From an editorial in today’s Seattle Times:
From the day Seattle owners sold the Seattle Sonics to Oklahoma businessmen, we should have known.
Yes, they should have. As should have the editors at the Seattle P-I:
We’ve often faulted political leaders for passivity and lack of creativity about the Sonics. Well, it appears that if the out-of-town owners were going to keep the team here, it would have been only because they got a too-lucrative-to-refuse deal. More than creativity, that’s about cash — oodles of taxpayer cash.
That’s pretty much all the gloating I’m going to do today, except to say “Hey Tom and Erin… read my post, then read the two editorials, and tell me… who’s influencing whom?”
Sure they should have known, so should have Howard Schultz. In fact, I’m convinced he did know of the potential new owner’s intentions but went right ahead and sold the team anyway. What does this say about Schultz? Or is Mr. Starbucks somehow above reproach?
Upton @1,
Yes Schultz should have known, and probably did. And he is not beyond reproach. Reproach him all you like.
How he did not know is probably the same process that Regan used to not know that we were selling arms to the Sandinistas. OK, so I reached for that one.
Clay is a lying cheat. If this were a poker game, well, you could shoot him. (Ann Coulter style humor. Speaking of old A.C., where the hell is she lately?)
Whether Schultz knew or not per se is incidental. It’s that he he didn’t care, or at least lost interest in the Sonics franchise with his growing awareness that owning an NBA team carries more personal risk and responsibility than he cared to deal with.
Here’s the deal…The entire NBA is reproachable, and Clay Bennett is but the latest permutation of the specie. Tell you the truth, the NFL and MLB aren’t far behind. What used to be entertaining, heroic and spectacular is now lying, cheating and drug crazed.
What say so-called “major league” sports pack all their teams and move them to Oklahoma? Then put a razor-wire fence around Oklahoma – Call the place Ok-mo.
The Piper
Well, it’s nice to see them eat public crow when they’re proved wrong, but even these mea culpas are tardy. They should have seen through Bennett’s bullshit the moment it became apparent that a $125 million renovation of a cow barn in Oklahoma City is good enough.
Frankly, I think Bennett would have moved the team to OKC if the municipal fathers had offered him a basketball court in an alley behind a warehouse.
Now we need to put our U.S. Senators to work passing a bill that revokes every federal tax deduction the Sonics ever had or are ever gonna have.
@1 I don’t care what Schulz does as long as my Starbucks stock goes back up to $40.
@3 Old is right! That hag is definitely on the wrong side of forty … one of the most hilarious entertainments in Wingnut World is watching young GOP punks calling her “hot” … hell, she’s old enough to be their mother.
Of course, that’s not saying much, as any 26-year-old Republican female is old enough to be the mother of any 13-year-old Republican troll …
That reminds me of an old hillbilly joke.
Q: How do you know you’re having dinner with Republicans?
A: The father keeps yelling at his 13-year-old daughter to quit smoking at the dinner table because it sets a bad example for her kids.
Good one…. Here is one that is better.
Q: How do you know you’re having dinner with a democrat president?
A: If he rapes your 13 old daughter after dinner.
hahahaaha good one. Better put ice on that.
@13 … unless his wife the meurder get there first. Bit then that makies hima Reprican and his AG is proibably a wetback who can not act freely in fear of being dpoerted.
Tahnks God we have such a good system.
Who gives a shit whether the Sonics are in Seattle, Oklahoma City, or East Bum-fuck?
I say this to the Sonics and Bennett: don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way to OKC! Adios!
10 Forty is the least significant thing Ann Coulter is on the wrong side of.
Now, let’s get off that subject. Whenever her name comes up, someone or other feels compelled to use a certain four-letter term in reference to her–which is a dire insult to all other female genitalia on the planet.
15 One more thing…on their way out, they better damn well pay every last dime they owe us under the terms of the Key Arena lease.
I understand dealing with that is in Slade Gorton’s able hands.
Well, it is pretty certain at this point the CB and his ownership group lied from the start, to Howard Schultz, to the City of Seattle, and to the NBA.
If I were Howard Schultz, I would sue CB for not negotiating in good faith andf rescind the contract (but he probably won’t). If I were Steve Ballmer, I’d purchase Shcultz’s rights from him and sue that son of a bitch Bennett myself, and win.
I think it’s funny as hell that Alberto Gonzales was so publicly incompetent and dishonest for so long that one one wants to hire him. Success story, my ass.
Yes Schultz should have known, and probably did. And he is not beyond reproach. Reproach him all you like.
no, schultz told colonel klink he knows nothing, nothiiiiing!
Why don’t the HA 16%ers start a protest against Starbucks and make it known to the great NW?
3
(Ann Coulter style humor. Speaking of old A.C., where the hell is she lately?)
Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.
#16 ArtFart says:
Just for the record, who exactly would use that epithet? I don’t believe it’s us trolls. Would it be the tolerant non-sexist democrats on horsesass?
