Posts tagged ClayBennett at FanHouse

Clay Bennett and his cronies officially confirmed the league's worst kept secret today by announcing that his franchise has been dubbed the Oklahoma City Thunder. So does this mean after stealing basketball from Seattle he now has his sights on Golden State's mascot?

After all, Thunder, seen above destroying Harry the Hawk in a dance competition during the 2007 All-Star Weekend, has been the Warriors' mascot for over a decade. From Matt Steinmetz of the Examiner (via GSoM):

It will be interesting to see how the NBA handles this little issue ... if at all. Can it really have a team in one city with the nickname of "Thunder," and an official NBA mascot for another team named "Thunder?"

That just can't be, right? It'd be like the Knicks having a little Irish guy named "the Celtic" perform at halftime. The NBA is usually so savvy when it comes to branding and marketing, but everything else about this whole OKC debacle has been backwards and hamfisted, so I guess this shouldn't be any different.

My guess is that 11 years of tradition will be flushed down the drain and a name change will be forced, although it would be kind of cool (in a trainwreck/professional-wrestling-type of way) to simply let Bennett embrace his role as the league villain and actually kidnap Thunder from Oakland.

Seattle had very little remaining hope of a happy end to its battle with Clay Bennett and friends over the Sonics franchise. Moments before a judge was set to decide several weeks ago whether the Sonics would be forced to remain in the Emerald City for two more years, the city settled with Bennett for a package including some cash, maybe some more cash later, and a case of Lil' Smokies.

Only the lawsuit of Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO and former Sonics owners, remained in Bennett's way ... and only barely in play, at that. Schultz claimed Bennett broke a significant clause of his purchase agreement by not making "good faith efforts" to get a new arena built in Seattle. Schultz was almost surely right: all signs have pointed to the fact Bennett wanted out of Seattle from the day he began discussing a purchase of the team.

But Friday, according to The Oklahoman, Schultz dropped his suit, citing the belief his case would fail as a reason.

That seems plausible. Also plausible: Schultz heard David Stern's threats of making things very expensive if the lawsuit stayed alive, or the whole thing was a temporary face-saving, PR maneuver in the first place. Who knows? Honestly, who cares? The Un-Sonics are now the Thunder. Hopefully, Seattle gets the team it deserves soon. But the damage, as they say, has been done.

The Team Formerly Known as the Seattle SuperSonics still has no official identity beyond NBA OKC (catchy!), but Clay Bennett and Friends now own the franchise's D-League affiliate. The Un-Sonics announced their purchase of the Tulsa 66ers today. Bennett bought the squad from serial D-League owner David Kahn for $2.5 million, reports Sportsline (via Ridiculous Upside, which had two -- two! -- D-League scoops today).

Smart move, of course. As I argued the last time sole ownership came up in discussion, the cost of running your own D-League franchise -- basically a minor farm team you can choose the coaches, roster, system and location -- is negligible when you're stacked enough to also own a full-fledged NBA team. And the benefits are enormous. The Spurs (with Ian Mahinmi) and Lakers (with Coby Karl) were able to develop prospects, getting them big-league burn with top-level competition while making sure they actually got some burn regularly in the D-League.

Slowly, as more teams acquire their own franchises and others find use for their affiliates, this thing will blossom. The number of call-ups was actually a bit astounding last year, to the point where it no longer became a story when a D-Leaguer (like Ramon Sessions) was successful without too much 'this is novel!' fanfare.

The lawsuit from Howard Schultz, the Starbucks CEO and former Sonics owner who claims Clay Bennett's group violated an agreement by discussing relocation literally the second they bought the team, quietly rolls on. The first trial movement is expected in 2009, but Schultz is talking already. In a court filing this week, Schultz says NBA commissioner David Stern warned him about the ramifications of continuing the suit.

Schultz said Stern told him "that if I did not join in the settlement ... I should realize that it will become very expensive for me and my partners, and he implied that I should reconsider my position."

