Sleepless in Seattle
This may be the last year of NBA basketball in Seattle. At least if you believe commissioner David Stern.
“It’s apparent to all who are watching that the Sonics are heading out of Seattle,” Stern said during his annual All-Star weekend press conference. “I accept that inevitability at this point. There is no miracle here.”
Sonics owner Clay Bennet has said the team cannot remain in Seattle without public funding for a new arena, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. Bennet has informed the league that he plans to move the team to his hometown of Oklahoma City.
Sonics players and coaches, meanwhile, still have a season to play.
“We don’t talk about it,” Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo said before the game. “Every time you go to a different city, particularly for the first time, you get asked the question. I just think it’s something that’s there that we’re all aware of. And we certainly wonder where we’re going to be going forward. It’s not something we have any control over.”
Ray Allen, who played in Seattle from 2002-2007, said it would be a shame to see the Sonics go.
“We [the Celtics] have talked about that situation on the bus,” Allen said, sitting at his locker before tonight’s game. “Every player, to a man, that’s played in Seattle, visited Seattle, loves that city, and says it would be a travesty not to have a team there.”
Despite the uncertainty, Carlesimo refuses to blame his team’s 16-48 record on the controversy.
“It didn’t help us, obviously, but I don’t think it’s had much of an effect on our play of the floor, to be honest with you,” he said.
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