Personally, I am disappointed in the Spurs ownership for voting for the move. Yes, the team in OKC means less long flights and fewer Pacific Time Zone games, which are good for the players and good for me.

However, it feels like if in 10 years the Spurs have had a run of bad luck and their ticket sales aren’t great, there is a chance that we could lose them overnight. Not a “no effing way, but maybe somehow” chance, but a “Yeah, I can see that happening” chance. It makes me sad.

Having just spent 6 days in Seattle, where my in-laws live, I feel their pain. Good luck, Seattle, I hope you get a team back. (And for a bit of schadenfreude, I hope Sam Presti squanders the salary cap and roster of the Oklahoma Turdwrestlers, leaving them with a terrible team for years to come).

The cities aren’t even comparable because Seattle is so much better. It’s ridiculous.

Auf Wiedersehn Sonics.

For as much as Bennett wanted to make himself seem like the one who was wronged, the bottom line is that he ripped away memories that people had. Those are things that you can’t put a price on. I’m young, so I can’t vouch for those who have taken their sons or daughters to their first game, but I will always remember my first game with nothing but fondness.

One of the reasons I’ve always liked basketball and baseball, is because they’re games that fathers and mothers can pass down to their kids. For as much as football wants to be the new American Pastime, you just can’t relate over football like you can in either basketball or baseball. My dad played basketball for the Aggies in the seventies, and I can remember him holding me up so I could dunk on a five foot Fisher Price rim. I’m sure that many sons and daughters have spent countless hours just shooting baskets or playing catch with their parents, strengthening their bond along the way.

To me, what Bennett and David Stern have allowed, has put a price on things that were previously invaluable. I wouldn’t trade my memories of my first game for anything, and I’m sure they wouldn’t either, but what they have done is blithely dismiss what so many have cherished just because of money. I realize that sports are big business, but anytime money is made off the suffering of others, it’s a bad deal.

What Zantox said above is something I think all of us Spurs fans have begun to wonder, if only for a split second, whether our team could be taken away from us, after so many years, because some “entrepreneur” wants to experiment elsewhere.

Personally, I love how this whole series of events has turned Clay Bennett into a villain, because anyone who has kept up knows that he has lied and stole to get what he wanted. And everything that has happened, has been allowed because of David Stern. For a guy who claims to be all about the fans, with his speech at the All Star Game, Stern has done an excellent job of showing us all what he’s really about.

I feel for the fans in Seattle, because I truly fear losing what they have. The way it happened was never just a business move, and that’s what’s most unfortunate about this whole thing. Hopefully they’ll get their team back someday.

I feel for the people of Seattle, I really do. But I would suggest that they look at the pig picture. The team has not been a contender for some time and with a scumbag, incompetent owner like Clay Bennett they weren’t headed down that path anytime soon. He’ll always screw it up in the end, no matter what Presti does.

The Sonics were allowed to keep their name, their colors and their history, and to me this suggests that some day in the future they will be get a new team to root for (perhaps the Grizzlies or the Bobcats, I would think) as the Sonics. I can imagine it’s quite painful now but I don’t think you will be without a team for long. Call it a hunch. By 2030 only the most dedicated Sonics fans will even remember that the city went a few years without a team.

Spurs fans on the other hand better enjoy life while they can. I’m afraid the crystal ball doesn’t look nearly so promising for them. Duncan is retiring after 2012. If they don’t luck into another iconic player by 2016, they’re as good as gone.

It’s a sad, sad day. I live in Portland and I too have attended a handful of games at the Key. It is an outstanding arena, and the fans really let the opposing team have it. The most memorable game for me was the Spurs getting hammered by the Sonics in game 4. The game did not seem as close as the final score, and the crowd was intense and angry.

If it can happen to Seattle, it could happen to practically any other team besides the Lakers, Celtics, or Knicks.

This is all BS, and all the powers that be that allowed this to happen knows it is.

The idea that since it happened to the Sonics, it could happen to us is overblown. Do you see how much trouble Bennett had to go through to move the team. A lot. Spurs already have a much better history here in San Antonio than Seattle had in 41 years. Even if the Spurs go lottery bound for a couple seasons in the next decade, its not like they’ll just pack up and leave. Have a little more faith in the city.

AT&T Center is still a state of the art arena. The location is what really kills the mood going there. You’re on that garbage side of town that supposedly was gonna improve and never has. Ideally if they had built it along I -35 ( I think thats the highway) they could’ve created an in between point for San Antonions as well as people from San Marcos, New Braunfels and even Austinites to go to there. Those areas are booming right now and the arena would’ve been a hit.

This is a travesty. I’ve mentioned it here before, but where I live the cities own the teams. It’s completely beyond comprehension to me that a team is allowed to move onto greener pastures if the owner hits a rough patch.

I feel sorry for the fans. It must be unbelievably painful. But in the end, the whole league is to blame for their mentality.

Karma is a motherfucker. Bennett and Stern will need to, to paraphrase Lawrence from Office Space, “watch out for their cornholes”.

Well the Hornets weren’t that great while playing there, so I assume it wouldn’t be the worst.

I grew up as a Spurs fan in San Antonio and St. Louis, Missouri…. but last year I moved to Seattle and I LOVED going to games at the Key this last season, even with the terrible team. KeyArena is easily the best place I’ve ever watched a professional basketball game, and to blame the arena situation for Bennett’s heist is absolutely asinine. The Seahawks and Mariners both extorted the local and state governments for money for new stadiums… and after the city put millions in to renovate the Key in the 90s… it’s still not good enough?

The city supported the team even in the worst season in team history, drawing more attendance than several other professional clubs. Bennett purposely sabotaged the team to build for the future, trading away Ray Allen for draft picks and letting Rashard Lewis go to Orlando, specifically to make the team bad and drive fans away. He knew those trades would make Seattle fans not want to come out AND give him draft picks that would blossom in OKC.

This is the single shadiest sports situation I’ve ever lived through, and sadly, it’s made me and thousands of other hardcore sports fans here consider never giving the NBA another chance. Until David Stern goes, I won’t even watch my beloved Spurs. I still hope they win, but Stern won’t get a dime of my money or my time. Thanks for the article Matthew, it’s good to see fans all over the country getting behind the Seattle Sonics fans.

Now if only everyone would boycott the games when the OKC Thieves come to town…...