Last week, we mentioned how Adam Brown, the producer of SonicsGate, was ushered out of Howard Schultz's book signing last Friday as he attempted to politely confront Schultz about the Sonics being heisted from Seattle and relocated in Oklahoma City. I suppose it is hardly surprising that the well trained Costco security team assigned to Schultz's event opted to escort Brown and others out of the building before (un)pleasantries were exchanged between still-furious fans and the CEO of Starbucks. But if you're like me, you assumed that Brown was more or less deserving of being kicked out -- be it from something he said, a sign he might be holding and drawing attention to, whatever.
Not the case says Brown. He was just peacefully and unassumingly waiting in line for his turn to greet Schultz at the book signing before being preemptively asked to leave by Costco security guards. Brown talked about what exactly transpired and why he's still so passionate about SonicsGate on Monday during late-morning chat with Dave 'Softy' Mahler on KJR. Sports Radio Interviews, a recent acquisition of SB Nation, has the transcription, a large part of which I've included below the jump.
On what exactly happened during his visit to Howard Schultz’s book event at Costco:
"Man, well I can’t say that I was surprised at what happened just because of how Howard has avoided the Sonics subject in the past. But I went out there with just the intention to wait in line and give him a copy of SonicsGate. We tried to interview Howard multiple times for the film, but he obviously turned us down through his PR people. So we wanted to get a chance to talk to him face-to-face, give him a copy of the documentary and give him a chance to respond to the whole controversy."
On what led to him being asked to leave the event by security:
"So yeah, I walked in wearing my Sonics hat and my SonicsGate shirt available at sonicsgate.org, and walked in — and that’s probably the mistake you think I made — wearing Sonics stuff, but we’re loud and proud here at SonicsGate, we don’t back down. So I walked in and cooperated, stood in line taking pictures just like a dozen other people there with their camera phones and everything. And I walked to the front of the line and I saw Howard point and me. And now I’m not sure exactly what he said, but it appears in the video he says ‘that guy right there’ or something like that. Than as I’m walking towards the back of the line, another Sonics fan motions to me and says ‘watch this.’ And I go, ‘are you going to do something?’ He kind of nods, so I stood there and watched as he was next in line, and he went up to Howard and yelled at him and called him a traitor and said how can you show your face around here? I caught the whole thing on FlipCam. Then as I walked to the back of the line, I stood back there for about 10 seconds and Costco security said ‘you’re going to have to leave the store. And I said why? I haven’t done anything, I’m just standing here in the back of the line. And they said ‘well Howard doesn’t want you here, I’m going to have to ask you to leave the store.’ I asked them to say something on camera, he didn’t, he took me over to the police officer and that’s where the video picks back up. And they wouldn’t provide any reason why I was kicked out."
Even if he had gotten a word with Schultz, what could Schultz possibly say that would change his or other Sonics fans minds about why their team is no longer in the city of Seattle:
"I’ll tell you one thing that he could say that would make it all better Softy — he could say I’m building Starbucks Arena in Bellevue or the city of Seattle, and I’m bringing back an NBA team. That is the only way I would step foot back into a Starbucks, Seattle’s Best Coffee, or any other Schultz owned business again."