FanNation - The Republic of Sport

The SEATTLE SuperSonics most likely played their last game in Seattle last night. So to numb the pain the Van City, Charlotte, and New Jersey(2010) fans felt when their teams left I will go to the archives and pop out my Sonics blog from a coulple of months ago with my disgust and also some of the memories of the Sonics 41 historic years that will likely end in a coulpe of days. So here it is:

The darkest days in the NBA's history are coming upon us, they have moved another struggling team with a loyal fanbase in the Northwest to a smaller city in the south that will likely crash and burn. The Seattle SuperSonics, the team that brought you the X-Man, The Glove, The Reign Man, Deltef Schfremp, Lenny Wilkens, the loudest pregame introduction in NBA Finals history until Toronto goes to the Finals, and more importantly 41 years of heart. The NBA obviously thinks that OKC is a better market for basketball than Seattle because it is more populated(wrong), has a basketball tradition(wrong Oklahoma is a college football state), Has richer citizens(wrong Seattle, per person is an extremely wealthy city), and will support their team when they lose(wrong OKC had the Hornets for a year and a half and attendance slowly declined when their season was mathematically over). Seattle has gotten tons of support from their fans even now when they are apparently leaving and have a losing record check out Bill Simmons first Sonics mailbag http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080228&sportCat=nba and his follow up How To Save The Sonics blog http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080229&sportCat=nba and you will read the most touching and emotional blogs about the NBA ever. Make Sure you watch the links because they will put you in the Seattle mindset. So here are my top Seattle Supersonic videos and moments.

1996 NBA Finals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QflYgCsLxHY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW19D4qXStI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-wUVznn1rQ

Player Mixes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ALdNck0f2o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4zKw6JG7do

This whole sitiuation reminds me of another Northwest team, the Vancouver Grizzlies. They to had a great fanbase and the fans started showing up less because it was inevitable the owners would move and they never won more than 30 games in a season. They to were moved to a smaller city in the south that has never fully supported their team like in their city. In the first five or six years the Grizzlies average attendance in Vancouver was better than it ever was in Memphis. The same thing of teams moving to smaller markets has happened with Charlotte to New Orleans, and the Bobcats expansion team going to Charlotte instead of San Diego.

In actual game action the Mavs lost again to a West opponent, losing by 4 to San Antonio. Jason Kidd sat on the bench in key moments most noticably the last play of the game when Bruce Bowen made a key block to seal the win. I know it is early to make a verdict, but the Jason Kidd deal is looking worse and worse for the Mavs.

Those are my thoughts feel free to comment.

Seattle superSonics R.I.P 1967 - 2008