I finally got around to seeing the Sonicsgate documentary yesterday. It details how Seattle was duped out of their team as a new ownership group lied and took the team to Oklahoma City. I loved it, it was so great, well done. And showed how bad Clay Bennett is.
I knew that there were some bad feelings left in Seattle, but never knew they were so extensive. David Stern and the NBA do not look good in this film. Their capitalistic mindset was exposed so that it made me think of a fine line the NBA might be crossing: is the league trying to preserve the integrity of the game for both players and fans, or only worrying about the checks at the end of the day? That’s a question I’d love to ask David Stern. If you have any thoughts on that, chime in.
The NBA has been doing a decent job of maintaining the quality of the game, but quality could be more of a focus. As a fan who doesn’t care about the money they’re trying to make, I want to see the best basketball, of course. I’m not at all disappointed by the action so far this season, but I don’t want to see teams taken away for the same reasons the Sonics left. Why isn’t more time given for new facility funding?
Could it be that owners of sports teams in general care only about what goes in their pockets and therefore threaten cities with leaving, unless their demands are met? Ask fans of any major sports.
Everyone has a price, apparently. Forget the game!
The makers of this movie deserve some kind of a special basketball Oscar. They opened my eyes to the true evil that is Clay Bennett and the emotion and hardship that tore through Seattle as this happened.
You MUST watch it if you haven’t yet. Check out Sonicsgate.org!
Here’s a trailer:
Preview from sonicsgate on Vimeo.
Alex– This was a great review! Makes me want to see the doc. I may buy it this weekend! Awesome!