Steve Kelley’s Thoughts

SEATTLE – Seattle Times columnist Steve Kelley was nice enough to share his thoughts with me after the game on the state of the Sonics. If you aren’t familiar with his work by now, I suggest you read up on him. He’s outspoken and doesn’t sugarcoat anything. I’m talking about a guy who has ripped the Sonics organization (insert Clay Bennett here) so much that his own maintenance man fears being around him. True story. Here are his thoughts on the uncertainty of the Sonics….

On Clay Bennett

I think the one thing he did, and it’s what (Aubrey) McClendon did really, that woke everybody up. And it was almost like before he made those statements everybody was like leave, I don’t care. And that just fired everybody up. It fired the city council up. What I think is happening now, and who knows if it’s too late or not, the first thing is to keep them to their lease which gives them time. Get an arena deal done. One thing about him is he hasn’t negotiated ever. Just closed the doors and said we’re not coming out until we’ve got a deal. He hasn’t done that. He’s gone to the legislature. I don’t think he’s ever talked to the mayor. So forgetting that, I think there’s going to be an arena deal that’s exclusive of him. Once they get the arena deal done then all these fat cat owners will come forward and say we’re willing to buy the team. They’ll go got Stern and ask Stern to help. And then my guess is, if the arena deal’s in place and it’s palatable to the NBA, then Stern goes to Clay and says look I don’t want to lose
Seattle.