, I have done my honest best to be civil and maintain decorum.  I have pretty much refrained from the 'hillbilly/####' jokes and comments, and I think that if you took the time to read through all the posts on the Seattle Supersonics message board in the past 1-2 years, you would easily find that there are maybe a dozen individuals who have engaged in name-calling and the whole 'OKC bashing' to which you have wholly endeared yourself.

In truth, very few people gracing the Seattle Supersonics message board have been rude or made posts unfit for a 'family' setting.  A couple have been harsh, for sure, including several of mine.  However, if you could possibly remove the victim label which you have firmly affixed to your lapel, you will easily see that most of the messages and blog posts have been critical of Clay Bennett, the NBA, David Stern, Howard Schultz, and the City Of Seattle... not of Oklahoma City, Oklahomans, Okies, southerners, ####, hillbillies, or whatever term can best be used to describe some or all of you Oklahomans.

I understand your point(s), but you are required by common rule of civic course and responsibility to consider and accept some glaring and undesirable facts:

1) Clay Bennett is a liar and a thief.  He openly attempted to extort the citizens of Seattle, and he has made his intentions clear regarding his future intent to do the very same thing to citizens of Oklahoma City.

2) David Stern and Clay Bennett have colluded to rape the City Of Seattle of forty-one rich and wonderful years of professional basketball history.

3) The City Of Seattle, with its hand relatively tied, made a pseudo-valiant effort to keep the Seattle Supersonics in Seattle, but the fact that the "specific performance" clause in the Seattle Supersonics' lease with the city was no justifiable cause to keep the franchise in Seattle was their downfall.  In other words, it was a nice try, but there was no honest and realistic hope of keeping the team in the Northwest.

4) Clay Bennett's agreeement with Oklahoma City clearly states that if a new, $500 million world-class arena is not built or publicly-funded within five years of the franchise arriving in Oklahoma City, Bennett has an opt-out clause, thus making the 15-year agreement null and void.  He can then move the team to Las Vegas, Kansas City, or any other place that will give hm the half-billion dollar arena he is seeking.

5) Seattle Supersonics fans have a right - no, an obligation - to be angry, sad, offended, hurt... the list goes on.

You - yes, YOU - with your supposed vote in favor of a tax in order to fund Bennett's $500 million rec-room have actually voted in favor of collusion, lying, theievery, thuggery, and outright deception of the public.

You - yes, YOU - with your position that Seattle, either the city government or the citizens themselves, have done something so awfully wrong and deserving of being #### of our basketball franchise and 41-year history, have furthered the idea of holding an entire city hostage for what ultimately amounts to the betterment of a billionaire businessman's wet dream.

You - yes, YOU - with your inability to recognize that the Supersonics were Seattle's team and that the people here, regardless of what you have heard from Clay Bennett, have made concerted and honest efforts to keep the team in Seattle, are showing nothing more than shortsightedness, which is terribly unflattering.

You - yes, YOU - having lived through the Hornets coming and going within two years should know so much better than to want to take someone else's team.  We're not talking about a natural disaster here, kiddo.  We're talking about the theft of identity, culture, and history for the almighty dollar.

As I stated on your "blog", I hope basketball works in Oklahoma City.  I sincerely doubt that it will, but I hope it does.  And, when Bennett holds your city hostage to the tune of $500+ million or the "I'm taking my toys and going away" option he gave Seattle, I hope you begin to feel a slight sliver of what us Seattleites have had to endure for the past two full years.

In my experience, Clay Bennett does not represent Oklahomans as a whole.  For the most part, they are good, honest, hard-working people with civility and fairness being highly regarded.  You - yes, YOU - however, DO reppresent everyday Oklahomans, girlie, and until you can do so by showing some respect, consideration, and cast away the whole "poor me and my begrudged city" attitude, your representation of Oklahoma is, frankly, rather poor.  In short, you ought to be embarrassed of your behavior, regardless of whether or not some people who are Seattle Supersonics ought to be embarrassed of theirs, as well.

If nothing else, I hope you and yours have honestly learned a valuable and good life's lesson in all of this.  If you have, then wonderful - perhaps that will translate into you and many other Oklahomans showing some class and dignity and respect for those who have just been pillaged.  If you have not, then, well, so be it - I nor anyone else can force-feed you reasonable opinions to be considered.

Be prepared, however, to be #### by Bennett the same way - and perhaps even in new and interesting ways - that Seattle was ####.  We were given an option: give us your wallets or give us your history.  Money cannot buy history, and shame on the Seattle City Council for selling us, the citizens, out so quickly and for such a cheap ($75 million) price.

When it is your turn to be sold out, what price will be good enough for you?

If you consider and answer that question honestly, then you have no business WHATSOEVER on the Seattle Supersonics message board(s) until you can show the humility and considerate behavior which you openly demand of others.

Also...

"Oklahoma is the third largest natural gas-producing state in the nation."

Really?

Uhh, yeah - I wouldn't advertise that one so much.

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.