There have been Seattle Hornets rumors buzzing about for months, but NBA columnist Fran Blinebury has restated the case for bringing an NBA to Seattle in terms of Sonics memories (beating MJ), the Seattle market (13th to New Orleans' 52nd), and poor attendance in the Big Easy (a season low of 10,823 barely beating out WNBA attendance for some teams). Blinebury sums up the case for moving from New Orleans as a question of money and local support, noting that even if a temporary injection of funds saves the team for now: more ›

Rashard Lewis, now of the Orlando Magic, was suspended for ten games by the NBA for an elevated testosterone level. Turns out he took an over-the-counter supplement after the season ended. Lewis took the news of his suspension like a testosterone-laden He-Man should. more ›

The current bet is that Brockman has been guaranteed by some NBA team that he'll be drafted. Said team doesn't want any other to get a good look at Brockman and therefore asked him to stay out of sight. more ›

The PSBJ was just explaining "debtenfreude" to us--the delight you take in another's real estate misfortune. Now we have a word for how we feel after reading this headline: "Economy eats into funds for Thunder arena project." The AP says "the tax approved by voters as a way to lure the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics to town--where they were renamed the Thunder--has produced $4.2 million below projections." Seattle leadership has gotta be happy they're not knee-deep in a Key Arena renovation right now. more ›

Trying something new this week--a little preview of the weekend in sports action, to help you not get sucked into brunch when there's a game to watch. (Or, allow you to get sucked into brunch so you can beg off later to watch a game.) more ›

Local hero Brandon Roy and his Blazers face a must-win Game 6 in Houston tonight; the game's at 6:30 p.m. on TNT. Rockets' forward and eccentric Ron Artest, who'll be guarding Roy much of the game, paid him an incredible compliment in a slightly weird interview with TNT, calling Roy "the best player I've ever played against." The interviewer follows-up: "Better than Kobe? Better than LeBron?" Artest: "The best I've ever played against." more ›

Tonight while Rush Limbaugh is busy writing cancer jokes, Northwest sports fans will be sitting in front of a television watching two of the regions most exciting players. more ›

Way back in November we wrote that we were going to start following the Blazers. We got off to a fast start; however, as the NBA season ground on and the Huskies took off, we kind of fell off the map on that one. The December snow canceled our trip to the Rose Garden--well, that and the lack of any planning whatsoever. more ›

• Jobs are difficult to find, but not so scarce that P-I staffers aren't feeling free to turn down Hearst's online operations job offers. "Bottom line: An online-only P-I is not a done deal. At least not yet," says Publicola's Sandeep Kaushik.
• Southlake reports on a man shot in the butt, and Queen Anne View has a kickass firefighter who won a stair-climbing competition.
• Over at Schmudget (caution: policy wonkstrosity ahead), they're talking about sub-prime lending in Washington state all week long. Today, their angle has to do with the depressing racial disparity in the mortgage market. Best of all, the post includes an infographic!

Yeah, we know, the NBA left, and it’s being replaced with soccer. We’re all just going to have to deal with that. more ›

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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": more ›

You may have thought a turkey-and-gravy-flavored soda would be disgusting. No, it gets worse. A Christmas-season four-pack of Seattle-based Jones Soda features bottles labeled Sugar Plum, Eggnog, Christmas Tree, and Christmas Ham. (There's a Chanukah pack, too, with a dreidel inside: latke, applesauce, chocolate coins, jelly donut.) But we're not here to be disgusting, we're here to be informative. more ›

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. more ›

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: more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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Seattle SuperSonics 1967-2008. more ›

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Various media reports have indicated the city and the Sonics have reached a settlement in the Key Arena lease case, just hours before Judge Marsha Pechman was due to announce her ruling in the matter. Press conferences for both parties have been announced for 5 p.m. PDT. more ›

Judge Marsha Pechman will preside over the City of Seattle v. Sonics trial, scheduled to begin Monday. Since the fate of our beloved pro basketball team rests in her hands, Seattlest wanted to take a closer look at the person standing at center court. more ›

Not only does Detroit's last place baseball team sweep other last place teams (ours), they also have teams that make the postseason. more ›

IMPORTANT: Workplace discretion advised---very NSFW. If you can't wait until you get home, we suggest headphones. more ›

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. more ›

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Remove all sharp objects from your immediate vicinity and start reading. more ›

Wally Szczerbiak, who is on "our list" for single handily knocking UDub out of the 1999 NCAA Tournament and daring to jaw with Gary Payton, is heading out of town. more ›

Unlike our beloved baseball All Star Game, we’ve tended to skip the NBA's version in recent years. However, with our hero Brandon Roy, in Sunday's game we can’t wait to watch our fellow ex-Bulldog cram some FANtastic™ action down the East’s face. However, we’ll be in Vancouver--sorry TNT. more ›