OKCu later Seattle

SONICS OWNER HOLDING TEAM HOSTAGE

The oldest professional franchise in the Pacific Northwest is poised to head for the Midwest. How soon the Seattle SuperSonics will move, is being determined in the courts.

Owner Clay Bennett is resolved to move this team and won’t consider selling it. His resolve was uncovered after a local group of Seattle businessmen headed by Dennis Daugs, a former Sonics minority owner, made an offer to buy the franchise on Nov. 2.

"I was troubled. I understand the connection the team has to the community, the history. There are some very passionate, loyal fans and friends of the organization, people who have worked hard for us," Bennett said to the AP. Way to sell the bull to the media Clay, but I’m not buying it!

Bennett may have to wait until 2010 to take his prized possession home to Oklahoma City, and if Bennett succeeds it will be the biggest sports coup since Art Modell.

Just examine what he did in the off-season. With the No. 2 pick in the NBA Draft he selected Kevin Durant, great move. Minutes later Bennett lets aging All-Star Ray Allen leave via a trade to Boston and then refuses to resign forward Rashard Lewis. Lewis landed in Orlando completing a sign-and-trade deal that could land Seattle a conditional second-round pick.

What Bennett left didn’t resemble much of a team. The Sonics are among the in the league, with an average age of 24.9-years-old. The franchise is being built for future success, mortgaging the present and giving Bennett an easy formulaic out. Losing team equals no fans and no fans equal a reason to move.

But Mike Kahn of FoxSports.com pointed out there are other options, such as a team that already has a connection to Oklahoma City, the New Orleans Hornets.

Kahn writes that through the first five games upon the triumphant return to New Orleans, the Hornets average attendance in the New Orleans Arena is more than 5,000 below capacity. While the Hornets are playing unbelievable basketball, they will inevitably swoon.

Why not permit a franchise swap? Let Bennett snatch New Orleans, a city that cannot keep a team long-term, and allow the local Seattle-based group to buy the Sonics. It almost makes too much sense.

The NBA needs basketball to stay in the Northwest, if for no other reason than to balance the juggernauts of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and the LA Lakers.

Commissioner David Stern needs to step in and keep the Sonics in Seattle. The league can’t afford to lose a fan base that’s supported a team for 41 years.