David wants to make you love him before he leaves office in 2014, he’s going to try and do what many people thought should have been done by now, moved the NBA back to Seattle.
According to Yahoo Sport’s Adrian Wojnarowski:
Between now and his departure, Stern is determined to get a franchise back into Seattle, league sources said. He has become a strong ally of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s group to bring back the NBA there. Ballmer’s group has been trying to get the Maloof family to sell the Sacramento Kings, so that the franchise can eventually play in a new arena in Seattle.
From the league office, pressure on the Maloofs to sell has been growing, sources said – just as hopes for a new Sacramento arena have been fading. Seattle Sonics fans will never forgive Stern for his complicit role in Clay Bennett’s deception to move that franchise to Oklahoma City, but make no mistake: Stern desperately wants to return the NBA to one of its great markets and wants it for his own measure of vindication before he leaves office.
When David Stern was asked about the expansion he replied:
“I don’t have any current view on where such a team comes from,” Stern said. “We deal with a lot of cities. Seattle happens to be another great city…. But no, we think this it is a great development in Seattle. And we’re excited about it. But there is no current team in play and that’s going to be an issue for the owners have to consider.”
The NBA might be better off just establishing a new team within Seattle, I cant see taking another team from a city just to have the same problems Seattle experienced.