In my last post, I mentioned that one of the many memories from the 2008 NBA Finals is the fans at the Boston Garden booing David Stern. That one was a long time coming. Stern is one of the biggest frauds in sports. His main focus is marketing and maximizing the bottom line. The Celtics fans dislike of Stern goes way back to the death of Reggie Lewis. Through the years, Stern has given salary cap relief to teams with injured players. But the Celtics were given no cap relief for a player who died. The rest of the NBA wanted to see Boston go down. They got their wish. It's ironic that Stern and the rest of his idiot staff were probably as happy as anything to see the Celtics back in the Finals as ratings went through the roof.
Nobody outside of Seattle really cares too much about the Sonics moving. The rest of us are detached. The NBA commissioner is not supposed to be so detached. But this is David Stern we're talking about here. He really doesn't care about the fans of Seattle. He laid out conditions for the NBA return to your great city. You can bet those conditions involve Seattle taxpayers enriching the NBA or an NBA owner.
Stern knows that cities and states give in sports leagues. There are very few cities or states that can stare down these major sports leagues and get away with it. Seattle is not one of those cities. We are talking about the six to eight largest metropolitan areas in the country. That's it. As for the rest of them, the commissioners and owners are more than happy to have them play off against each other for the best offer or to have contests on which taxpayers get soaked the most. In some cases, all it involves is which billionaire from which city agreeing to be the benefactor his hometown. I am just surprised that with all of that Microsoft money floating around that the Sonics are gone. But should cities have to be so dependent on these benefactors? With the likes of slime like David Stern in charge, cities and states are left depending on these benefactors or being soaked for taxes by owners who only want the best deal for themselves. If you don't have local ownership, taxpayers and fans should look out for their backs and their pockets.
Don't expect fans from other cities to really care about your plight Seattle. Most of us think that what went down is horrible. It will be nice when Seattle gets a team back. But that's about it. Nobody in Seattle really cares that David Stern starts NBA Finals games at 9 pm eastern time when most kids on the can't watch. David Stern tells us his broadcasting partners want it then to maximize profits. That's what it's all about. It's not about Sonics fans, kids on the east coast, or even the good of the game and the sport.
I don't know what is next for Seattle. You can probably get a hockey team. They will put hockey teams anywhere and there are way too many of them that there are now teams in cities that we think of as minor league cities. For now, all you have is memories of Downtown Freddie Brown and DJ's great Finals. The business of sports and David Stern is enough to make us all a bit Sikma.
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