I'm still shaking my head after reading this article in today's Oklahoman, the hometown paper of Oklahoma City.

John Rohde, seen here

is one of the Oklahoman's sports columnists. One thing that surprises me is that this article, blatantly in favor of getting the Hornets back to OKC (or at least wishing them there), would be allowed to be published in the Oklahoman.  Why am I surprised?  The paper is owned by the ####lord family, Clayton Bennett's in-laws (and his sister-in-law and wife are heavily involved in the day to day operations of the news outlet).

Then again, maybe the tone of the article was to keep Oklahomans from thinking about the "negotiating, stonewalling, manipulating, bickering and e-mailing" that he says have "grown tiresome", but which are going to be at the center of the compliance hearing in the New York District Court (Federal) within the next several days.

Very little has been said about the issue of the current Sonics' ownership group's breach of contract (for failing to negotiate in good faith/keep the team in Seattle as agreed to in the side letter which was required of them before Howard Schultz and the previous ownership group would agree to sell to them--and the black and white proof of their perfidy) in the Oklahoma paper.

Well, OK, that is not totally true.  There is a vocal group of Oklahomans who comment on the Oklahoman's fan forums who say that Seattle fans have no right to be upset that Bennett lied to Seattle AND to David Stern, and that we should all shut up and stop being such crybabies--accepting meekly the purloining of a franchise that has been in this city for 41 years, and is not likely to prosper in its change to a considerably smaller market. (There are, however, a few of them who realize that Bennett, McClendon and Ward made a mistake which is likely to come back and bite them in the tuchis, and which is embarrassing to a good many Oklahomans).

Depositions begin this week.  Bennett, McClendon and Ward will be deposed, as will OKC City Manager Tom Couch, Mayor Mick Cornett and a host of others who were secretly negotiating with the PBC during the time that Bennett was required to be negotiating with Seattle alone.  If you haven't read the e-mails and the city of Seattle's brief in support of the motion to compel, you should.  They make for very interesting reading.

Both Clayton Bennett and David Stern have taken refuge behind the "no comment" screen, something they probably should have done nearly two years ago.

Finally, Steve Kelley has said it much better than I ever could, right here.

Check back from time to time, gentle readers, for updates and further episodes of As the Stomach Turns.

In order for me to school you properly, gentlemen, it is necessary that you complete this "homework assignment" before we get started here.  Read all of the following.  No  scanning or skimming allowed.  Read EVERY WORD and read for (hopefully) comprehension:

First go here and read this one; and then here for the all important followup.  All y'all go on and do that now.  I will be right here waiting when you get done and return.

For those who are waiting with me, let's put faces on those to whom we are speaking, just for the record:

First there is the Commish:

Then there is Clay Bennett, one of the owners of and (apparently) the spokesperson for, the Seattle SuperSonics Basketball Club,along with Aubrey McClendon (more on him shortly). Mr. Bennett is the one on the right:

I have been unable to find an aggregate photo of the NBA Board of Governors, and I have neither time nor space here to post all 29 of them, so we will just have to use our imaginations.

(*taps foot impatiently*--Geez, I could have read both of those articles twice by now....).  Ah, there you are, gentlemen.  I trust that you read all of those words carefully, because there will be a quiz at the end of our schooling session.

But, first, let us establish a few rules of behavior.

I promise not to call you greedy, scum sucking sons of sea barnacles and/or carpetbaggers.

In return for that concession, you promise not to label me as some liberal know nothing, tree hugging Seattlite. (In point of fact, and to the rather intense discomfiture of most of  my acquaintances and others in Seattle, I am a staunchly conservative (both fiscally and socially) Republican, and I firmly believe in a good many of the things that you purportedly espouse).

You may also not use any statement to the effect that I know nothing about OKC and what goes on there. (My father was BORN in OKC, gentlemen, and I still have relatives there and have made numerous trips to the city in my slightly over 50 years of life.  Were he alive today, my father would probably be totally appalled by what you are up to.  As it is, he is probably rotating in his grave in Las Vegas, so you had better never show up there with the Sonics or he might just haunt you...)

OK, so, somehow you managed to convince 44,849 of your very closest friends to come out to the polls on 4 Mar 08 to vote in favor of the proposal to cosmetically renovate Ford Center (an option, by the way, which you refused to even consider in Seattle), as opposed to 27,564 slightly smarter people who voted against it.  Wow, that's only 72,413 people, out of something over 605,000 who live within the city limits of OKC according to the 2000 census.  That's a voter turn out of 11% of the population--that's pretty darn bad for a city that is predominantly Republican.

