Results tagged “claybennett”

Since the only thing worse than being on the dole is being kicked off it, we're glad the feds are extending our unemployment benefits in this state. Even REI is cutting jobs. Guess that outdoorsy date scene from The Bachelor didn't help?

Clay Bennett, the man who led the battle to remove the Sonics from Seattle, has been named "The 2008 Oklahoman of the Year" by Oklahoma Today magazine. Praise and tributes are pouring in on Bennett's behalf, including, we think, this touching video homage to "clay":

We wrote this before watching the end of last night’s Blazers vs. Rockets OT thriller, won on a Brandon Roy three with 0.8 seconds left.

Welcome Deadspin readers. Last week, during the stock market crash, one of the key figures in the Sonics-to-Oklahoma City drama lost nearly $2 billion dollars. Here's how:

The Oklahoma City Bandits Thunder, sold out season tickets for the upcoming year with demand pushing well beyond. Clay Bennett’s success and relative ease in dominating the former Sonics franchise provides solid proof that any notion of karma existing in this universe is dead. On the plus side, WSU scheduled Division II Portland State for this coming weekend’s game so the chances of an adult football team from the state of Washington actually getting a win has increased a small fraction. Stay positive Seattle.

The two clever guys living in Oklahoma City stumbled upon some pretty good evidence which appears to confirm that your Sonics will be known as the Oklahoma City Thunder next season. Seems the NBA is using that name on its website, too. (h/t Deadspin)

While still not official, rumors persist that the former Sonics franchise will be renamed the Oklahoma City Thunder. If true, there is a certain LA-area mom-and-pop greeting card maker who will be giggling all the way to the bank. It seems domain-squatting is also part of their business model. See oklahomacitythunder.com.

Oklahoma City media is reporting that the dearly-departed Sonics will be named the Oklahoma City Thunder. The only problem with that seems to be that there ALREADY is an Oklahoma City sports team with that name. Look out, minor league footballers...Clay Bennett might just ship you off to a place more God-forsaken than your own. And only someone with deep pockets like him could afford the cost associated with a seemingly impossible feat like that.

The justice system may buckle in Oklahoma City’s favor this afternoon with results of the Sonics trial set to be announced at 4 p.m., but the wrath of God is clearly on Seattle’s side.

A week from today the NBA teamowners will meet in New York to, among other things, discuss and possibly vote on moving the Sonics from Lower Queen Anne to Oklahoma City.

The Seattle Times' Jim Brunner points out a head-exploding irony in the Sonics' legal case to escape their Key Arena lease.

Great news for Seattle Storm fans broke last night: Sonics owner Clay Bennett will sell the WNBA team to a local ownership group.

Starring Michael Caine as Clay Bennett

So that paper Clay Bennett mask didn't score you the costume-contest office pool? Your Lewinsky dress was irredeemably soiled? It's not too early to think Haloween '08. And we've got the coolest outfit idea for you: Jerry Cantrell. The Alice in Chains guitarist/singer will even trade you his threads for a charity donation.

You may not agree with his conservative politics, but if you like the Mariners, you owe an elaborate tip of the cap to ex-U.S. Senator Slade Gorton.

There's one person left in Seattle who thinks Sonics owner Clay Bennett is on the up-and-up, and that's state legislator Margarita Prentice. It wasn't the fact that Bennett's ultimate goal was to take the Sonics to OKC that kept the team from getting an arena. No, it was "Seattle's elitist attitude."

Sonics minority owner Aubrey McClendon confirms what we all suspected from the start. In an interview with the Oklahoma City Journal Record, he says:

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Mayor Greg Nickels told reporters yesterday he thought Key Arena was a great place for basketball, and if the Sonics would just pony up $100 million, the city would be willing to renovate it to match the team's needs.

Brian Robinson is Director of Save Our Sonics & Storm. (He also runs a real estate company and owns the two Firehouse Coffees in Ballard). Robinson, along with longtime stadium opponent Chris Van Dyk, recently announced an initiative campaign to force the Sonics to stay in Seattle until their lease is up after the '09-'10 season.

Save Our Sonics and Citizens For More Important Things' Chris Van Dyk are working together to keep NBA basketball in the city…until 2010.

Apparently, Clay Bennett wants to talk again. Now, we don't know squat about owning sports teams, so we won't presume to give Mr. Bennett advice on how to negotiate with this waterside shanty-town. But one thing we do know is Love, specifically the requisite sweet-nothings that lubricate this most powerful of human conditions. And, as far as we can tell, this is what this Storm/Sonics thing is all about: Bennett and Seattle coming to an understanding relationship so that they know what to expect when they hop into the civic sack together.

Clay Bennett and Greg Nickels talked today, and the upshot is that--a year and a day after buying the team, and only a few months after saying he was moving--Bennett wants to reopen talks about staying in Key Arena. So says Jim Brunner of the Seattle Times.

When he named Sam Presti the Sonics' new GM yesterday, owner Clay Bennett also stripped Lenny Wilkens of the title of President and retitled him Vice-Chairman. A source told the Tacoma News Tribune Bennett wanted "to put Lenny out to pasture." Ranching metaphors: just one of the many joys of having your team owned by guys from Oklahoma City.

From Wilkens’ unsavory handling of the announcement of his position of president to his perceived mismanagement of the hiring of a general manager and coach, Bennett was said to be so upset with Wilkens the divide was irreversible.

Continue reading "Lenny Wilkens Out as Sonics' President, Out as Sonics' Announcer, Barely Escapes Glue Factory"

SonicsCentral pointed us to this story from the Daily Oklahoman, where Clay Bennett is as explicit as ever about his desire to move the Sonics:

"For now, without a building solution, it's our intent to play in Seattle and apply for relocation immediately after the (Oct. 31) deadline."

On Saturday, Frank Hughes of the Tacoma News-Tribune reported that local real estate developer Dave Sabey had offered to buy the Sonics from Clay Bennett and make them the centerpiece of a development he's planning south of Boeing Field.

Gary Washburn Frank Hughes of the Tacoma News Tribune reports that real estate developer David Sabey (at right) has offered to buy the Sonics from an increasingly disillusioned Clay Bennett.

Via True Hoop, the News Tribune's Frank Hughes reports today that the Sonics' organization is "enveloped by a cloud of paranoia, mistrust, distrust and, now, anger."

Say this for new Sonics owner Clay Bennett--he knows shitty basketball when he sees it. And he's replacing the men most responsible for bringing it to you, GM Rick Sund and coach Bob Hill.