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Newly revealed e-mails could
cause headaches for Sonics owner
Associated Press - Updated: April
25th, 2008, 12:15 AM ET
SEATTLE -- More e-mails
involving SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett have
been revealed that could slow or even stop the
team's move from Seattle to Oklahoma City, a
move the NBA overwhelmingly approved last week.
A filing by the city of
Seattle this week in federal court in New York
includes e-mails to and from Bennett that show
the NBA was concerned last summer that Sonics
owners may be breaching their contractual
promise of good-faith efforts to find a new
arena in Seattle.
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Bennett knew he could flip team
Schultz complaint offers new
e-mail evidence
By GREG JOHNS - SEATTLE P-I REPORTER April 23rd, 2008
New e-mail evidence indicating that Clay Bennett wasn't interested
in owning the Sonics if they remained in Seattle even before his
group's purchase of the NBA franchise is included in a lawsuit filed
by former owner Howard Schultz on Tuesday seeking to rescind the
sale.
The suit, filed by the Starbucks chairman in U.S. District Court, charges that Bennett's group committed fraud in misleading Schultz and his Seattle-based partnership by promising they'd make good-faith efforts to keep the team in Seattle.
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City looks past NBA board vote
Civic leaders using lawsuit to
force sale of team, Sonics lawyers say
By
GREG JOHNS
- P-I REPORTER - April 17th, 2008
As the NBA Board of Governors gathers for
Friday's vote on Clay Bennett's request to move the Sonics to
Oklahoma City, Seattle city leaders know the runaway relocation
train is already barreling down the tracks.
Seattle won't even be represented at the meeting, the city setting
its sights instead on the upcoming legal battle over the remaining
two years of the team's lease at KeyArena.
The league's 30 owners will vote on Bennett's bid, and commissioner
David Stern figures to announce the move at a midday news conference
in New York.
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Schultz's effort to get
Sonics back is a legal long shot - April 16th,
2008
Lester Munson - ESPN Archive
With the NBA expected to
approve the Seattle SuperSonics' relocation to
Oklahoma City on Friday, former Sonics owner
Howard Schultz thinks he can rescue the team for
Seattle with a lawsuit. When he sold the team
for $350 million in 2006, Schultz thought the
new owners would work to keep the team in
Seattle. Recently disclosed e-mails sent by the
new owners now indicate that the new owners had
no plans to keep the team in Seattle and were
hoping for a quick move.
Schultz and his
attorneys think that's enough to convince a
judge in Seattle that the new owners are guilty
of bad faith and fraud and should be required to
return the team to him. Schultz is not asking
for money. The situation raises a number of
questions about Schultz, the Seattle market for
big league sports, the new owners, their
contacts with each other and their motivation.
Here are some of the questions and their
answers:
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Legal experts call Schultz suit a
long shot
Battle over Sonics could take years to
resolve in court
By CLAUDIA ROWE - SEATTLE P-I REPORTER
Last Updated April 15, 2008
It is audacious, almost
unheard of and unlikely to succeed, yet sports
and legal experts around the country said they
will be watching with interest if Howard Schultz
sues the new owners of the Sonics in an effort
to force them to keep the basketball team in
Seattle.Despite
its quixotic overtones, Schultz's expected
attempt to prove that Clay Bennett and his
partners acted in bad faith when they promised
to try to keep the team in the Northwest could
set up years of courtroom litigation -- less a
legal slam dunk than an exhausting chess
match...
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Schultz to claim Sonics owners
breached terms of sale
Courtesy of ESPN via The Seattle
Times - Updated: April 15, 2008, 10:27 AM ET
The former owner of the
Seattle SuperSonics
plans to sue the current owners to get the team
back, arguing they breached a condition of the
sale to make a "good-faith effort" to keep
Seattle's oldest pro sports franchise from
leaving town, according to Seattle-area media
reports.
Starbucks chairman and
CEO Howard Schultz, who sold the Sonics to an
Oklahoma City-based group led by Clay Bennett,
will not seek monetary damages, but wants the
team back, according to his attorney, Richard
Yarmuth...
