The Time Has Come – I’ve Ended My Hatred of the NBA

Posted by Andy in Sports

I’m doing the unthinkable.

I’m watching Game 2 of the NBA Finals. It’s the 1st basketball game I’ve watched since the Sonics were taken.

Now, I don’t forgive the NBA for what they did. I still have no respect for anyone in the Thunder ownership group. But something happened today while I watched thousands of people tweet from the #SonicsRally. I remembered why I was Sonics fan.

You see, my friends liked the Sonics. Some of my friends LOVED the Sonics. Supporting the Sonics was just one more thing that brought us all together. Some of my friends were able to go down to the rally today. They were excited about it and sent me photos. It reminded me of how we used to go to games together. I remembered the good times we had.

So I’m now on the couch, and am actively rooting against one of the teams playing in the game. And I am amusing myself by thinking about things that could happen if Seattle gets the Sacramento Kings:

  • The first thing we do is hire Sam Presti away from OKC. Double his salary.  Steve Ballmer is epic-ly richer than Clay Bennett’s wife.
  • OKC can’t afford all 4 of their studs after the other 3 rookie contracts come to an end. 2 or 3 of them will leave Durant by himself.
  • The Lakers lure Durant away when it’s time for Kobe to retire. Durant gets to play one year with Kobe.  How cool would that be, stepping in to Kobe’s shoes on the NBA’s biggest stage?
  • The new Sonics rescue Nick Collison from Oklahoma – remember he never moved away.

So I’ve decided to bury the hatchet with the NBA. It’s a business, and smart business people do what’s best from a financial perspective.  On one side they had a market frothing at the mouth begging to work with them, and on the other side they had a city government too inept to work with them at all.  It was an easy decision, completely motivated by the “Just say no to progress” attitude of some of our local politicians.  The NBA had a pretty easy “Business Decision” to make.  Sure, as fans we were crushed emotionally, but the NBA isn’t here for us emotionally.  It is here to make money off of our emotion.

And so with 7.1 seconds left, my emotion is that I hope LeBron James hits this free-throw and ices the game.  OKC came back from 15 pts down and with 15 seconds left it looked like they would make an amazing comeback.  And then suddenly it shifted.  And 18,000 OKC fans are going to feel the emotion of a bone crushing loss.

And I smile.