How It All Happened: The Return of the Sonics to the NBA
September 17th, 2015
By Vonny Lee
The NBA has been a source of contention, pain, guilt, blame, anger and — above all — loss for the city of Seattle. Never has a fanbase been so publicly destroyed — yes, that includes Cleveland after LeBron left in 2010 — and never has that fanbase been so nationally recognizable despite not having a NBA team. The Seattle SuperSonics were wiped away at the beginning of the 2008-09 NBA season, becoming the Oklahoma City Thunder as Clay Bennett ripped the hearts out of the Seattle basketball community.
He even took the team’s records, their trophies, and their banners. He probably took the kitchen sink, too.
In the seven seasons since the Thunder have become one of the NBA’s best franchises (employing superstars in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook) they've become regulars in the postseason and an ever present threat to win a NBA championship. Seattle fans have had to suffer the indignity of watching another team flourish while burying their existence at every turn.
This basketball season, that all ends. The Seattle SuperSonics will be returning to the NBA and the journey back has been one fraught with peril, near-disaster, and heroes galore. It all began last September …
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September 24th, 2014: Mikhail Prokhorov, owner of the Brooklyn Nets, begins consolidating his ownership, buying up the minority shares. This all seems ho-hum to everyone as Prokhorov no longer needs American business partners to help get the Nets brand off the ground — the franchise is now operating somewhat profitably (though somehow still employs Billy King because … Russians?) and Prokhorov wants total control of his franchise. Just about every NBA owner wants this. Three days later, after quick negotiations, Prokhorov announces he has total ownership of the franchise.
NBA insiders begin reporting rumblings that Prokhorov is eyeing a run for the president of Russia (no, really) in 2018. He’s getting support from certain Russian figures and Prokhorov tried to mount a campaign in 2012, but was far too late in the process to really be a threat — still, he made a dent in Putin’s campaign and he’s always had political aspirations.
October 20th, 2014: Prokhorov sells the Nets for a whopping 3.4 billion dollars, netting himself a nice profit. The buyer? A young software developer formerly of Microsoft, who made nearly 8 billion dollars selling a particular set of code that’s used in every smartphone currently produced — and that code will be present in future generations of every smartphone for the foreseeable future. The coder is Seattle born and raised, having made his fortune in January 2014 (and having to wait a few months for the US government to make sure he wasn’t doing something illegal before he actually got it). Negotiations between him and Prokhorov took less than a month.
The new owner of the Nets was Maxwell Newman, a man in his early 30s and someone with a distinct style all his own. His entry into the NBA was easy (read: he had lots of money) but he dressed a lot like Mark Cuban (Newman opted for the geeky t-shirts over the boring ones from Cuban). His press release upon confirmation of his ownership was a simple one:
“The Sonics will return very soon.”
Direct. To the point. And words that sparked a war between the owners seen not since the merger with the ABA in the 70s. Newman notified the NBA Board of Governors and the Relocation Committee upon his confirmation of ownership that he intended to move the Nets to Seattle. The fans in Brooklyn were beside themselves and carried themselves with their typical (lack) of composure. Team officials were blindsided, the players and coaches were as well, and Newman quickly became known as “Mad Max”, a name that has stuck.
Adam Silver handled the situation with calm, but insiders in the league office were saying that the NBA wasn’t prepared for this. Legal action was being proposed by some owners, the leader among them Clay Bennett, a man who had been threatened with legal action to prevent the Sonics from moving. Bennet, Micky Arison (owner of the Heat), and Ted Leonsis (owner of the Wizards) all came out publicly to question Newman’s declaration. Newman’s response was succinct:
“If I were part of the group that murdered a franchise unfairly, I’d be afraid of that franchise coming back, too. When things come back from the dead, they tend to seek out revenge against those that wronged them … the SuperSonics will be the same. We remember. We will never forget.”
January 8th, 2015: The Relocation Committee has reviewed Newman’s proposal for the return of the Sonics. Newman has secured a location for the arena, has secured the votes to pass it, and then he got it passed. How he navigated Seattle’s molasses-like local government is beyond the realm of human comprehension but everyone agrees it was likely a combination of money and influence. None of which is unusual for the NBA (they operate more like a mob than they’d like to admit in some areas of their business).
The committee’s verdict? Yes, but by only by a 4-3 margin do they recommend the move. Bennett, Arison, and Leonsis are all against the move. League sources report that Bennett has already begun to campaign against the Sonics to his fellow owners. The next Board of Governors meeting is scheduled for April.
Newman hasn’t made many friends with the NBA’s owners, but he has one his corner: Mark Cuban. Cuban, long the league office's pain in butt, was one of two owners to vote against the Sonics relocation (the other being Paul Allen). Newman, Cuban, Allen, and Steve Ballmer begin campaigning to bring the Sonics back; they would be nicknamed by the Internet as “The Seattle Saviors”, which would launch into a viral sensation as the Seattle community took to social media to promote the cause.
