The Seattle Supersonics have been sold to a guy from Oklahoma City, which desperately wants an NBA team. The group that bought the team is led by a fella named Clay Bennett, a guy who owns an investment firm and really pushed Oklahoma’s business leaders to do all they could to get the Hornets to move to OKC. Bennett, in fact, formed a group last year, Oklahoma Professional Sports LLC, who’s sole purpose was to bring a pro team to OKC (thanks, for all of this, to True Hoop, which is awesome).

So yeah, when the Clay Bennett-led group says they’re going to all they can to keep the team in Seattle… well, I think they’re fibbers. That’s right, you heard me, FIBBERS. And I got this unsigned, impassioned e-mail from a presumed Sonics fan about the situation. I think the guy’s name is Herman. Edited only for capitalization, punctuation, things of that nature…

I’m sure you have seen the news surrounding the sale of the Supersonics to a group headed by the man who pledged to bring basketball to Oklahoma City. The press conference was full of talk about how they only sold the team to this group because of “their committment to keeping the Sonics in Seattle,” and included a claim that they took less money from this group because of this committment. The new owner pledged to work for the next 12 months to secure an arena deal that allows the team to maintain a “viable NBA franchise”.

The fact is that this is a case where the fans are being served a truckload of bullshit, and that the new ownership group is headed by a man whose mission is to bring basketball to OK City, and he will simply declare anything but a blatant handover of tax dollars to be less than a “viable solution” and fulfill his pledge to bring the NBA to his city. So forget any movement to save NOOCH, they have a better solution, namely the OKC Soonersonics.

And anyone who has any inclination to feel sympathy for some billionaire who is “losing millions to keep a team in (insert city here)” should keep in mind Howard Schultz, who whined incessantly about losing 60 million in 5 years, but of course sold the team for about 150 mil more than he paid for it (the Knicks are probably an exception, because its hard to see how any sale will cover the losses incurred under the master of disaster Isiah Thomas).

Such self serving bullshit fuels the disillusionment of fans everywhere. Not that I wasnt aware that it’s all business, but it’s upsetting when us fans dont view it as such and our support is tossed out the fucking window so casually by billionaires who dont even respect us enough to forego lying to us so blatantly and trying to make themselves look like good guys who care about us more than making another 90 million dollars, when its obvious and apalling horseshit nobody is going to buy anyway. I’d respect them more if they came right out and said “you should have handed us what we wanted… now you get hosed you bastards, and im laughing all the way to the bank.”

Yeah. Sounds about right. My sympathies, Seattle sports fans. Seems like a pretty good bet that the Seattle Supersonics won’t be for very much longer. May someone kick Clay Bennett in the nuts for you.

Mark Cuban has, out of the goodness of his own heart, I suppose, outlined what he would do with a minor league basketball team if it were possible for him to do such a thing. It’s a long post, and clearly one that’s been well-thought out, but I’ll do my best to encapsulate it. But again, it’s a long post, and there are things I’m going to leave out.

You buy yourself a minor league team, and you go about things European style. You sign players at very young ages. We’re talking 14, 15, 16; basically, whenever they’re old enough that it’s clear that they have some serious potential. And you pay them, you pay their families… you develop them as players. You hire great coaches, a great staff, and you develop them as well as you possibly can, as players, and as people, and you make sure they’re going to class and getting after it in school, too. And you sign them to long-term deals, so that when they’re old enough to be drafted into the NBA, the NBA will have to buy their contract from you, for the maximum $350,000.

I love the idea, and I think it would be great for basketball. A true minor league would benefit everyone. The NBA, the NCAA, the minor league itself. There would be an outlet for the players who have no intention of every getting a degree (many of whom are currently at big-time basketball programs), so the NCAA could drop the whole student-athlete charade in these cases, but of course, it’s still there for those who really want to be student athletes.

The development of young players under this system would improve dramatically. If a coach/organization has to develop a player well, as part of their for-profit venture, I would guess that it would be done a hell of a lot more effectively than it’s done at the AAU level, where very few people really care about the well-being and/or development of the players. And it would be superior to the high schools and colleges as well, because you’ll have better coaches, no limits on practice times and/or activities, and they’ll get experience playing against older, better, players.

I think it would be nearly ideal… the only problems I see are in the actual feasibility. Someone would have to put up a lot of money and time and sweat to begin with, on the chance that they can sell a contract or two a few years down the road. Some might work out, some might not. There might not be any who work out. I think it could be a successful idea (and if Mark Cuban believes in it as a business idea, then that’s a pretty good endorsement), but it would take a lot of balls. And a lot of money. And you’re going to have to change a lot of minds about how things should work, and the best way to get kids to where they want to be, the NBA.

This is why I love Mark Cuban… he’s a big thinker. And say what you want about him, but the man has iron balls. I’d love to see someone give this a shot. But to do it right, and see it through… I dunno, for most people, it would seem completely impractical. That’s a lot of money and a lot of work for something you might not see dividends for on a longtime, and if you aren’t good enough at it, possibly ever.