FanHouse

We were all well aware things were messed up in Seattle. The hire this week of 30-year-old Spurs wunderkind Sam Presti to head up the Sonic front office should have came as a welcome sign of stability, Step #1 of many leading the franchise back to normalcy.

But even Presti's hire has resulted in a shake-up so bizarre it actually surprised me this morning. From the Tacoma News-Tribune:

When the Sonics hired Sam Presti as general manager Thursday, [team owner Clay] Bennett took away [Lenny] Wilkens' title as president and renamed him vice chairman because, sources say, Bennett was upset with the short tenure of the 69-year-old Wilkens and wanted to, as one source said, "put Lenny out to pasture."

Wilkens had apparently crossed swords with Bennett several times the past two months -- by allegedly announcing his own promotion while he and Bennett were still negotiating a salary, and by botching the hiring process which took at least a month longer than it should have. Of course with Wilkens looking like pretty much the only Sonics employee left (save for Sasquatch), we were all blind to the tension.

So Presti comes aboard with little all the power. Judging by Presti's pedigree, that's probably good. The last thing any leader needs in a rebuilding effort is a headstrong old man getting in the way.

But even more, this suits Bennett's interests just fine. Wilkens was largely in place because of his legendary standing in Seattle. Bennett is done with Seattle. Hence, no need for a facade in the front office.