Thunder's visit to Portland reopens wounds from Sonics' exit

• Published February 11, 2009

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I miss the Sonics.

There, I said it. I know many of you have tried to maintain a stoic front, an air of indifference while Seattle's NBA team was squired away to some godforsaken outpost.

Many of you have vowed to not watch the NBA, lest you give any credence to David Stern's megalomania. Some of you support the drastic action of shutting the league out of Seattle altogether in the future.

I can understand your anger or apathy. But as the team formerly known as the SuperSonics plays a mere 105 miles away from Olympia tonight against the Trail Blazers, for me, it's a time of wistfulness, of envy, of sadness.

I've never been a huge NBA fan, but I had a season-ticket package for the Sonics during their last few years — getting a chance to watch some of the world's best athletes is too good a proposition to pass up. I'll never forget some of the electric moments at KeyArena, nor the growing dread last year when it became all too apparent that the end was near.

Yes, the NBA still goes on, but when you don't have a team, there's a ripple effect on your awareness.

You see fewer games. You get less coverage in the paper. You forget there's a team in Milwaukee.

It's still incomprehensible to think about the confluence of events — the unbridled hubris of Stern, the naked deception of Clay Bennett, the seeming stupidity of Howard Schultz and the bungling maneuvers of our government — that had to occur to get Seattle's longest-tenured pro sports team to vacate the premises.

KeyArena now sits silent, a stark reminder of what we had and what was taken from us.

And the Sonics — wearing the second-rate rags of the Oklahoma City Thunder — will be just close enough to reopen the wounds that had started to heal as the memories from their inglorious exit began to fade.

It will be an interesting night in Rip City. This might be the most rabid pro-Blazers crowd since the 2000 playoffs. There will be absolutely no one rooting in any way, shape or form for the Thunder. Thousands of fans will travel from Washington for the sole purpose of cheering for Portland, an unthinkable notion not too long ago.

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