Happy fourth!  As we celebrate that which makes America America--greed, capitalism, and hot dogs--here is my final poll on the subject of the ex Seattle SeahawksSonics (doh!--es), and their imminent departure for Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain, and the waving wheat can sure smell swee... (whack! whack! whack! STOP THAT).

Anyway, the final question concerning the Sonics decision to reverse the steps of Tom Joad is--who is the villian?

Before you give the obvious answer (it's Clay!), permit me to list a few candidates.  Some of them are listed twice, for different reasons.  However, we will start in Oklahoma (every night, my honey lamb and I... OW!  OK, no more showtunes!) with the man who is now grinning like a hawk, with a rabbit in its beak, making lazy circles in the sky.

• Clay Bennett, for moving a team from a city that loved it

Why Clay is the villain:  It's understandable that Clay wanted a basketball team for his hometown; we don't begrudge him that.  But when he goes and rips an established franchise from a fanbase, that is simply not acceptable.  Boo!

Why he is not:  Clay is an Oklahoman.  His civic duty is to Oklahoma, not to Seattle.  Seattle has no right to make demands on Clay, and forfeited any right when Howard Schulz sold the team.  Seattlites should look elsewhere for blame.

• Clay Bennett, for not being honest about the whole thing

Why he is the villain:  Even if we accept that he's an Oklahoman doing good for his own community--he still committed fraud on Seattle (and possibly on the league--who knows) with his ruse of trying to find a "local solution".  It's patently obvious that his proposal was calculated to be unacceptable; and he simply lied to a) get Schulz to sell the team in the first place, and b) to dupe Seattle fans into attending games and supporting him until he could break the Key Arena lease.  BOO!

Why he is not:  Nobody believed him, anyway--should anyone be surprised?  Least of all, Howard Schulz, who should have known better.  Which brings us to:

• Howard Schulz, for selling the team to Bennett over the objections of minority owners who wanted to find a local owner

Why Schulz is the villain:  Schulz *had* to know that by selling the team to an out-of-town investor, from a city that recently had hosted the Hornets post-Katrina and was "on the market" for an NBA franchise--that there was a good chance the team might actually leave.  All Mr. Starbucks cared about during this whole fiasco was $$$--he made a boatload by selling the team for far more than he bought it for.  He'd sell his mother for money.  Oh, and his coffee sucks, too.  BOO!

Why he is not:  Schultz (does his name have a T or not?  I'm too lazy to look it up) was stuck with a franchise with a (cue Steve Patterson and repeat after me:) Broken Financial Model.  He was losing money on operations, so selling was the only way to recoup.  And there wasn't exactly a line of local billionaires looking to by the team--Ballmer, Gates, Bezos, and the rest weren't interested. And, as was established above, Bennett lied through his teeth through the whole process.

• NBA Commissioner David Stern, for screwing over The Fans in general
  

Why the commish is the villain: David Stern doesn't care for fans; just their money.  Even though he may be slowly killing the golden goose; he's only interested in getting more money from your pockets into the team owners.  His shortsightedness may damage the league; as the NBA probably lost thousands of fans yesterday.  Oh, on top of that the league is rigged.  Like Baron Davis playing in New Orleans--BOO!!!

Why he isn't:  He's just doing his job.  He serves at the pleasure of the owners, and his job is to maximize the revenue of the NBA.  He produces and markets a product, which people consume.  Simple as that.  If you don't pay for that product, you don't get it. 

• NBA Commissioner David Stern, for screwing over Seattle specifically.

Why Stern is the villain:  Even if we accept the promise that Stern's loyalty is to the owners, Seattle was still treated quite unfairly.  There was no pretense of fairness or equity in the whole process.  Boo hoo.

Why Stern is not the villain:  See above.  The fans aren't who he works for.  If his team owner in Seattle says "get me out of here", it's his job to do precisely that.

• Former Sonics owner Barry Ackerly

Why Billboard Barry is the villain:  Ackerly, who made his fortune erecting those monstrousities you see alongside the freeway, was the Sonics owner prior to Schulz, and was the guy responsible for renovating the Seattle Center Coliseum, and negotiating what would later become the "worst lease in the NBA".  The redesign was on-the-cheap on many levels--skyboxes were not included, even though it was apparent that this would be an important source of team revenue, and was (according to reports I've read) intentionally designed to be unsuitable for the NHL. (The WHL Thunderbirds do play there, but the NHL has stricter ice standards the Key cannot meet).  His shortsightedness planted the seed for the poison fruit which was forced down Seattle's throat this week.  A big ugly billboard which reads, "Boo!"