@21 – no protest against starbucks please! I need my coffee everyday! As for Shultz, well I think the City of Seattle, needs to be asking him some tough questions and maybe look into his communications with Bennett & Co during the negotiations of the sale…maybe the city can prove Howard screwed us all and knew all about it.
@23 – Actually Marvin, BBG has called me that word a few times. He has tried to turn me away from Obama for months! He thinks that by him calling people names, we will back down so his HRC can win.
21 – We don’t take orders from you.
#21 Puddybud says:
Come on Puddybud, the HA 16% would never do that. Howie proudly donates to the democrats, http://www.newsmeat.com/ceo_po.....chultz.php
Is it only because howie donates to democrats that they never complain about how much $$$ he’s making compared to his employees? Does he pay a living wage? Does he treat the farmers of the coffee with respect & dignity?
“Starbucks will soon be selling gourmet coffee to the very people who are under-paid for harvesting coffee beans.”
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=2170
“farmers generally receive between $.30-50 per pound of coffee that retails for as much as $10-12 per pound”
http://www.globalexchange.org/.....bucks.html
#25 Hannah says:
When you read the words of bbg for a while you get a sense of the real him. I only took a couple psychology classes in college, yet I can see some “issues” that he needs to address. His blanket hatred for all people right of him should be a warning sign to his parents. Since he’s unable, let me apologize for him. Not even democrats should use the “c” word referring to women.
Ann Coulter s great. She dishes out what republicans have been taking from libruls for the last 30 years. The donks can’t take it coming form a 120lb blond…. of course they are pussies so it’s understandable. roof roof
He has tried to turn me away from Obama for months! He thinks that by him calling people names, we will back down so his HRC can win.
Great post. Let me guess, you are a typical white person, right?
Marvin: Why not a Starbucks boycott? Liberals like to make “gestures”!
@13 Only a stupid dog would laugh at his own lame “joke.”
@14 We should take up a collection to send SJ to a typing class.
@23 Why should we tolerate a Nazi who wants to commit genocide?
I have to agree with Piper, except about moving all the major sports franchises to OK. That’s further away from Reno than Seattle is, and I have no friends or family in that area. And now that baseball season is underway, my irrational urge for an IchiRoll and a plate of garlic fries is kicking my ass right about now. Hopefully I’ll be able to slip away from my wife’s family reunion in July to catch a game, must check the schedules, and see if they’re copacetic……
And as for ol’ Schultzie, I was recently able to go cold-turkey on Starbucks, because now I can roast my own beans. You should, too. With a little practice, even a troll can make better coffee than Starbucks. I’m sure that there’s probably a place up there where you can buy green coffee beans (you can buy a roaster as well if you want, but if you have a hot-air popcorn popper, you already have one), but if not, check out http://www.sweetmarias.com. They’re a little shop in Oakland that specializes in all the trendy hippie-foodie terms (organic, small-batch, fair-trade), and that’s fine with me, but the clincher is the price. Go look for yourself. You’ll never drink BitterBucks again.
And after Schultzie screwed us out of the Sonics, I can’t think of a better way to get back at him than taking my business away from him. Now if everyone else would go along…….
@28 Psychoanalysis is easy. Anybody who DOESN’T hate you wingnut motherfuckers has something wrong with his ethical functioning.
@29 You’re right. We liberals have been way too passive in dealing with you fascist traitors. We need to get TOUGH! Let’s start by euthanizing a certain useless dog with criminal tendencies.
@30 Careful, Dufus! She’s one of yours. You won’t want to bite the hand that feeds you, do you?
JBD- Typical White Person…OH NO WAY! I am not at all like BBG, MTR-P, smeper, headless lucy or whatever name he/she/it goes by each day.
I believe in equality and no I am not a feminist, I believe in civil rights and get quite irritated by obnoxious 16%ers as Puddy calls them and their racist beliefs…it is sickening. As I read and get accused of being a traitor, I question who I am voting for, since most those that make said accusations, are voting for the same man I am….does that make me a nutjob, racist 16%er?
Look how Hannah adopts the “16%er” epithet of Puddybud.
Reminds me of that old fraud MWS.
LMAO!!
Hannah, why don’t you ask Puddybud who MWS was?
This should be good.
YLB – just because I’m not as far in the left field as you, does not make me any less a democrat than you.
I don’t agree with the blame game you play on here, and the fact you provide no factual data to back up your blame game. I respect people like RR, John Barelli and yes, even PuddyBud, because they show actual facts.
I get quite sick of reading posts with such blathering.
Actually, I’m for Obama. I just dislike some phony cunt trying to masquerade as a real person with so little talent for it.
And Puddybud clearly comes in multiple flavors, of which Dufus is but one.
Headless Lucy@42: Prove I’m Dufus moron.
Email Darryl you gutless wonder. He’ll clarify it for you. But then you’ll reject Darryl’s analysis too.
Hannah: clueless idiot isn’t worth it. He can’t deliver facts because he can’t process facts.
Leave it to JBD @ 13 to think that the rape of a 13 year old is funny.
@43 Puddy
Prove I’m Lucy, you fatuous asshole. What a prick.