Schultz said he then told Stern the settlement did not contain strong enough assurances about the NBA locating a team in Seattle and that Stern told him "the NBA would offer no further assurances in that regard."

This doesn't amount to much pressure from Stern, I think. It will be expensive for Schultz ... and Bennett and the NBA. I'm not sure there's a way in which the NBA can make it more expensive for Schultz, prohibitively expensive. Stern already failed in attempting to get the suit dismissed. The commish could try to run up the costs -- he did request $1.5 million in restitution from Tim Donaghy -- but he's unlikely to pick Schultz clean.

Basically, Stern's just telling Schultz that he will lose. It's unsavory at best and maniacal at worst. But it's far from unexpected. Stern is simply a man possessed when it comes to the Un-Sonics.

Update 9/3: Yes, it's officially the Oklahoma City Thunder. Click through to see the logo.

The word on the street for all of you suckers entrepreneurs who purchased okcitythundercats.com and okctcatslolz.com is that you are probably going to be disappointed with your investment.

That's because, as KOCO-5 in Oklahoma City is reporting, it appears as if the NBA's newest franchise name will be the "Oklahoma City Thunder."

The registrar for all of the NBA's Internet domain names reserved okcthunderbasketball.com and okcthunderbasketball.net on July 10, according to information gleaned from whois.net.

CSC Corporate Domains describes itself as a domain name management company for corporations, law firms and intellectual property professionals. It is the registrar of record for nba.com and all other domains managed by NBA Media Ventures, LLC.

Now, the first thing that came to my mind when I heard "Oklahoma City Thunder" was "Oooooo ... incredibly loud and completely harmless noises created by nature! I'm terrified!" (At least the Sonics were fast.)

As we've mentioned before, there is significant evidence to believe that David Stern and Clay Bennett are good friends (I think actually, it's a fact, if that is a provable statement). This friendship took another convenient twist with the latest news re: hijacking Seattle.

How else can you explain the subsequent timeline of events: Bennett signing a settlement that agrees to return the Sonics if Howard Schultz wins his lawsuit followed immediately by the NBA getting elbow deep in that same court proceeding? That's right, the NBA itself is now filing motions to dismiss Schultz' lawsuit.

The NBA claims in its motion that the transfer of the franchise to a court-appointed receiver and a subsequent transfer back to Schultz would both be prohibited by the league's constitution.

The motion also claims that if a court-appointed receiver were to be appointed, the NBA's constitution allows for the league's owners to put that team "under the management and control" of commissioner David Stern.

"The relief requested by plaintiffs is entirely inconsistent with these reasonable and lawful regulations of the NBA, and the disposition of this action therefore threatens the ability of the League to protect its justifiable interests," attorney Ralph Palumbo wrote in the motion.

And yes, there's a pile of legalese in there. But my understanding here is that the NBA has rules in place to avoid a league owned team (that's a good rule) and they're using it to nullify Schultz' suit (that's a pretty malevolent application). And if you think that the NBA's lawyers just managed to come up with this, well, you're wrong.

America's love affair with Orlando Summer league announcer Dante and Galante has been well chronicled already. They're funny, they're kind of pranksters and they're straight up honest in their opinions. They combined the last two traits recently, to punk a few people. Namely some people on Yahoo! answers, who actually thought that Oklahoma City might name their stolen new franchise the "Thundercats".

the most horrible name that I hear for an NBA team in my entire life.!!

Totally wrong.!!

[...]Why not name them after an Indian tribe from Oklahoma or something else that has significance to Oklahoma?

Yes, clearly. But before you call me ridiculous for even mentioning this (it did after all, get corrected later down the page), bear in mind that someone actually went out and and purchased oklahomacitythundercats.com and okcthundercats.com, which is kind of insane actually.

There is literally zero chance that Clay Bennett allows Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook to become Thundercats, which makes that, well, kind of a poor investment. I'm all for the creativity involved in poaching domain names, and grabbing the new team name could work out pretty well for the greedy sucker that jumped all over it. But that doesn't mean there's anything rational in purchasing anything relating to Thundercats. Much less believing that would be the new name.

