Here’s the latest on the NBA and NHL fronts in Seattle.
The Seattle Times looks at the arena focus shifting from the NBA to the NHL.
Per Chris Daniels of King 5, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray has said that the Arena environmental review is expected to be finished by May 7th.
Richard Sherman wants the NBA to bring back the Sonics.
Finally, RealGM looks at what Seattle must do next in pursuit of an NBA team.
Many times a fan will have a second team. Regardless of the sport or league, everyone has a backup squad. This team isn’t in the same universe as the person’s favorite team, but they keep a small level of interest in the second team—in other words, they care about that team just a smidgen more than the rest of the league and much less than their favorite team.
The Sonics will always be Seattle’s team, regardless if there is an incarnation of the green and gold in the Emerald City. However, the Los Angeles Clippers are quickly developing into Seattle’s second team. Or rather something closer to a “interim” team.
I basically bestowed the Heat with this title a few years ago. After all, Miami had beaten that team from that one Midwestern state (people from Washington State know which NBA stolen property team I’m referring to) in the NBA Finals. The Heat also employed former Sonics greats Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis.
The Clippers win the award for a few reasons. First off is the fact that they are simply fun to watch with highlight reel dunks and alley-oops a regular occurrence. The team also employs elite players in Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan.
After that, theirs the fact that they are owned by a man with obvious Seattle connections, Steve Ballmer. In addition to Ballmer, Los Angeles employs two of the Emerald City’s finest in Spencer Hawes and Jamal Crawford. The Clippers also recently drafted former Husky C.J. Wilcox in the first round of the NBA draft.
Congrats Clippers. You’re unofficially Seattle’s second team until we get the Sonics back.
Washingtonians, who is your second NBA team, is it the Clippers or another team?
You can also view the article on Kingdome’s sister site, Know Hitter. As well as this article, you can also find mind blowing, fantastic and (insert your flash adjective here) sports content on everything from the NBA to the NFL and MLB to International Football/Soccer and March Madness.
Here’s the latest on the Seattle NBA/NHL front.
Chris Hansen’s Sonics Arena website put out a release on Tuesday. You can read the full extent of it here. You can follow the good people at Sonics Arena on Twitter here and like them on Facebook here.
According to the Milwaukee Business Journal, the Governor of Wisconsin will propose a “jock tax” to help pay off the Bucks’ potential new arena. The Bucks could be in play for Seattle at some point in time and have often been mentioned in relation to a potential moved.
Here’s King 5 reporter Chris Daniels with the latest from Seattle Mayor Ed Murray:
Murray says that NBA’s Silver said #Seattle remains a very attractive city for an NBA franchise, but league has no plans to expand. #NBA
— Chris Daniels (@ChrisDaniels5) January 22, 2015
Also from Murray, Seattle is “trying to move ball forward” with the NBA and the NHL. This report from King 5.
Murray also had a “nice chat” with the NHL, according to Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo! Sports, Seattle would be considered, along with Las Vegas, ahead of fellow expansion candidate Quebec City.
We may not have a team in the Emerald City at the moment, but a host of players with Seattle/Washington ties were moved at the trade deadline. Whether this is good or bad remains to be seen. Here are those esteemed Washingtonians/people with Washington connections.
The Seattle native was acquired by Denver from Houston to fill a need at back-up point guard. He cost the Nuggets young, swing-man Jordan Hamilton, but hopefully the former Rockets standout will provide Brian Shaw’s team a spark. The Nuggets only moved for Brooks to fill their back-up point guard spot after losing fellow Seattleite Nate Robinson for the year due to injury.
A former Sonic and graduate of Blaine High School, Ridnour is one of the few ex-Sonics left in the league. He and Gary Neal are headed to Charlotte, while Ramon Sessions and Jeff Adrien moved the other way to Milwaukee.
Hawes, the first Husky on the list, was dealt from deadline-seller Philadelphia to quasi-contender Cleveland for Henry Sims, Earl Clark and two second-round draft picks. Here’s hoping he finds a smidgen more team success in Cleveland than in Philly.
The former Gonzaga standout isn’t from the state of Washington, but he was a superb collegiate player in Spokane. He’ll look to rekindle his career in San Antonio.
Another non-Washingtonian makes the list. Evans started his career as a Sonic and is one of a few left. He and the next player on the list were dealt to the Kings for Marcus Thornton.
The Jet has moved again. This time from Brooklyn to Sacramento. He’s out for the year with an injury. Hopefully he finds success in Sacramento.
This is going to be short for me. I have pieces to write about more important things.
I am not the outgoing NBA commissioner’s biggest fan. I have called him biased and questioned his podium presence. (Which, if you’re commissioner, are two things you should have in check: you shouldn’t be biased and you should have good podium presence.)
David Stern comes off as snide in public, and I think he showed favoritism in a job that begs for the polar opposite. What he did for the NBA during the “Dream Team” era was good. But I grew up with a very different National Basketball Association. I grew up with a basketball league where the commissioner comes off as a dictator-like Bond villain. Where the commissioner of the league runs a team and proceeds to veto a trade between two teams. Where that trade has conceivably affected the landscape of the league today.
A picture is worth a thousand words. In this case a video is worth a million.