<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A few weeks ago, the rumbles began again. The Atlanta Hawks were mired in controversy. The team was up for sale. Surely a change would be good. New city, new start. One location in particular came to mind, the same one that always does. Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson took to Twitter to bang the drum: &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And just like that, hope bloomed again in the northwest. Seattle fans reported mythical Kyle Korver sightings at the airport. They broke down Jeff Teague\u2019s off-the-dribble game.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Within days, however, reality set in. The Hawks weren\u2019t about to move. Too many ties to Atlanta. Too strong a market for the NBA. A line of viable local owner candidates in wait. And so the Seattle sports world holstered its dreams once more and returned to talking about the Seahawks, Sounders and Mariners. Times are good in Seattle, after all. Never been better, sports-wise. The streets are littered with 12th Men, emboldened by the city\u2019s first Super Bowl title. The Sounders boast a first-place squad and some of the best fans in MLS. And the M\u2019s have awakened from a decade-long competitive coma to enter the AL Wild Card race.&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Still, none of that can fill the Sonics-sized hole that remains in the city.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*****\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;How does it feel to have your heart broken, twice?\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brian Robinson can tell you. The co-founder of the \"Save Our Sonics\"&amp;nbsp;grassroots movement and a longtime writer at Sonics Central, Robinson spent years working pro bono \u2013 \u201Ca full-time hobby,\u201D as he calls it \u2013 attempting to keep a team in Seattle. And then, when the Sonics were whisked to Oklahoma City, he tried to bring one back. He met with CEOs, ran arenasolution.org, brought 1,300 fans to a city council meeting, traveled to the NBA Board of Governors meeting. And in the end, it was all for naught.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And yet, sitting on a stool at FX McRory\u2019s bar in downtown Seattle on a recent afternoon, he remains stubbornly optimistic. He says he thinks the odds are better than 50 percent that Seattle gets a team in the next three years. He says that after all the city has done, \u201Cthe NBA has to show us something.\u201D And he believes all those hours and nights of activism had an unintended benefit. \u201CIn some respects, I think we won,\u201D says Robinson. \u201CBy finding a community. Basketball\u2019s just a game. We created a community of fans. Bitterness has no place in this world. We\u2019re like Boston Red Sox fans in the dark days.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is an admirable position to take, but, one senses, also an exercise in cognitive dissonance. After all, it wasn\u2019t so long ago that a Sonics return seemed inevitable.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Indeed, right here in McRory\u2019s, on Sept.&amp;nbsp;13, 2012, would-be Sonics owner Chris Hansen bought a round of beers for more than 1,500 fans, his way of thanking them for their support after the Seattle City Council approved a $490 million arena in the Sodo district. McRory\u2019s is a Seattle institution \u2013 where the Sonics celebrated their 1979 NBA title and where a young Hansen once held a job as a dishwasher. Years later, Hansen sat in a corner booth \u2013 \u201Cthat one right there,\u201D Robinson says wistfully, pointing toward a window \u2013 and mingled with the diehards for hours. At the time, Robinson felt giddy. He envisioned taking his kids, then 12 and 9, to their first Sonics game. He expected them to be excited; him in tears.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And, for a while, all continued on track. By February 2013, the Kings were all but loaded onto a flatbed truck, bound northward up I-5 in a $525 million sale to a group led by Hansen and Steve Ballmer. The media described it as, \u201Cfirst and goal at the one-yard line\u201D for Seattle. Shawn Kemp was featured on the cover of &lt;em&gt;Seattle Weekly,&lt;/em&gt; kissing a basketball above the headline \u201CIT\u2019S REIGNING AGAIN.\u201D At the time, Kemp spoke excitedly about the role he envisioned taking in the new team\u2019s administration. As he told me back then, \u201CI was always knew basketball would return to Seattle. I just didn\u2019t know how quickly.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And then, well, you know the story. Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson rallied the whales. Silicon Valley responded. And, in the end, a quarter billion dollars in public funds was hard to turn down. NBA owners voted 22-8 to reject the Kings\u2019 move to Seattle.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Compounding the heartbreak, a year later Ballmer bolted for a cuter girl. It took $2 billion, but Ballmer got a team with better players and a world class coach, even if, as Ballmer termed it, he paid an \u201CL.A. beachfront price.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nationally, the perception was \u2013 and is -- &amp;nbsp;that Seattle got hosed. &lt;em&gt;Again&lt;/em&gt;. Or, alternately, that Seattle somehow blew it. A recent post on &lt;em&gt;Deadspin&lt;/em&gt; listed Hansen as one of the \u201CMost Useless Thinkers, Doers, And Dreamers\u201D in sports, describing him as a, \u201CSeattle finance dude who let himself get played like a damn kazoo by the NBA so it could get a new publicly-funded arena in Sacramento.