Ep. 213: They Didn’t Kawhiperate

Uh, we do have an NB Q&A.

I promised, uh, Kelsey, AKA Alternate Reality NBA Wife, that I would answer this one, and I meant to do research, and then I didn't, so we're just gonna answer it on the fly.

Here we go.

Kelsey asks, "Hey, guys.

I wanted to write in because I was re-listening to old episodes and was really intrigued on why the Supersonics got moved to Oklahoma and turned into the Thunder." Uh, but there's more.

"And as someone from the Kansas City area, I was wondering how the transition from Omaha/Kansas City to just Kansas City and then over to Sacramento happened.

I know it's probably something to do with money and the Kings just sucking, but I thought I would ask you guys to see if you had more insight.

Uh, and how would you guys feel if Kansas City regained an NBA team?" Uh, all right, so multiple questions there.

The first part of the question in terms of the Sonics getting moved to Oklahoma It really, I think, just came down to ownership and then a stadium deal not being agreed upon in Seattle.

Yeah.

I think that's really it-

Yeah

... right?

I did extensive research for this once because before, like, PowerPoint parties were a thing...

I'm so jealous that they're a thing now.

It was of the time where Drunk History was popular.

So I had a Drunk History party with Kelly and two of my other friends, and it was as, like, a kinda going away thing before I moved to Seattle.

So we all did Seattle-based things.

Kelly did a bunch of research on the Twilight franchise, and then I did a whole thing about the Sonics relocation.

Basically, uh, the owner of the Sonics was the Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, and he wanted to get a new arena.

They needed a new arena badly, but he wanted to do the whole, like, public funds only thing.

He didn't wanna pay for it.

Seattle, as they should and as they did, didn't give in, and they weren't gonna do a plan that just, like, forked over a bunch of taxpayer money.

So when Schultz wasn't gonna be able to do that, he had no mo- more interest in owning the team and just kinda sold the team to these buyers from Oklahoma City who were interested because they had hosted and gave a home to the New Orleans Hornets at the time when Katrina happened.

So they had the-