April 12th, 2015: The NBA Board of Governors meet, relocation plans firmly in hand. Newman and the city of Seattle (but mostly Newman) has begun building the new arena for the Sonics — Newman has hired two different construction companies to hasten development on the arena, with a third in the wings. His goal is to be ready by the beginning of the 2015 season.
The tension between the owners is thick and some votes are up for grabs even at this late stage. Twitter, Facebook, SportsCenter, and more are all monitoring the story: local Seattle stations have traveled to New York to cover the story, making the scene look like something from an overbudgeted action flick. The vote only has to be a majority to be approved but the voting process takes twice as long as it was estimated to.
16-14. That was the final margin of Seattle’s victory. The Mavs (Cuban), Blazers (Allen), Clippers (Ballmer), the Kings, the Bucks, and the Lakers all agree easily. The Spurs, Hawks, Hornets, Jazz, Grizzlies, Pacers, Knicks, Wizards also agree after considering the money. And then Newman himself.
The Bulls, Cavs, Nuggets, Pistons, Warriors, Rockets, Heat, Thunder, Twolves, Celtics, 76ers, Magic, Suns, and Raptors vote against the return of the Sonics.
The Pelicans are the swing vote, but they agree to back the move, making it go ahead at 16 for and 14 against.
Elation breaks out across Seattle, the nation, and the greater Washington state area. Newman has succeeded where so many others had failed before and the Nets were going to be the Sonics at the beginning of the 2015 season.
Brooklyn, however, was left without a team — a fact not lost on the Sonics fans who had felt the pain of relocation seven years before. Newman, on the subject, wasn’t unsympathetic but he certainly didn’t pity them:
“I feel a bit guilty, yes. I lost a team seven years ago — all of Seattle did — and I won’t get those seven years back. The team was still with me, still within my heart, but being unable to see them play was gutwrenching. That said, Brooklyn has only had this team for three years. And, historically, the Nets have been pretty poor … Brooklyn’s loss doesn’t compare to Seattle’s. I know they won’t understand that.”
July 13th, 2015: With the Sonics back in the NBA, the league alters the divisional alignment. Memphis moves to the Southeast Division, while Washington moves to the Atlantic. The Sonics move back to the Northwest Division while the Thunder move to the Southwest, making the NBA as a whole more geographically sensible. The NBA also announces that the first round of the playoffs would be moved back to five games, with Adam Silver having this to say:
“Players have made it clear to the league that they feel there needs to be less games played; rather than trim back the regular season, we’ve restored the first round to a five game format. Statistically, this should hardly affect the results of the first round; with the first round now back to five games, both the league and the players union believe this will cut down on player injuries while increasing the overall play of the league, making it healthier as it goes into the future.”
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And that brings us to today. Newman has made his enemies in his short time in the NBA, but he’s also brought the Sonics back. For that, he has the undying gratitude of millions of fans.
But he’s also made himself GM of the team, despite a severe lack of experience. Firing Billy King is always a good thing, but Newman is playing a dangerous game as an Owner/GM, a game that reminds me of a certain owner in Dallas … Jerry Jones. Jones, much like Newman, has his own views on how to run a team and demands it be done in his manner, in his way. Jones makes the picks, he makes the trades, he makes the cuts, he makes the hires … he’s all-powerful and he can’t be fired. Jones, in recent years, has surrounded himself with a better support staff and the Cowboys’ fortunes have improved because of it.
Newman has taken a page from Jones’ book and surrounded himself with definable talent in the front office, hiring former Hawks GM Danny Ferry as his President of Basketball Operations. Ferry will do the legwork and he’s highly respected in most NBA circles; what happened with the Hawks was seen by many front office executives as “scapegoating” and Ferry was blackballed unfairly. Despite Ferry being there, Newman has ultimate control and say — and he knows it:
“I’m the beginning and end of any move we make, pure and simple. I love basketball, I’ve studied the game with data, with my own two eyes, played it all the time back in high school, and I know a good player when I see one. Even the lowest valued NBA player brings skills to the table you won’t find anywhere else and here in Seattle we embrace that fact; we welcome diversity. It’s only through being diverse, being able to adapt, does an organization grow and become a champion.”
Retaining Hollins as head coach — a move some have questioned despite the fact his contract runs out at the end of year — is the first step in that process. But another step is soon to come, and that’s the dismantling of the roster. Seattle has been in negotiations with multiple teams for the various players it has. Newman, according to league sources, is looking for picks and young players to build around. Seattle, thanks to the machinations of Billy King in the past, has no draft pick this year or in 2018.
What Newman decides to do here is going to determine what this first season of the newly revived Sonics will look like; luckily, Newman has revealed the jerseys for this upcoming season so at least we know what the players will look like, even if we don’t know
which players will be wearing the jersey.
Home Jersey 15-16
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Away Jersey 15-16
