Loyal NBA Fans in Seattle Hurting During NBA Finals
By Ken Reed
It was their team. It should still be their team. But it’s not.
A couple carpetbagging owners who bought the local team, the Seattle Supersonics, in 2008 while promising to keep the team in town, instead moved the franchise to Oklahoma City in a move that reeked of greed and a lack of ethics.
“It’s a complete travesty that there’s no team here, because Seattle is a basketball city first and foremost,” says Adam Brown, producer of the award-winning documentary “Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team,” which chronicles Seattle’s efforts to keep the Sonics in Seattle, along with the bitter relocation of the franchise to Okie City. “The Sonics were more closely woven into the Seattle and Washington state community than any of the other pro sports teams.”
Bottom line, a couple greedy owners methodically screwed a community’s diehard fans, ruining the basketball tradition in an entire community. It’s certainly not the first time. Cases like this are a big reason why the community ownership model needs to become more prevalent in pro sports.
“I was a huge Sonics fan,” says Anders Miller, a long-time Seattle resident. “I personally was so devastated by them leaving that I don’t even watch the NBA anymore.”
No matter if you prefer Kevin Durant or LeBron James, it’s hard to watch this year’s NBA Finals and not feel sorry for the thousands of Supersonic fans stuck without a team in Seattle.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
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Episode #29 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The Honorable Tom McMillen Visits League of Fans’ Sports Forum – McMillen is a former All-American basketball player, Olympian, Rhodes Scholar and U.S. Congressman. We discuss the state of college athletics today.
Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world. We discuss problems in youth sports today.
Episode #27 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Kids’ Sports: How We Can Take Back the Game and Restore Quality Family Time In the Process – Linda Flanagan is author of “Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports and Why It Matters.” We discuss how commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.
Episode #26 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: How Can We Fix Youth Sports? – John O’Sullivan is Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project and author of “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids.”
Episode #25 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Physical Education Should Be a Critical Component of K-12 School Design – Michael Horn is co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- Reed Appears on Ralph Nader Radio Hour League of Fans’ sports policy director, Ken Reed, Ralph Nader and the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner discussed a variety of sports issues on Nader’s radio show as well as Reed’s updated book, How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan. Reed's book was released in paperback in February, and has a new introduction and several updated sections.
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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