Why he is not:  He hasn't owned the team in years; it's unfair to blame him for something that happened long after he sold.  Both Schulz and Bennett knew what they were buying--it isn't as though Ackerly hoodwinked 'em into thinking the Key was a first-rate facility.

• Former Sonics officers Wally Walker and Rick Sund

Why these guys are the villains:  They--collectively--ran the team into the ground, plain and simple.  Walker was hired, of course, to replace Trader Bob Whitsitt after Trader Bob came to PDX.  While Bob is credited with doing great damage to the Portland franchise, he is widely acknowledged to have left the Sonics in better shape than he found them; indeed, the Sonics team he built would go to the NBA FInals in 1996 (losing to Da Bulls).  All that was squandered by Walker, and to a lesser extent Sund.  Legions of bad trades, wasted draft picks on project centers, and the deplorable way Nate McMillan was treated, left a sour taste in the mouth of fans.  Oh, and boo.

Why they are not.  They're too far down on the totem pole to matter for this.  They may, as the lawyers say, have contributory negligence, but blame focuses on the folks who were signing their paychecks.

• Ownership of the Mariners and Seahawks

Why these guys are the villains:  Nintendo of America, Ken Behring, and our favorite owner--Paul Allen--all of 'em strongarmed Seattle (and Washington) taxpayers into building palaces for the Ms and the Hawks, with two results:  1) When Schultz came looking for his handout, the well was dry; and 2) David Stern was apparently rather miffed that MLB and the NFL got the red-carpet treatment from Seattle, and his league did not.  For leaving the cupboard bare for Seattle basketball, the 12th man gives a hearty Boo!

Why they are not:  Again, they are too far removed from the situation to be assigned any significant blame.  And--they were just Doing Their Job.

• Politicians and special interests

Why these guys are the villains:  Perhaps in reaction to the Safeco and Qwest deals; a coalition of anti-tax advocates on the right, and anti-corporate-welfare types on the left, have managed to stymie any attempt to get funding for the Sonics--and elected officials, either actively representing (or terrified of) said interests have repeatedly spurned the team.  Boo.

Why not:  What's wrong with that, exactly?  What is wrong with politicians and activists standing up to what even the most ardent sports fan will acknowledge, is extortion, plain and simple.  Fans fund sports at the gate.  Fans fund sports when they by merchandise.  Fans fund sports when they buy League Pass, and even when they watch games on free TV and view commercials.  Why should they fund 'em even more through taxes and fees--which are charged to people who don't care about sports?  Maybe Seattle has had enough.

• The fans

Why the fans are the villains:  They stopped caring about the team, so that the few hardcore fans that were left weren't sufficient critical mass to influence the actions of policymakers.  Teams that sell out their building every night generally don't move, especially to smaller markets--the last time a well-beloved team moved was when Art Modell took the old Browns to Baltimore.  The other franchise moves since 1990 (Expos->DC, Rams ->St. Louis, Cardinals -> Phoenix, Grizz -> Memphis, Oilers -> Nashville, Hornets -> New Orleans, the NHL leaving Canada in droves) have been either moves to much larger markets, or moves away from fanbases that largely don't care.  Seattle, despite the noisy presence of a hardcore Sonics fanbase, largely doesn't care about the NBA.  Give yourselves a round of Boo!

Why the fans are not:  Comparing the Sonics fans, who have shown some intelligence in not paying good money for a perpetually lousy product, to baseball fans in Montreal (all three of them), is silly.  Seattle has an excellent basketball tradition, and will continue to do so. This, like the Browns move, or the Dodgers and Giants leaving New York, is simply about money.  The fans are the victims here, quit blaming the victim.

• Nobody, and everybody--it's a perfect storm

Argument in favor:  This, like many catastrophes, was a systemic failure of multiple entities to do their jobs and take care of what they needed to take care of.  Remove any of the above--a succession of cheap owners, lousy management, spineless politicians, heavy-handed league management, and sometimes apathetic fans--and Bennett is buying the Grizzlies.

Argument against:  Sorry, but that lets some folks who are clearly bad actors off the hook.

Anyway, happy fourth, everybody!