In today's episode of "As the Stomach Turns," dear readers, we will debate the issue of whether or not lies were told,, to whom and when, and whether or not there will be consequences for the prevaricators who spun the whoppers.

I'm sure most of you are aware that there will be TWO sideshows going on in the National Basketball League in June. 

One of them, the NBA Championship Finals, is an event that the league most fervently hopes that you will watch, enjoy, participate in, and increase their coffers thereby.

The other, the case of the City of Seattle versus the Professional Basketball Club (AKA the Seattle SuperSonics), is one that they would rather no one were aware of, much less interested in, for fear it might take away from sideshow number one, as mentioned above.

In the latest round of pre-trial discovery, it has been determined that at least three members of the current ownership group--Clayton Bennett, Aubrey McClendon, and Tom Ward--were openly exchanging e-mail messages planning to move the team from Seattle to Oklahoma City during the time period that had been established for the city to come up with a viable plan to keep them here, and that, in fact, there was NEVER any intent to keep the team in Seattle, despite all of Bennett's public comments to the contrary.

From the article referenced above, it appears that Bennett not only lied to the citizens of Seattle and our local and state lawmakers, but he also lied to his good buddy, Commissioner David Stern, in this e-mail, when he said that McClendon had strayed from the farm (more or less) when he made his comments that there was never any intention to keep the Sonics in Seattle. Comments for which the commish later fined him $250K.

If the city's team of attorneys, of whom the lead is former Republican Senator from the state of Washington Slade Gorton, are able to prevail in their subpoena for league records, including records of all teams within the leagues (financial and otherwise), one or more of the league's "dirty little secrets" is likely to become a matter of public record in just over two months from now.

Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is the only member of the NBA Board of Governors to have come out publically to say that he will vote against the request by Bennett to relocate the team to OKC next week.  I wonder, though, how many others of the 30 owners might be inclined to rethink their votes in light of these developments.

Mayor Greg Nickles of Seattle has already said that the city fully intends to pursue this litigation to its logical conclusion, that any further buyout offers will be as summarily rejected as the first (and last) one for $26.5MM, a figure that  looks to be increased as the owners and the league attempt to avoid the potential embarrassment coming their way in court.

My only regret at this stage is that Court TV doesn't exist any more.  This could be a good one, and it would certainly show other NBA cities that they don't have to lie down and take the league's ever increasing demands for public money without a whimper of complaint.

Stay tuned, my friends, for the next episode of As the Stomach Turns, coming soon to a blog near you.