\u201D&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Despite the heartbreak, Robinson isn\u2019t the only one who remains bullish on Seattle\u2019s chance. &amp;nbsp;\u201CI\u2019d say we have tempered optimism here,\u201D says Jason Reid, the director of &lt;em &gt;Sonicsgate&lt;/em&gt;, a 2009 documentary chronicling the team\u2019s relocation to OKC. \u201CWe believe in Chris Hansen and the arena plan. We have lots of years left.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the same time, Reid knows some people can only take so much. &amp;nbsp;\u201COur executive producer from &lt;em&gt;Sonicsgate&lt;/em&gt;, he\u2019s really done,\u201D says Reid. \u201CIt\u2019s not that he\u2019s not passionate anymore. But to continually have your hopes dashed. The emotional volatility\u2026.\u201D Reid trails off. \u201CI mean, that does suck.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here\u2019s what does not suck right now: Seattle as a sports market.&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200BTo walk the streets is to see the markers of a boom town. Amazon\u2019s corporate headquarters are in the heart of the city. Facebook and Google opened offices downtown after noting the number of engineers migrating to a city now being called \u201CSilicon Valley North\u201D. The Seattle Museum of History &amp;amp; Industry is describing this as the city\u2019s third golden age.&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Everything the NBA needs is here. Seattle has a dynamic owner who can rally fans and who made a point to involve Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Detlef Schrempf and other Sonics stars of yore in the arena push, tapping into a deep-seated nostalgia. It has a strong fan base, as evidenced by the Seahawks and Sounders. And it already owns a downtown arena plan that is viable until 2017.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CPeople look around at the growth here and say why the hell would the NBA turn its back on this?,\u201D says Chris Daniels, a reporter for KING5 TV who\u2019s been covering the Hansen story since the beginning. \u201CIf the NBA is built on the back of corporate interests, well, we have eight fortune 500 companies here.\u201D As Daniels says this, he gestures at the cityscape from outside Top Pot Doughnuts downtown, a spot so popular that Obama visited on a recent trip. As for Daniels, he has both a personal and professional investment in this issue. He grew up outside Tacoma and saw the Sonics play at Key Arena, back when it was known as the Seattle Center Coliseum. Now, as a reporter, he\u2019s won regional Emmy Awards for his coverage. He has friends who still won\u2019t drink Starbucks, on account of their feelings for Howard Schultz, the one-time Sonics owner.&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Like Robinson, however, Daniels is optimistic, also putting the odds at better than 50 percent of a team arriving in the next three years. He points to the new NBA TV deal, to be signed this fall, which &lt;em &gt;SportsBusiness Journal&lt;/em&gt; recently estimated would be in the area of $2 billion. The influx of money would in turn raise the salary cap by an estimated $16 million. Which would in turn bring up average salaries. One way for the league to get around jacking up salaries too much, while at the same time increasing the NBA reach? Expansion. To, say, a city like Seattle. See how easy it is to do the math?\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As for Hansen, he laid low for six months but hasn\u2019t given up. The proposed arena is in the midst of an environmental review, set to be completed in January. The NHL appears interested in coming to Seattle. It\u2019s a perfect market, with a natural rivalry northward with the Canucks. The only problem is that gaining an NHL team doesn\u2019t trigger the arena proposal\u2019s funding. The only thing that does that is an NBA franchise.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And clearly it makes sense for basketball to come back, right? \u201CWe\u2019re approved, and all the pressure is on the NBA,\u201D says Reid. \u201CI think the NBA wants to get back in this market. National writers and people we talk to in NBA circles, they miss coming to Seattle. Especially having to go to Oklahoma City.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the NBA powers haven\u2019t talked much about Seattle lately. Daniels said he used to have a good relationship with the league office. They\u2019re still cordial but they were a lot nicer, he notes, back when it looked like the Kings were moving to town.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So now Daniels must wait like everyone else, hoping for word from the front lines. When I first contacted him and Robinson about meeting up for this article, both were excited to hear from me. Maybe I knew something they didn\u2019t. Maybe there was something afoot. It was tough to break the news that there was no news. In reality, it was worse than that. According to a source in the league office, \u201CThere are no plans to expand right now and it doesn\u2019t appear any teams are going to move anywhere.