Politics and Basketball

Few things are as intertwined.

In my home state of Washington, our upcoming gubernatorial election will be completely decided by the fate of our NBA franchise.

Seems odd, doesn’t it?

Here are the facts:

The Howard Schultz-led Sonics ownership group sold the team to Clayton Bennett, a billionaire from Oklahoma City. Bennett then asked for a large amount of public money to pour into an addition to KeyArena, knowing that he’d be turned down. He marched off to the NBA commissioner, asking for its blessing to move the team to Oklahoma City. The NBA’s decision will probably be made next week. Just when the move to Oklahoma look inevitable, property developer Matt Griffin put together a group of monied Seattleites to fund a last-ditch effort to keep the Sonics in Seattle. The plan needs the approval of the city and the state (and $75 million from each). The city is behind the effort. Governor Christine Gregoire is seemingly uncommitted.

This has proved to be valuable fodder for her nemesis (and gubernatorial opponent) Dino Rossi. In fact, he’s trumpeting his support for the Griffin spending proposal and pointing out the lack of commitment from current governor Christine Gregoire.

In a gubernatorial race poised to be extremely close (in the 2004 race between Gregoire and Rossi, Gregoire was declared the winner after numerous recounts and only a 129 vote margin) this race may very well be determined by Gregoire’s lack of enthusiasm for keeping the Sonics in town.

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