LAT whines about Sonics move, insults Oklahoma

It’s no shock that the Los Angeles Times has lobbed hatred upon the owners of the former Seattle Supersonics, now Oklahoma City Unknowns. What shocks me is that they would even publish this whiney rant about the move of the Sonics.

The writer who pines for his team of yesteryear, MOVED to Los Angeles! He seems to expect them to stay in a city that does not support them, because he has “fond” memories of watching them.

made me laugh, made me cry

Oh how could they move! I move to LA, how can you move to OKC? It’s not fair, boo-hoo … wahhh … sniffle. Pathetic.

The reason it feels as if I just swallowed a handful of hot embers? It’s my hometown team, the SuperSonics of Seattle. I grew up watching them, me and my dad, up in the cheap seats, game after game. The Sonics were the first team to make me cry (1972, a loss to the Lakers), and the first team to make me shout to the heavens with joy (1978, a playoff game against the Washington Bullets). They were also the first team to make me realize, when ownership wouldn’t give Gus Williams a fat new contract, that pro sports was about business more than anything else.

Boy, was that lesson underscored last week.

In case you missed it, the Sonics are no more. They’ve gone the way of the Rams, shipped from the thriving west to the weary, mid-state flats.

Yep, they moved from that happening hip town of Seattle to Hicksville U.S.A., also known as Oklahoma City. Well I suppose you are not going to lose any readership there. However, who in LA wants to hear you piss and moan about a team and city you proclaim as wonderful when you left it yourself? Not many I am guessing.

Two years back, Seattle’s team was bought by a group of buzz-cut boys from Oklahoma who told anyone who was numskulled enough to listen that they intended to keep the team right where it belonged.

“buzz-cut boys”? Guess that make Kurt Streeter a ghetto-dwelling-40s-swilling-gang-banging-liblab. Oh and I am not the only one who thinks this guy is an idiot. OSQ seems to have issues with this doughnut as well.

And on it goes …

David Stern, what are you thinking? You’re allowing a team that has been one of the pillars of the modern NBA, a team with an NBA championship and three appearances in the league finals, to giddy up and gallop from one of the world’s greatest cities, resettling in . . . Oklahoma?

This is the rough equivalent of abandoning a Malibu mansion for a dusty rambler in Coalinga. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, unless cows are your thing.

Anyone wonder why the middle of the country hates the coasts? Gee, I wonder. BTW, if Cali is so great then how come it’s bleeding companies and the real estate industry is in free fall? Oh yea, because the taxes are too high, the government is incompetent, and the political hacks have gerrymandered the state so that change will only come with the next earthquake.

I wonder how Kurt Street would feel if the OKC paper decided to write cheerful pieces about the earthquake ridding us of the California arrogance class? No doubt he would call them ignorant red necks and worse. He would call them shallow for not understanding the superiority of the Californian.

Fans to blame? No!

The usual LAT rant begins now. It’s all about money, that is the evil of all of this.

And I should know better than to think that any pro team has anyone’s best interest in mind but its own. In big-time sports these days, loyalty is a one-way street . . . it flows from our thinning wallets to the ever fattening ones in the pockets of owners, athletic directors and players. The better, more astute part of me understands this.

So let me get this straight; fans don’t go to watch them play, and you think they should stay? Are you kidding me? Did you take the job at the LAT because it paid less?

Two years ago, a few days before he died, I rode in the back of an ambulance with my weakened father. We were on our way to a Seattle hospice. My dad was out of breath, but he found the strength to mouth five words: “Memories,” he said, before ticking off the names of two of our favorite Sonics. “Jack . . . Sikma, Freddie . . . Brown.” He didn’t need to say more.

OMG, how lame; attaching your father to this story in a cheap hackneyed attempt to garner some credibility for you whiny rant. No doubt you dad is really happy that you used him to make your article seem relevant. Nice job, Ace.

More Streeter

• Race-baiting hack
• Streeter went to Cal? why not UW?
• OSQ seems to think Streeter is a racist — can’t really disagree
• LAT list of Streeter’s “articles”
• Streeter thinks it’s only tough for black people
• Streeter’s Article proving he is not only a racist, but liberal — redundant I know.
• Bruin Nation thinks Streeter is a joke
• some kiss-ass from the Bruins world
• former co-worker with a pic of streeter — gushing over his buddy
• Streeter the failed Tennis “prodigy”
• another not so impressed reader of the LAT sports coverage

Tags: kurt streeter, ucla, seattle, supersonics, basketball, oklahoma, oklahoma city