Welcome Back NBA: A Look at the Upcoming 2007-08 Season

The NBA is back, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Baseball season is over, and the build and hype concerning this season culminated at the perfect time just as preseason basketball was ending. There are so many stories concerning this year’s NBA season. The San Antonio Spurs are looking to repeat as Champions, something that their franchise has never been able to do. Since 2002, they have won the championship every other year, just never two seasons in a row. Kevin Durant is looking to live up to his hype as “the guy who should have been picked number one but wasn’t.” The Boston Celtics made some blockbuster moves in the offseason, and now have a new “Big 3” in Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett. And then there’s Kobe Bryant. Kobe, once again, has decided that he wants to be traded. It seemed for a little while that he would be going to the Chicago Bulls, but he promptly vetoed that trade. The talk of a Kobe Bryant for the world trade seemed to be the hot topic of many NBA fans, so I decided to explore the blogosphere and see what other bloggers were saying. Posted below are two links to blogs that I commented on concerning Kobe Bryant and his possible trade to who-knows-where.

Comment on: "The time has come" by Jackie Christie

I’m as excited for this basketball season as you seem to be, and am excited to watch Kobe Bryant work his magic on the court, but in all honesty, can you really call him a “team leader” as you do in your blog entry. Sure, he leads the team in almost every scoring category and has the ability to put the team on his back and carry them to victory, but in the end, you could also call him a ball hog. I live in Los Angeles, and watching him play on a regular basis, it seems as if he’s playing only for himself and not for the good of the team. He wants to improve his own stats, almost because he feels that winning with the current roster of the Lakers isn’t an option. Clearly he is wrong in this assertion. Kobe has been asking to be traded from the Lakers for over a year now, and it seemed as though he was going to get his wish with the Chicago Bulls deal, but at the last minute, he vetoed it himself claiming that he didn’t like the way the deal panned out for him in Chicago. Granted, he would’ve been a one-man team over there as well, but it seems as if he has talent around him this year with the Lakers, but he is just too selfish to see that. Kobe just doesn’t seem like a team player to me as a fan of the game – he seems more of a “what can I do for myself” kind of player, and while he is one of the best in the game right now, it is hard to say whether or not that is the type of attitude you want on your team.

I agree with you that this will definitely be an interesting season for the NBA. The Spurs look amazing, but so do many others. The Celtics are 2-0, but the big question is whether or not the new “Big 3” will be able to carry them all the way to championship glory. And Kevin Durant out in Seattle looks amazing. He could be a huge star on a team that seems to lack the luster that they once had, possibly due to all the talks and deals going on surrounding the team moving to Oklahoma City. I enjoyed your post, but in the end, I just don’t know if I’d put Kobe Bryant in that “team leader” category. He seems to care too much about himself and not as much about the team in order to really fit that mold right now.

Comment on: "Kobe’s bad read on Lakers" by Laker fan32

I really enjoyed your post and could not agree more with you it looks as if Kobe Bryant is starting to make up excuses just to try and get out of Los Angeles. He has a very good, talented young team around him. Luke Walton and Jordan Farmar don’t look like the star-struck new guys that they have in the past, but instead like they can become decent scorers on a team that has lacked depth in the past. And the big guys for the Lakers will show up too. Ronny Turiaf and Andrew Bynum will come into their own with more experienced perimeter players, and will have an easier time working their way into scoring positions down low. As you mentioned, even without Lamar Odom against Phoenix the Lakers were able to move the ball around really well and get it to their scorer(s).

I feel like Kobe Bryant isn’t playing for the Lakers anymore, but instead he is on Team Kobe. He only seems to care about himself and how many stats he can rack up. Kobe is not a team player- end of story. Hopefully in the very near future he will realize that the team behind him can actually contend, and with a few good front office moves, they can become an even bigger contender. And what you said about the front office is absolutely correct. They have done such a good job with that team in the past; Kobe really has nothing to complain about. The pickup of Derek Fisher was a great move not only for the team, but for the city of Los Angeles in general. Who else other than their last second scoring hero could you ask for to add the final ingredient to the semi-new look Lakers? Overall, I really enjoyed your post and sincerely hope that Kobe Bryant realizes that the Lakers are a legitimate contender this season.