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*****\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here\u2019s the maddening part for the Seattleites: The longer it takes to get a team, the easier it is to accept not getting one. Robinson coaches a local YMCA youth squad and he says that, already, the kids have no sense of legacy. \u201CThey don\u2019t know who Kemp and Payton are. You know who they love?\u201D He pauses. \u201CThey love Kevin Durant. And it hurts.\u201D Personally, he knows the best years are lost anyway. \u201CMy kids are 14 and 11 now. By the time we get a team, those prime years of bonding will be gone. I\u2019ll never get those years back.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Author Sherman Alexie, a National Book Award winner and hoops junkie who was part of the Save Our Sonics campaign, wonders about the long-term effect on a city that has produced more than a dozen current NBA players, including Jamal Crawford, Isaiah Thomas, Tony Wroten and Spencer Hawes. \u201CI wonder if there was a golden era, with Kemp and Payton,\u201D he says. \u201CI live in a neighborhood that produced about 80 percent of our NBA players, so I\u2019m very curious how the loss of the Sonics is going to affect our future as the birthplace of pro basketball players.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200BAlexie also sees the city\u2019s sports culture changing by the day. \u201CI never, ever saw 10,000 people wearing Sonics jerseys like I see them now wearing Seahawks jerseys,\u201D he says. \u201CI see a thousand jerseys on a non game day!\u201D He pauses. \u201CWe\u2019re Green Bay now.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The worst part, says Alexie, is the lack of a future. \u201CI can watch NBA games and the playoffs and get excited,\u201D he says. \u201CBut the thing I really miss, that hurts the most to lose, is following the draft. Because the draft is really the church of basketball, where you\u2019re saying all these prayers, looking for your saviors, your messiahs.\u201D He pauses. \u201CThat doesn\u2019t matter at all anymore. I didn\u2019t watch the draft this year, because it didn\u2019t really matter, because I have no team that might get saved. So I guess I miss hoping\u2026.I\u2019m a sports fan without hope.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At least there is an upside, as his wife has pointed out: These days, Alexie no longer gets depressed during basketball season. Says Alexie, \u201CI guess I\u2019ve finally hit acceptance.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*****\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Every era comes to an end, eventually. Walk through the lower Queen Anne area near Key Arena and you\u2019ll come to a closed-down storefront at 521 1st Avenue North. This is where Floyd\u2019s Place used to be. Part bar, part Sonics museum, it kept alive the spirit of the team. A Gary Payton tip jar sat behind the counter. Pennants lined the wall. Bartenders wore Sonics shirts. A magazine column about the team was tacked next to the dart board. The return of pro hoops would have revitalized the bar. Now it\u2019s gone.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Down the street, Shawn Kemp\u2019s bar, Oskar\u2019s Kitchen, remains. Kemp can often be found behind the bar, telling stories, and the happy hour specials are good. Still, on this Monday night, a disheveled man slumps outside, blaring Pink Floyd\u2019s \u201CTime\u201D on a boombox and asking for change. It is not even 10 p.m. but the place is empty. The bartender is already closing up. Sorry, he says. Come back tomorrow. It\u2019ll be better.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maybe this is all a generational thing. For those like me, who grew up appreciating the Sonics from afar, it seems wrong for Seattle to be without an NBA team. We remember Nate McMillan hounding opposing guards, and Kemp draping his shorts on one hapless power forward\u2019s shoulders after another, and Payton doing that weird-but-effective backdown dribble, hunched over and yapping. We remember sleepy Sam Perkins bombing threes and Detlef and his crewcut and Bones Barry whipping passes. &amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But now it\u2019s been six and a half years since the city had a team.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maybe it\u2019s time to let go of the past. To move on.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And yet...hope is a persistent bastard.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CHave you heard about the situation with the Bucks?\u201D Daniels asks as he finishes his cup of coffee, outside the doughnut shop. And then he lays it out. Moribund franchise. New owners. Small market. \u201CIt\u2019s almost playing out like Seattle,\u201D says Daniels. \u201CThey want a plan in place within a certain time frame and need legislature to do it. There are rumblings in Milwaukee papers that the owners might consider relocation.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It\u2019s enough to make a Sonics fan intrigued. After all, there\u2019s a lot of young talent on the Bucks roster. Jabari Parker.&amp;nbsp;John Henson. Giannis Antetokounmpo.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Informed of this longshot possibility, Alexie lets out a sigh. \u201CMilwaukee? Really?\u201D&amp;nbsp; Then he warms to it. \u201CWell, that does sound intriguing.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And then he pauses and laughs. \u201CIt\u2019s such a weird thing, rooting for another team to implode. Rooting for other people\u2019s pain.\u201D\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/nba/2014/09/25/seattle-nba-return-supersonics-chris-hansen>