YOUR TAKE: Oklahoma City "Thunder"

News just in from the the professional monopolistic sports league controlled by David Stern: the former Sonics basketball team will be called the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Q1: Is the new name cool? Or does it sound like something out of the WNBA or the XFL? And does it make sense?

Seattle = Boeing = Supersonic = the Sonics. (checks out)
vs.
Oklahoma City = Cowboys = Cattle Rustlers = Team Rustlers? ($#%@?)

Q2: Does Clay Bennett look like Bryant "Big Country" Reeves (former OK St. "standout", the NBA definition of mediocrity)? (that's if CB gained about 40 lbs) Or does he simply just have the same #2 haircut?



Q3: Still bitter?

* A good point I overheard at happy hour: It seems to me with the history of the NBA, that the league would have done everything to preserve its legacy. (for example the NBA logo = Jerry West, not Jordan, Kobe, or LeBron) Preserving history should have been of the utmost importance. The 41 years in Seattle for that matter. But it wasn't.

Absolutely brilliant quotes by Clay Bennett:

1. "We're already investing in an economic model that doesn't provide a return" Seattle Times Interview, May 20th, 2007.

* This makes little to no sense coming from a businessman. Put it simply: if I said this at work, I'd get FIRED. An investment is never undertaken without some projection of a return. Otherwise, there's no point. They teach that fact to elementary age Junior Achievement students! (Clay was responding to a question about why his group doesn't pony up some of the money to get a $500 million arena in Renton, WA)

I can't believe what he said here. What I can believe is that with an investment of this magnitude that he had ample financial analysts and bankers there to develop a financial model for the business. And further they determined the cost of the lease in Seattle WASN'T the main reason the team lost money...given the annual lease cost in Seattle was around the same amount as what we paid for Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis. (the real truth is "winning" in SEA or "only game in town" in OKC = profitability) Let's face it folks, the NBA is a broken business model.

* As for the coming Howard Schultz / Yarmuth lawsuit I wish I could say to Clay & Co. like Ivan Drago did in Rocky IV, "You will lose" but I can't. For now, THE TEAM IS GONE. In the meantime, Schultzy should close all Starbucks in the "Big Friendly" city.