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What does this mean for the teams future in Seattle? Yesterday on the radio Softy was talking about how this team is gone no matter what. Does this change things now? I would have to think that a few more law suits are going to be coming out of this. Even though this only confirms what we all knew it still makes me even more angry. Basically what David Stern is saying is that if one has enough money one could buy any team and move it to any location they desire. The league already has had enough vagrant teams, its not a good trend for the NBA.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... sheds.html

I also like that the City is going after internal audit papers/records of other NBA teams.

This is going to get bloody.

I love that we've found this evidence.

Clay Bennett is a rotten, dispicable waste of human flesh. Reading those e-mails only proves it once more.

On April 17 last year, team co-owners Clay Bennett, Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward talked about whisking the Sonics away to Oklahoma as soon as possible even though it would mean breaching the KeyArena lease, according to the city's motion filed in U.S. District Court in New York City.

"Is there any way to move here [Oklahoma City] for next season or are we doomed to have another lame duck season in Seattle?" Ward wrote.

Bennett replied: "I am a man possessed! Will do everything we can. Thanks for hanging with me boys, the game is getting started!"

Ward: "That's the spirit!! I am willing to help any way I can to watch ball here [in Oklahoma City] next year."

McClendon: "Me too, thanks Clay!"

bennett to stern in august:
"I would never breach your trust. As absolutely remarkable as it may seem, Aubrey and I have NEVER discussed moving the Sonics to Oklahoma City, nor have I discussed it with ANY other member of our ownership group."

oops. yeah, this going to get fugly. the league is going to be embarassed by this mess. bennett lied then lies about lying and stern looks like he was either complicit from the beginning, or just plain ignorant. the longer this drags on, the worse it looks for the nba. and this will be going down during the playoffs. what a dream come true for stern!

the city has nothing left to lose at this point (except maybe an expansion franchise or another cities team, and i don't want either) so why not push until the end. send a message, don't lie down and take it. the league is vulnerable and exposed on this one.

Oh god what a d@ck!

Remember when the Okies were telling us Clay was an honorable man?

I guess the word honorable in Okie language means "complete donkey"!

I hope the city drags them into court and doesn't allow a buyout.

Seriously I still don't get how a blatant hi-jacking can be ok with the NBA?

I want Ballmer to buy the Lakers demand a new arena that's bigger than Staples center and if he doesn't get it he'll move the team to Seattle where they will play in Key Arena because it's more than adequate in this size market.

bennith13 wrote:What does this mean for the teams future in Seattle?

This is pretty damning evidence of Bennett's true & original intentions. And it shatters the apology, or statement of sincerity about keeping the team in Seattle, Bennett made to Stern after Bennett's partner said the "we didn't buy the team to keep 'em in Seattle".

Now Stern has an "out" if he chooses to quit his support of Bennett. He can, at any appropriate time, say that Bennett lied to him about his intentions of keeping the team in Seattle.

Stern, the rat bastard that he is, may decide to cut loose Bennett rather than allow all NBA financial records to become public information via the court process.

In the end this can, coupled with the court's ruling on specific use, only help any potential scenario of the Sonics staying in Seattle.

Don't fool yourselves, Stern is in on the scam.

He's known all along what Bennett's true intentions were.

We all knew what his intentions were. Only now there is proof, and bad publicity. Action has to be taken.

To me this is worse that the Joe Smith contract mess. Only the Sonics and the fans should not be punished in any way. So taking away draft picks would be the worst possible thing to do.

Barring the move would be a good action to take, but then you put the Sonics in a tricky spot. They would still be owned by shady people who were just looking to move the team.

I think the team needs to be sold, and these guys should be barred from being involved with the NBA in any capacity.

funkatron101 wrote:I think the team needs to be sold, and these guys should be barred from being involved with the NBA in any capacity.

Agreed. I'm not even a Seatlle fan and I'm appalled at this. I just sent the NBA a letter.

