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From all accounts, Oklahoma City did more than make a good impression on National Basketball Association officials who visited Tuesday to consider whether a franchise should be placed here. We bowled them over.

Lewis Katz, part owner of the New Jersey Nets, said flatly: "I've never seen a better presentation in my life.”

Katz, two other NBA team executives and league commissioner David Stern were treated to a first-class overview of what has happened in our city during the past decade-plus, how the New Orleans Hornets were embraced during their two-year stay, and what the future holds if the league decides to approve the Seattle SuperSonics request to relocate. Stern said it will be recommended to the full seven-member relocation committee that the move be allowed.

While in town, the NBA execs heard from our mayor, the governor, the head of the chamber of commerce and Sonics chairman Clay Bennett. They saw a truly unified front from local and state officials — Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor made the trip down the turnpike to be on hand — and from business and education leaders. Such unity is rare indeed, and is a major reason the city has flourished.

All those involved in putting together the presentation are due a salute, as are the many who turned out for Tuesday's visit. But perhaps the biggest hand should be reserved for Oklahoma City taxpayers, who this month gave 62 percent approval to extending a 1-cent sales tax in order to pay for upgrades to the Ford Center. Stern said without that happening, there was "no chance” the Sonics would be headed here. "The $100-plus million that were allocated and approved overwhelmingly by the taxpayers was a huge statement,” he said.

Now the only question seems to be when the NBA will return, not if it will. Thanks, one and all.