I am kind of surprised that the Clippers have never tried to move, honestly if I owned the Clippers I'd have been on the phone to the commish already, thats a very viable market to tap into there. They should have been moved to Oklahoma but I think that deal is already done.
Well, they have, actually. Twice. First from Buffalo to San Diego (DAMMIT!), then from San Diego to LA. More than LA? Not bloody likely. Even playing second fiddle to the Lakers, LA will always be a better market than Memphis. Pro basketball may well be viable in Memphis, but I don't think it will happen on Michael Heisley's watch. He's as bad as Sterling as an owner.
It is almost unheard of for a team with this long of a history to move like this. The NBA lost a ton of respect from me on this one. If the Oklahoma City market was so important, and it isn't, they should have expanded or moved one of the loser teams like the Clippers or Grizzlies the Sonics only problems were that the owners fielded crap for so long the fans lost interest. If that team got into playoff contention they'd sell a ton of tickets. At least be honest, the owner of the Sonics had planned to move the team since he bought it, he didn't improve the team and he's been angling to move to Oklahoma from day one. Sad that this type of behavior was obviously ok'd by the league. David Stern is a fraud. What a week, they hire a Ex-General to assure people that the refs are on the up and up and now this crap.
You think playing second fiddle in LA would be better than the entire Seattle market? Getting the leftovers from LA is nothing to sneeze at but you think an owner would want to be the toast of a town instead of an second thought even if the ticket sales were nice in LA.
No, I don't. But I think that LA's sloppy seconds are better than the Memphis market. However, I would absolutely be okay with the NBA forcing DTS to sell the Clips to a Seattle-based owner.
Sonics leave Seattle drenched, but in better shape http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=jy-sonics070308&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
It's hard to imagine a worse outcome than this: Basically, they'd burn the OKC market with that, probably have a Seattle fan base that's much less enthusiastic than it once was, and a Sonics team that's dispirited and unhappy. Yeesh.
Ouch! If the NBA agrees to this, they have no clue what they are doing. I'd be surprised if fans endorsed the Sonics if they came back to Seattle like that.
Angels used to play second fiddle also. It's a little different in that the Angels are in Orange County and not playing in the same building as the Dodgers (thank god) but they still fight for the same fan base (though the Dodgers focus more on criminals). If the Clippers win there will be more than enough love for 2 teams.