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FURTHER PROOF BENNETT IS
SIMPLY A LIAR...
E-mails show
Bennett lied to Stern
Exchanges
contradict claim that he never intended on moving
Sonics
Seattle PI - April
10th, 2008
By
GREG JOHNS
P-I REPORTER
NBA commissioner David
Stern has been Clay Bennett's biggest ally since
the Oklahoma City ownership group purchased the
Sonics in 2006, but Bennett appears to blatantly
lie to Stern in a 2007 e-mail exchange obtained
by city of Seattle lawyers...
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Effort in Olympia to
keep Sonics was in works for weeks
By
CHRIS
McGANN -
P-I CAPITOL CORRESPONDENT
OLYMPIA -- Seattle's
attempt to secure a tax package for KeyArena
wasn't the wild, last-second shot at keeping the
Sonics that leading lawmakers made it out to be,
according to e-mails obtained through a public
disclosure request.
Seattle developer Matt
Griffin, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve
Ballmer, cellular phone mogul John Stanton and
Costco's Jim Sinegal are trying to help Seattle
keep the Sonics -- and keep an anchor tenant at
KeyArena. They came forward with an offer to try
to buy the NBA team and contribute half the
money for a $300 million remodel of KeyArena.
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Time for
Sonics' fans, leaders to fight exit strategy
By
Steve Kelley Seattle Times staff columnist -
Updated August 27th, 2007
Call it "The Montreal Expos Exit Strategy."
Because that's what this August offensive from the wanderlusting
Sonics ownership feels like.
The strategy seems something like this:
Let inflammatory comments slip from purposely loose lips,
creating an adversarial relationship. Operate the team on a
shoestring. Alienate the politicians and the fans...
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Another pratfall by Sonics
owners
By
ART THIEL
P-I COLUMNIST - Updated August 14th, 2007
Of his good friend and fellow Sonics owner Aubrey McClendon, Clay
Bennett was quoted as saying, "Aubrey is the all-time undisputed
heavyweight champion of tailgating."
Presumably he was talking about pregame college football parties.
Although the case can now be made for the other meaning, since
McClendon recklessly ran up his pal's backside...
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Seattle, the battle with
Sonics owners is so on
By Ted Miller Seattle PI
Columnist - Updated August 14th, 2007
So Aubrey McClendon, a member of the Oklahoma-based Sonics
ownership group, decided to announce to a small newspaper in
Oklahoma City that, "We didn't buy the team to keep it in Seattle."
Now why would he say a thing like that? Doesn't that confirm the
ownership group, headed by Clay Bennett, has been lying?
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Sonics' Bennett begins damage
control
By
GARY WASHBURN
Seattle P-I Reporter - Updated August 14th, 2007
Sonics owner Clay Bennett attempted Monday to confirm his
sincerity in keeping the Sonics in Seattle by releasing a statement
regarding the comments of co-owner Aubrey McClendon.
A lengthy feature story on the Oklahoma City businessman who has
become a billionaire from his Chesapeake Energy company turned into
more ammunition for Sonics fans, local leaders and NBA observers who
believe Bennett's group has intended to move the team to Oklahoma
since the July 2006 purchase from Howard Schultz...
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New owners intend to move
Sonics if deal can't get done
ESPN News Services - Updated
August 13th, 2007
OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Oklahoma City energy tycoon
says the group that purchased the
Seattle SuperSonics hopes to move the NBA
franchise to Oklahoma City, but he acknowledges
the team could make more money in the Pacific
Northwest."But we didn't buy the team to keep
it in Seattle; we hoped to come here," Aubrey
McClendon, chief executive of Chesapeake Energy,
told The Journal Record for a story in Monday's
edition.