What these people voted to do was to continue a 1% sales tax (called MAPS) for another 15 months, in order to fund the proposed renovation.  Did anyone tell them that neither the ownership group of the team nor the NBA is planning on kicking in any funds of any kind to pay for part of this planned renovation or the practice facility, or that the vast majority of the monies made in that building by the team would not be coming to the city of OKC as partial payment/repayment for those renovations.  No?  I didn't think so.  $121 million for you and yours, and nary a penny for those taxpayers who are ponying up the dollars to foot the bill.

Then there is the little subject of your walking into Seattle immediately after buying the team and saying that you "had every intention of making a go of it in Seattle, and you did not buy the team to move it out of Seattle."  But then Aubrey let it slip not too long after that all y'all never had any intention of buying the team to leave it in Seattle, OKC was the target city for relocation all along.  A senior moment type of statement for which the league ultimately fined him $250,000.00 for letting the cat out of the bag (pocket change for him, to be sure, but a heck of a lot of money for all of us "normal people").

And there was the initial statement that Sonics basketball is a major economic force in Seattle, and that the team would be economically missed if they were moved.  Seems to me that just a few weeks ago, when making application to the league to relocate the team to OKC, you stated just the opposite--that a basketball team has no economic impact on a city at all (hmmmm, then why were all of the people on the "Big League City" campaign touting how much of an economic boon the Sonics' move to OKC is going to be?????)

And, of course, there is the whining about the fact that the Mariners and Seahawks have fine new stadia, so why wouldn't the taxpayers of the city of Seattle come up with $500,000.00 for a new arena for the Sonics, again at 100% taxpayer expense?  I can think of one good reason, right off of the top of my head....because Nintendo America and Paul Allen, and their business associates heading those teams did something that you are apparently not willing to do under any circumstances--invest a significant amount of their own money in the construction of those self same stadia, in order to cement the team's ties with the cities and demonstrate fiscal responsbility on the part of ownership.

It's not like a number of people didn't approach you about assisting with finding a suitable location for, and private (or private/public) financing of, that arena that you wanted, but you refused to talk to any of them.  Is that a good faith effort to keep the team here?  I think not.

Collusion:  A nasty, nasty little word; and it seems to be rearing it's little head about now.  Seems Messrs. Stern and Bennett have been friends for quite a number of years.  What did the Commish promise to Mr. Bennett in terms of finding him a team for OKC when the Hornets had to head back to NOLA, and when did he make the promise?

I guess we're going to find out sometime in June.  The city of Seattle has filed a lawsuit in Federal Court to require specific performance of the Sonics' remaining lease on Key Arena, which runs through the end of the 2010 season, because the relocation petition requests that the team be allowed to relocate at the end of THIS season.  The season ticket holders have filed an application for a class action suit against the team because of promises made to them by Mr. Bennett in which he stated that season tickets would be honored through 2010, and without any increase in price.  Yet another lawsuit has been filed against the team by the union local representing the seasonal/part time employees of the Key Arena because of projected loss of jobs and earnings, because this is the primary income for a good many of these individuals.

And, lest the Commish and the Board of Governors should think that all of this legal wrangling has nothing to do with you, perhaps you should think again.  Former Senator Slade Gorton, the lead private sector attorney and the City Attorney for the city of Seattle have promised that you, gentlemen, will be added as respondents in the aforementioned lawsuit, should there be a positive vote on the relocation to OKC at your meeting in April.

It could get pretty ugly, which could have a rather dampening effect on the Commish's plan to go international with the NBA.  (Note to the Commish:  The author of that piece is a "Seattle boy" so, though you might take the tone of the article as a tad ironic, I, personally, believe that he meant pretty much everything he said, including what he DIDN'T say).

In closing, I think that the good people of OKC should know now that you will be coming to them again in just a few years with another request/proposal, this one for a brand new arena, at a cost of $500 million or more, and that they will be asked to foot 100% of the bill again, or the team will be moving to some other city--AGAIN.  But, when that time comes, I would hope that they would have learned a lesson from the city of Seattle, and refuse to be held hostage to the whims of a bunch of guys with a lot of money who want a new home for their hobby/toy, but want someone else to pay for it or they will pick it up and go home.

Good luck with that, gentlemen.

(Note:  The city turned down a $26.5 million lease buyout offer from the team last week, and do not plan to listen to any other such offers.  A group of local businessmen, including Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, have stepped up and offered to buy the team and pay one half of a proposed $300 million dollar renovation/upgrade to Key Arena, with the other half being financed by the same tax that finainced the public portion of the Safeco and QWest Fields' construction. If, as expected, the court case goes in the city's favor, leaving the ownership group to peform the leasehold through the end of the 2010 season; as well as pay the city's legal fees, and suffer any other financial losses that might accrue through the other pending suits and a possible boycott of the team's home games; all y'all just might want to rethink your position on the vote on that relocation petition while you still have the time).

Thank you for your kind attention, gentlemen.