I’m not gonna lie — college has made me more jaded than a Hindu idol. The brazen exposures to outside realities, long sheltered by my loving parents, have made me feel like I could handle anything from Singapore to Sing Sing.
So when I have about as much sympathy for the city of Seattle as Bill Clinton has desire to stay celibate, you know why.
I’m a nice guy — I play by the rules, I take dogs for walks, even let my mom clean up their doo-doo — but seeing the carpetbaggin’ Clay Bennett strip Seattle of its oldest franchise fails to even bring the thought of a tear to my mind. There will be no great odes to the Green and Yellow coming from the tips of my fingers, no Hallmark cards sent to those in the greater Puget Sound, no reminiscent, over-the-shoulder glances toward KeyArena as Imogen Heap helps the screen fade to black.
Instead, all you’ll be getting from yours truly is a hearty chuckle and a capitalistic, understanding that, well, snakes like David Stern win some, and the good people of Seattle lose some.
You see, much of the reasoning for my cold-heartedness comes from the purported I-5 rivalry between Seattle and my very own City of Roses, Portland. Sister cities, Northwest neighbors, hippie hegemons — whatever you want to term it, Portland and Seattle will always be inextricably linked due to both locale and reputation. Still, Seattle has always held the upper hand, from Grey’s Anatomy to Jimi Hendrix to easier access to cheap Canadian prescription drugs.
Now, the tide is turning. The loss of the Sonics may be the most widely-dispersed development, but let’s look at the past few years. Seattle has dealt with deadly WTO and Mardi Gras riots, lost hundreds of jobs when Boeing relocated to Chicago, turned to Jello in a 6.8 quake, saw the royal Bill Gates step down, learned the ’Bucks was closing 600 stores, and still doesn’t have a light rail system. On the other hand, Portland has been named the top place to raise a family, the No. 2 city to bicycle in the world, the greenest city in the U.S., now owns The Shins and still has a light rail system. Oh, and the Blazers are going to dominate the entire next decade.
Article comments
1 - Douglas Mays
Well, very true. But that is what I figured actually. Should the Sonics leave, the Trailblazers attendence figures will increase.
Of course, you are in PDX, so why should you care? Well except for the fact you cannot drive 180 miles north to catch the Blazers vs. the Sonics. PDX does have the Rose Garden. Nice venue.
As an example of the state of things, about a mile north of me in Seattle (Lake City neighborhood, generally nice, medium income place) there is a tavern called the Rose Garden. Problem is that it is basically an open market crack den/free market prostitution house. In an analogic way, so is the business model of the NBA.
Hopefully this whole incident will trigger changes in business procedure. Right now pro sports in general operates on a carpet-bagger mentality.
At least the Seattle Sonics will be back at some point. And Bennett will have to lobby his ass off to avoid paying up $30,000,000 if Seattle does not have a team in 5 year window period.
Hopefully the example set by the Cleveland Browns will apply to Seattle in this case.
DM