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Sonics owners confirm
suspicions
By
Steve Kelley Seattle Times Staff
Columnist (8-14-2007)
Let's take a moment to thank Aubrey McClendon for
his honesty. For once, somebody in the Sonics' new
ownership group said what all of us in Seattle
suspected all along.Let's thank him for going on
the record to The Journal Record, telling the
Oklahoma City business paper, "We didn't buy the
team to keep it in Seattle."
We should thank him for exposing chairman Clay
Bennett as the duplicitous salesman he is.
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Owning Sonics gives McClendon a new
passion, good seats
From The Journal Record 8-13-07
OKLAHOMA CITY – Clay Bennett is the leader of
Professional Basketball Club LLC, the local
outfit that bought the Seattle Sonics of the
NBA.
Bennett is spokesman for
the group, but Aubrey McClendon doesn’t duck
away from talking about the NBA club.
McClendon said he is
“under a self-imposed gag order” regarding much
of the business end of the basketball franchise,
but he doesn’t have a problem with showing
enthusiasm regarding the team.
“Clay is my good friend and general partner in
the club, so he speaks most accurately and
eloquently for the club,” McClendon said.
“However, I’m very excited about Kevin Durant
and the other draft picks we had.
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Sonics owner rules out future
at Key Arena
Associated Press - August 2nd,
2007
SEATTLE -- Two weeks after calling for a resumption
of talks about a new arena, SuperSonics owner Clay
Bennett accused Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels of
focusing on "unworkable concepts."
In a statement
issued Thursday, Bennett said KeyArena - the Sonics'
current home and the smallest venue in the NBA - is
not an option for the team.
He said the Sonics' ownership group had hoped the
mayor would rally support to find a solution.
"Instead he focused on unworkable concepts that
are not acceptable," Bennett said in his statement,
adding that he hopes other civic leaders step up.
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There's still hope for new
Sonics
By Ted Miller Seattle PI
Columnist
Following a tumult of activity that started in
April, some of which inspired enthusiasm (Kevin
Durant) while other parts spawned indignation
(see ya Ray and Rashard), the reassembled Sonics
are ... what?"We've got a roster, right now,
that probably doesn't fit together real well,"
new coach P.J. Carlesimo said.
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Top free agent Lewis to leave
Sonics for Magic
The NBA's most sought-after free agent is going to the Magic
Kingdom.
After being treated to an aggressive 24-hour courtship,
Rashard Lewis told the
Orlando
Magic on Monday that he plans to leave the
Seattle
SuperSonics to sign a max contract with Orlando on July 11, NBA
front-office sources said.
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Tony Mejia of CBS Sportsline Grades The Sonics Draft And Draft Day
Deals
Seattle: Because of the security blanket Durant provides,
the Sonics believed they could afford to trade Allen, their most
recognizable asset. If you're going to blow a team up, now would be
the time. Sam Presti, tasked with giving the Sonics a new identity,
leads the new regime and went to work, adding another superb wing to
complement Durant in Georgetown's Jeff Green. That pairing will
undoubtedly work, and the fact they get to grow together will pay
dividends down the road. The Sonics are going to be major players in
three years -- likely adding another high lottery pick next season
-- and they hope young centers Robert Swift and Mouhamed Sene
develop. Plus, Wally Szczerbiak's large contract will come off the
books a few years earlier than Allen's would. In the short term,
Seattle is probably going to do its share of losing, but you're
starting to see the big picture taking shape. Grade: A- |
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Durant and Green Bring D.C.
Style to Other Washington
As talented basketball prospects of similar ages growing up in
Maryland near Washington, D.C., Kevin Durant and Jeff Green couldn't
help but take notice of each other on the local basketball circuit.
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Green ready to back up fellow
first-rounder Durant
Jeff Green is not on the cover of ESPN the Magazine, and his face
isn't splashed across the newest video game. He's not co-starring in
the latest commercials, nor is he poised to sign a $60 million shoe
deal.
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Only 18, Durant now the face of the
Sonics
Durant was greeted in Seattle by ads in both
newspapers and television commercials proclaiming
Durant's arrival as the start of the "New Era" of
Sonics' basketball.
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