When Sonicsgate traveled to Denver for Saturday’s NBA playoff matchup between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets, they brought along a surprise for Sacramento Kings fans. The city of Sacramento is currently fighting relocation itself, going through the same process we went through in Seattle just three years ago. As a show of support, Jason Reid brought along a cowbell, which could be heard loud and clear during the ESPN broadcast on Saturday night.
It was a symbolic gesture, but one that meant a lot to Sacramento fans. In the past week, I’ve seen an outpouring of support from fans in Sacramento who appreciated the gesture from Sonics fans, who know full-well what it’s like to fight the battle. In an interview with Reid, we discussed the cowbell and the parallels between the Seattle Sonics and Sacramento Kings.
“The cowbell thing was just something me and Camp Jones had talked about in the days leading up. How cool would it be to have a cowbell to support them?” Reid said. “The relevancy with their issue and ours is close and we feel bonded with their fans. A little thing we could do was bring a cowbell to show support. The fact Clay Bennett was in the same section as us made it even better. It’s just shout-out to Sacramento.”
Sacramento is just now getting to a do-or-die point. Mayor Kevin Johnson’s hail mary bought the city some time, but in the next year, the city must have an arena deal in place to keep the team. Reid sympathizes with the fight, but also had some advice for the citizens of Sacramento.
“I think Sacramento just now realized they could lose their team. Once you’re face with potentially losing you’re team, you have to formulate these protests. If we can help people, watch Sonicsgate,” Reid said. “There’s two hours of information. It gives you a ton of ammo if you’re trying to save your team. We knew if it was free online the other cities can see how it’s done.”
So did the cowbell work? With Clay Bennett sitting just a few rows behind him, Reid hopes he heard the noise and saw the support.
“Them hearing that cowbell, maybe that will help Sacramento,” Reid said while looking back on the event. “Maybe Clay heard that cowbell and it made him think a little bit.”
We’ll be back throughout the day with more from Reid. We discussed his feeling about the Thunder, how players felt about those crazy, green and gold wearing fans and what message the group is trying to get across. Stay with this StoryStream for more of the interview and head over to the Sonicsgate website to watch the documentary for free.