Jerry Brewer at SI.com has a post up covering the hard feelings left behind when the Seattle Supersonics left down to become the Oklahoma City Thunder. Their departure was hard enough, but as they find more and more success it becomes harder and harder for some fans to deal with. Comments from some of those fans after the jump.
Some fans focus on the heartbreak of things:
Dino is a former Sonics ball boy. He has worked in restaurants and bars near KeyArena for most of his adult life. He figures 70 percent of his costumers hate this situation as much as he does. He was chatting at the bar at Belltown Pizza a few days ago with several patrons, searching for the exact analogy for what's happening to Seattle.
They came up with this: "It's like being in your ex-girlfriend's wedding, and she looks better than she ever looked with you."
Others attempt to make it clear exactly with whom they are angry. From Jason Reid, director of Sonicsgate: Requiem For A Team:
"I think the Oklahoma people get very frustrated with Sonics fans," Reid said. "They think we're attacking them. We're not. We think they did everything they needed to do to deserve an NBA franchise. We just wish it wasn't our team. And as long as they have a shared history with Seattle and act like it's the same franchise, we're going to keep raising our voices. We're going to stay at it until we have a team back here."
Reid and others are active in trying to bring the NBA back to the area, and they have the support (and cash) of Chris Hansen, a Seattle-born hedge fund manager. Until they succeed, though, all they can do is watch the Thunder and think about what could have been.
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