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Sonicsgate Goes To Meet Howard Schultz, Reportedly Leaves With A Police Escort

We only have half the story, but it's an interesting half of the story about Howard Schultz's book signing at the Issaquah Costco on Friday. The signing, which Seattle Sonics fans planned to attend and protest, was set to take place at 1 p.m. before a last-minute switch pushed the appearance up to noon on Friday. Sonics fans mobilized and headed to Issaquah to meet the team's former owner, widely regarded as a large reason why the team left to Oklahoma City. Without a sale to an out of town ownership group which had clear intentions of moving, Seattle may still have an NBA team.

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Among those attending was at least one representative of the Sonicsgate crew. Sonicsgate is a documentary about the Sonics exodus from Seattle and is also leading the charge to bring the Sonics back to Seattle. Except things didn't go as planned on Friday and the police got involved.

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Just got escorted out of Costco by cops just for waiting in Schultz book line with a Sonics hat on... COWARD! #BoycottStarbucks #sonicsgateless than a minute ago via Mobile Web Favorite Retweet Reply

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Update: Thanks to Brendan Vaughn for pointing this out in the comments. Here's the rest of the story from the Issaquah Press.

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The heckler cursed at Schultz and shouted, "You betrayed the whole city of Seattle!" before Costco employees and a police officer whisked the man out of the store during the otherwise-quiet event.

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The book signing still resulted in negative press, at least on Twitter. Both Elise Woodward and SonicsGate tweeted about the events, with Woodward adding Schultz refused to answer her questions. The SonicsGate rep was not the heckler and was there to roll cameras and document the proceedings. It's clear the issue still strikes a chord with fans who felt burned by Schultz and the NBA, and today was no exception.

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