Funeral for a Friend

Is it a felony to advocate semi-civil disobedience? If not, the few remaining souls tough enough to stomach the funeral that is the Sonics last home game this Sunday should consider storming the court or at the very least burn former owner Howard Schultz in effigy outside.

Emphasis on should. After considerable soul-searching, we’ve determined getting arrested on a Sunday evening doesn’t exactly fit into our end of weekend plans, but we have no problem advocating this type of behavior for gutsier, drunken types.

41 years of support and agony have poured into this franchise, and now, after considerable backstabbing, bullshit-riddled press conferences and emails a team that was a Vitaly Potapenko rebound away from knocking the Championship Spurs out of the playoffs a few years ago is now scheduled to play its last home game at the erroneously defamed Key Arena this Sunday. We don’t know if we should puke, riot, or just cry quietly and take it.

The death of the Sonics personifies the generally shitty erosion of public trust in professional sports, where billionaires talk community but inevitably make off like thieves. Seattle shouldn’t be surprised, but we shouldn’t have to take it either.

The Seattle Police Department won’t return our message about the legality of the whole effigy thing, but what better way to publicly salute the Sonics demise than to torch the likeness of the very bums responsible for letting the rest of us down? 41 years of support down the toilet? Cue the angry mob.

Photograph courtesy of JeanineAnderson via the Seattlest Flickr pool