City of Seattle sues its own team: Something is wrong

Today, the city of Seattle filed a lawsuit against the current owner of the Seattle SuperSonics, Clay Bennett (at right). The lawsuit claimed that Bennett must agree to keep the team in Seattle until 2010 like it stated in the contract that he signed when he bought the team, instead of moving them to Oklahoma City like Bennett has implied post-purchase. Bennett issued an ultimatum stating that if the city did not vote to build a new arena for the team by this fall, he would opt out of the contract, pay the remainder of the money due to the city from the team, and move to Oklahoma City where his company is based. Doing so will most likely significantly decrease fan support in the team until they leave, thereby losing even more money for the city of Seattle. After all, who do they really have to cheer for if they know that the team will be gone before they know it?

Now I can see how this would anger the fans in Seattle, so I set it upon myself to explore the blogosphere and see what other bloggers were saying about these recent events. I found two bloggers, one a group of lawyers, and another a talk radio host, who had opinions on these events. I posted my reactions to their comments on their blogs, which are both displayed below.

Seattle suit has a familiar ring
The moment I saw that Seattle had filed this lawsuit against Clay Bennett and the Seattle SuperSonics, the first thing I thought of was that lawsuit that you referenced with the Minnesota Twins. The Twins wound up staying in the Twin Cities, but I don’t feel that this is going to be the case with the SuperSonics. There’s now going to be perennial bad blood between the ownership and the fan base, most likely resulting in a significant drop in attendance.

Will the new presence of second overall pick Kevin Durant (at left) make a difference? I don’t think so. The city of Seattle feels that it have been misled by the new owners. I don’t think that the new group ever felt that they were going to stay in Seattle, and had always planned on going to Oklahoma City as soon as possible. To do this, they set an impossible date for the city to match in order to agree to a lucrative new arena deal. The city has spent exorbitant amounts of money in the past years building two new stadiums – Safeco Field and Qwest Field – for the Seattle Mariners and Seattle Seahawks respectively.

Like in the case of the Twins, “the Twins got the state to pony up for a new stadium, so the team is now here for the long haul.” There’s no way that this will be the case for the Sonics. In the end, I think Bassett’s group will opt out of their contract as soon as possible because the city of Seattle isn’t ready to pony up even more dough for another professional sports team – especially a losing team like the Sonics. Give it one more year and the Seattle SuperSonics will be the Oklahoma City “insert generic professional sports team name here.” And after that, there’s no chance that a team will move into Seattle. With the lawsuits filed today, within a year, professional basketball in Seattle will be done.


It’s about to get real ugly in Seattle – City sues Sonics
I couldn’t agree more with you that “Bennett has been lying since day one.” He never intended for the team to stay in Seattle, but instead had his own best interests in mind and wanted to move to Oklahoma City as soon as possible. Thus he set an arbitrary, unobtainable date for the city to come up with enough cash to erect a new arena. He knew that Seattle had just paid for Safeco Field and Qwest Field, two very expensive, state-of-the-art stadiums for two amazing and well-loved Seattle franchises. The Sonics, on the other hand, have had atrocious years recently. Why would the city of Seattle want to pay for a new arena for a team that has made the playoffs only 3 times in the past 10 years? Especially when they already have a very nice facility in the Key Arena, pictured on the right.

How do you think this will affect the team in the long run? I can almost guarantee that attendance will go down, but will the team even try anymore. Will they be the laughing stock of the Western Conference? Granted they now have one of the more electrifying players to come into the league since Lebron James, but can that really make that big of a difference to a team with absolutely no leadership? This team is a train wreck waiting to happen.

You pose the question as to whether or not the city of Seattle will ever be able to lure another professional NBA franchise to the city or not. I don’t think they will. The city feels betrayed by Bennett’s group and the team in general. I can’t see a lot of support from the city when another franchise comes calling and their only demand is that “the city brings together enough money to build a new arena.” That definitely is not going to happen. Good luck getting another franchise, Seattle, this one is over.