Hint: it's the same as the old challenge to Seattle arena plans! Niki Sullivan of the Tacoma News Tribune reports on early sentiments out of the Washington State Legislature regarding the only hope to get the funds necessary to renovate Seattle's KeyArena in hopes of being ready to receive the next relocating NBA franchise.

House Speaker Frank Chopp, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown and Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Margarita Prentice were all mum Thursday about the odds of agreeing on an arena renovation deal next year.

"I'm not saying we won't act, but I think we need to be deliberative," said Sen. Ed Murray, a Seattle Democrat who is on the task force created by the Legislature to assess King County taxes, some of which are being used to pay off debt on Safeco Field, Qwest Field and the old Kingdome.

While Clay Bennett proved himself to be a lying snake, the Legislature had obvious culpability in its repeated rejections of any former branch-offering from old owner Howard Schultz, commish David Stern, and Bennett. Even if the old arena plans (which often included $500-million new buildings in the 'burbs) were bad, the Leg didn't have to be so hostile to the NBA. Stern often cites the Legislature's rhetoric and grandstanding in his assertions Bennett's obligated to leave Seattle.

The day after your city loses its longest-standing professional sports franchise, you should probably show at least a modicum of reconciliation if you have any hopes of getting the NBA back. It almost seems like (shock) these politicians don't want a team here ... which is really unfortunate for the fans, considering the new renovation plan seems to call for public funding (a tax on hotel stays -- not exactly pillaging the working-class of Washington) makes up only 25% of the total funding needed. The Legislature is either overly cautious with respects to anti-tax forces, or seriously uncommitted to getting the NBA back.

There's a potential for a real organizational shake-up as the Un-Sonics move to Oklahoma City. It seems Clay Bennett fully understands if some employees don't want to give up the community they've built their career in, and the franchise has offered bonuses for sticking with the team that past two seasons regardless of whether the employees move to OKC, according to Percy Allen of the Seattle Times.

But if you do go with Bennett to OKC, your next pay stub might include an unwelcome surprise.

Anyone who leaves can negotiate a relocation package; however, employees were told to expect a decrease in salary because the cost of living is lower in Oklahoma City.

"The cost of living is lower in Oklahoma City" is quite an understatement. As an example: according to HousingTracker, the median home price in OKC is $159,900. In Seattle, it's $425,000. Chris Wilcox can buy that dude ranch he's always wanted! Yeah!

While Bennett can negotiate his middle-managers' salaries down, he'll have no such luck with his own players. It'll be interesting to see, though, if in the free agent market "low cost-of-living!" becomes the Un-Sonics' equivalent of Orlando's "no state income tax!" and New York's "we have stuff to do after 8 p.m.!"

Chris Paul is considered a member of that group of players that includes Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and others at the elite level, all of which had contracts set to expire after 2009/2010 through a variety of mechanisms. It would appear that at least one of them is happy where he's at.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune is reporting that Paul and the Hornets have agreed in principle to a three-year extension, with an option for a fourth year that brings the total value to $68 million dollars. The deal will keep him with the Hornets a while longer. It's a huge signing for the smaller market Hornets, and gives them a foundation for success for the next five years.

On a day where sadness seems to pervade the Internet regarding the Sonics departure from Seattle, its ironic that such a feel-good story as Paul signing a long term deal with what was a struggling franchise happens. Why? Because without the overwhelming and enthusiastic support of the citizens of Oklahoma City who did such a dastardly thing as "actually coming to the games," the Hornets might not have gotten enough support to even stay in New Orleans, where people are now actually coming to the games. Interesting. Of course, on the flip side, if it hadn't been for Paul's outstanding play, Oklahoma City may not have gotten so enthused about the NBA, which precipitated Clay Bennett's chicanery. It's the circle of life. Or at least greed, money, and marketability.