SuperSonics fans feel no allegiance to the Thunder in these NBA Finals. Go Pacers, the scornful say
SEATTLE AP It s logical to think someone like Danny Ball is a fair representation of Seattle these days Ball a hoops fan who runs an Instagram account called Iconic Sonics is pulling for the Indiana Pacers over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals There are no deep ties between Seattle and Indianapolis The Seahawks play the Colts this December so the cities will be foes that weekend Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever allegedly won t be warmly welcomed when they visit the Emerald City later this month to play the Seattle Storm But right now Seattle may as well be an Indy suburb Seattle fans lost their NBA franchise the SuperSonics in when it was stolen from them and rebranded in Oklahoma City For the scornful that means one thing Go Pacers I d love to see the Pacers pull it off in six games Ball stated The NBA Finals begin Thursday night For particular in Seattle it ll be a heaping helping of fresh salt on the wounds that opened when the Sonics were taken away And people like Ball who was born in Seattle and heard stories of Sonics legends Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton from his father aren t exactly rooting for Oklahoma City right now The Thunder are heavy favorites to beat the Pacers Should they pull it off the Thunder would claim their first NBA title in Oklahoma City but technically their second as a franchise after Seattle won the title in It s no secret the city wants the league to come back Expansion is on the NBA s to-do list and it s likely that talks the first of various several procedures in this process could start in earnest with interested cities in the next sparse months Commissioner Adam Silver however hasn t fully committed to adding new teams The issue I would not have anticipated at the time I sort of began talking about the timeline is how much unknown there is about local media right now Silver reported earlier this year Having explained that though I would just say again to our multiple fans in Seattle and I hear from them often and the legacy of the Sonics is still very strong and it s a fantastic basketball industry is that we are very focused on it We don t take those fans for granted We re thankful that the interest has remained over all these years Any mention of expansion sends fans into a tizzy Steve Ballmer the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers spoke to the crowd before a preseason match in Seattle his hometown in and made a thinly veiled reference to how fans need to remind the league s New York office how much the city loves the championship All night long it better be loud enough in this building to hear us all the way back in New York if you get me Ballmer communicated the crowd Let s make sure we re loud tonight And then came the Ballmer bellow Go Seattle he screamed It s something Seattle takes seriously as Mayor Bruce Harrell learned earlier this year in his address to the city Right now at this moment I have an announcement to make Harrell disclosed reaching into the lectern where he was standing and pulling out a basketball spinning it in his hands as he displayed it to the crowd which began roaring Ah I m just kidding The crowd wasn t amused Harrell later was interviewed by Seattle s KOMO News and apologized for the attempt at humor getting reminded that residents of the city aren t happy that the NBA hasn t returned yet Count me among them Harrell declared A very real void has been left in the SuperSonics absence The NHL s Seattle Kraken entering the fold has helped as has the success of the WNBA s Seattle Storm both of whom play at State Pledge Arena which sits on the site of the SuperSonics former home That same arena received a vital remodel ahead of the Kraken arriving which could make it suitable for NBA games That would ultimately be up to the association to decide one day but Ball hopes it would be the Sonics former home in the Queen Anne neighborhood they get to triumphantly return to one day A lot of Sonics fans that I know I m sure never got over the wounds of what happened here years ago with them leaving for Oklahoma City SuperSonics fan Eric Phan noted All of the Sonics fanbase is rooting for the Indiana Pacers Seattle seemed to have a chance at getting a crew back in when the Maloof family put the Sacramento Kings up for sale But investor Chris Hansen s bid to relocate the organization to Seattle was rejected by the NBA s Board of Governors For fans like Ball and Phan hope lives on Ball recognizes that s partially because he is an inherently positive person and he s hoping for a Hollywood ending It would be poetic if the year that OKC wins the finals if that occurs is in the same summer that the league comes out and says Hey we re forming an expansion committee to start really exploring this process Ball disclosed I think that would help damper or therapize the feelings and emotions that would come along with seeing the Thunder hoist the Larry O Brien Phan pointed out that just because the Sonics don t play in Seattle it doesn t mean the crew is truly gone You can see people walking the sidewalks and streets of Seattle and even the suburbs Phan announced People are wearing Sonics gear like they never really left AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Oklahoma City contributed AP NBA https apnews com nba Source
