For those fans who believe that the only acceptable NBA champion is any team that's not the Miami Heat, the tempting choice is Oklahoma City. The Thunder have Kevin Durant's superlative set of skills, Russell Westbrook's freakish athleticism, and James Harden's 1840s prospector's beard. They are young and charming, and they seem like the ideal foil for the soulless South Beach superteam.
But where LeBron-loathing folks now see the forces of good on the court in Oklahoma City, I have always looked to the owners' box and seen Clay Bennett and his pals, the Oklahomans who stole the Seattle SuperSonics from a city that loved and supported NBA basketball for 41 years. The theft was the final chapter in a grim tale of arrogance, incompetence, and deceit, with the Okies spending more than a year deceiving Seattle fans, city officials, and even the team's front office about their ultimate intentions.
As a Sonics employee, I was there on the inside, living through—and sometimes participating in—the subterfuge. And I was there for what came before, as the last local owner, spineless Starbucks mogul Howard Schultz, allowed his ego and greed to ruin the team's hopes. The demise of the Sonics was a slow implosion, and I watched it up close. Maybe I was too close, because it's only now dawning on me—four years after the Sonics became the Thunder—what really happened to our team......
continued-
