Joe Nicholson-US PRESSWIRE
With talks about the city of Seattle agreeing on a new arena to bring back a NBA franchise everyone is talking about what team will become Seattle’s new Sonics? There’s no doubt about it that a current NBA team will have to move because there is no way the NBA is going to expand to 31 teams anytime soon.
Seattle is planning on building a arena that will cost almost half a billion dollars with a 30 year deal agreement. The city is still waiting for votes to have it approved, but it’s most likely going to happen if an agreement is made to bring a NBA Team back.
There is only one team in the NBA that is looking to move at this moment and that is the Sacramento Kings. The Maloofs owners of course will not come out and admit it even though it’s well known throughout the NBA Nation that the Kings will be leaving Sacramento sometime in the near future. They had an agreement back in January of this year to construct a $387 million arena in downtown Sacramento, but in April the Maloofs backed out of the deal which shows that the Kings will be else where within the next 3-5 years.
It will anger fans in Sacramento and it will be sad day for the city, but the fact is that the Kings have only been in Sacramento since 1985 coming from Kansas City, so this won’t be as devastating as it was when the SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City a few years ago. However, if Seattle does get a NBA team which will most likely be the Kings, then would Seattle fans want the name SuperSonics again? I mean it won’t be the same Sonics since all the history, naming rights and the 1979 NBA Title all belong to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Clay Bennett, chairman of the Thunder, told Seattle that if the city was granted an expansion team in the next five years that they will share the Sonics history. The keyword to that previous sentence is “expansion.” If Seattle and the Kings come to an agreement to move there that doesn’t count as an expansion team since it will be a team that moves from a city to another city meaning that the Thunder will be the sole owner of everything the SuperSonics accomplished during their time in Seattle.
Yes, fans of the SuperSonics will have to come up with a new name to love or they could still keep the Kings name since they have been the Kings since the 1972 back in the “Kansas City-Omaha” days. Plus look at it this way if Seattle gets the Kings then they will already have two championships to claim as theirs and that’s one more than the Sonics won. The Kings won 1 NBL championship back in 1946 and a NBA Title back in 1951. It may not sound great, but hey it’s a NBA team.
A move from Sacramento to Seattle would mean or it should mean a shift in the Western Conference alignment. Honestly I would love to see Seattle and Oklahoma City in the same division. That would make a great new rivalry and would bring back the Portland Trail Blazers-Seattle rivalry. It’s great for Seattle and it’s great for the NBA if a move that brings the Kings to the city is possible.
Like I mentioned earlier there is no way the NBA is going to allow an expansion team at this time especially during this new CBA era. If the Kings is not the team to move then it’s more likely that the new arena in Seattle will never be built meaning no NBA team in the near future for the city.
As for Sacramento look at it this way teams move all the time and I am sure that Sacramento will again land another NBA team if the Kings is the team that moves to Seattle. This will give time to plan an arena that can last 40-50 years then the next team you get could be a team that stays for that long. The Charlotte Bobcats are falling and possibly the New Orleans Hornets if things don’t work out there, so there are other teams in the NBA that may be looking else where to play in the near future, so don’t worry another team will come to you. “If you build it they will come.”