This lawsuit will burn the NBA hard. You can make this disappear David. Do you really want to open this can of worms?

There's one other element of this new situation to consider.

This exposed deception gives more credit to Mark Cuban's public stance against moving out of the 14th largest market. The other owners now also have an "out" as Bennett has been proven to be a liar about his intentions.

So now the issue has changed from "do we back one of our own against stubborn unreasonable government officials?" to "does the league support piracy of teams?".

Especially, as Mark Cuban says, it's to move from the 14th largest market to the 40 something largest market. So it's not in the other owner's best interest.

Does this go beyond the PBC into a larger antitrust issue with the NBA? I'm not an attorney, but isn't this monopolistic collusion against cities across several states?

The NBA's supportive position of PBC while negotiating an amended lease with New Orleans could be a unified monopolistic action. PBC's negotiation with OKC while making good faith efforts in Seattle also seems monopolistic, especially with the NBA wanting to be copied on certain documents. Am I correct that the NBA does not have an antitrust exemption?

Seattle's request to review documents kept by the multi-billion dollar NBA might be the first step in discovering what the NBA has been doing as a whole with franchise relocations, arena issues, etc. Have they been acting like a monopoly, and if so, is this illegal?

I don't know. Like I said, I'm not a lawyer, so I might be totally wrong. Please feel free to correct me on this. Thanks.

Unlike baseball the NBA has no anti-trust exemption. They are a monopoly. What they fear is government regulation, like Microsoft fears regulation in Europe due the their monopoly position in operating systems. If it can be shown they are abusing their power in the marketplace and this is not in the publics interest then they will face regulation by Congress.

There will also be many follow on lawsuits created by the discovery.

I thought this story would get some traction on Fox or ESPN and neither of them mention it.

Strange, huh?

Got me wondering if the NBA PR department made a few phone calls to keep it quiet for a while.

Or maybe nobody else cares.

elbowthrower wrote:I thought this story would get some traction on Fox or ESPN and neither of them mention it.

Strange, huh?

Got me wondering if the NBA PR department made a few phone calls to keep it quiet for a while.

Or maybe nobody else cares.

It's on the front page of ESPN now.

BTW: I'm really interested in how Bennett and Stern will handle this and what they'll do next.

So...a bunch of billionaire businessmen who've come up with a great scheme to move the Sonics under what they say are legit circumstances, and they're not smart enough to hit a "delete" key or destroy a hard drive. Anyone think Steve Ballmer or Paul Allen would've made this mistake if they owned the Sonics? Maybe Bennett should've watched more infomercials...

HA HA HA HA!

Last August, Stern was angry about comments by McClendon that appeared in an Oklahoma newspaper. McClendon, the billionaire founder and chief executive of Chesapeake Energy, told The Journal Record, "we didn't buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here."

Stern e-mailed Bennett that if McClendon really made that remark there would be a "HUGE fine." Indeed, Stern later imposed a $250,000 fine on McClendon.

Bennett apologized in a lengthy e-mail to Stern, praising the NBA commissioner as "a role model and an extraordinarily gifted executive" and "just one of my favorite people on earth."

"I would never breach your trust. As absolutely remarkable as it may seem, Aubrey and I have NEVER discussed moving the Sonics to Oklahoma City, nor have I discussed it with ANY other member of our ownership group."

The city's federal-court motion says that statement was "a cover up" and could not be accurate given Bennett's earlier e-mail exchanges with McClendon and Ward.

Sweezo wrote:(picture)

Buy my product!

I bet schultz told Bennett that the city would most likely settle, and that the lease would be no problem.

Sweezo wrote:Anyone think Steve Ballmer or Paul Allen would've made this mistake if they owned the Sonics?

Well... maybe they would have.

More photos of the miscreant who authored those damning e-mails referred to in the linked article can be found here. Funny thing is, the author of the e-mails is the son of one of the name partners in the law firm that unearthed the Bennett e-mails. It's a small, small world.