Aubrey McClendon certainly has helped the cities case each and every time he has opened his mouth(or in fact sent an e-mail) but the truth is he helps Howard Schulz' case even more.
A deluge of new information was released today in the form of deposition transcripts. You should all know that the judge is really not doing anything to make the public airing of these contents easy. They were released in bulk on a Friday before a long weekend. The total of transcripts was 457 pages each of which apparently contained three pages of transcript shrunk to fit. In other words the reporters who covered it had 1200 pages to wade through and transcribe just to get you these articles out. Kudos go out to Chris Daniels, Greg Johns, and Jim Brunner for being up to the task.
My personal favorite line:
"I said, 'You know, Joel, I don't know. It's like me saying the sky is green, you know, sometimes you say things that you don't know why you say it.' "
Thats either called being delusional or lying compulsively Aubrey...Not a good defense.
These are the first round of transcripts. In the coming weeks those of people like Wally Walker, Joel Litvin, and Clays various techinical conractors. There is ample reason to believe that for just about the next 10 business days there will be a steady stream of almost daily tidbits and potential bombshells coming out of this.
It is very funny. For more than a year I have been the one talking about how much information would be revealed in the deposition process. Somehow I got so used to the process that it kind of blended together and I forgot how much I was expecting.
Right now the questions on the street seems to be why Clay Bennetts whole deposition is redacted.
Also to clear up a quicky from the Greg Johns article which states: The Sonics' attorney also questioned Ceis about not upholding a confidentiality agreement made during a meeting with NBA officials in New York. Ceis acknowledged he told Save Our Sonics founder Brian Robinson of the meeting, but didn't disclose what was discussed.
Tim Ceis has infuriated me with his information control but I try to be understanding. In this case I learned of hsi trip to NY through sheer snooping and he would never acknowledge it. Only after a period of about 2 months when I called him to advise that a reporter had obtained a receipt and was going to be documenting his trip did he finally acknowledge being there and at not time did he discuss the content.
It was a bit infuriating becuase we felt extremely out of the loop in regards to the cities efforts and in fact had some notes to compare. They held information control to the tightest level possible.
I owe Tim an apology for not being more trusting at the time. I did push him relentlessly and would often do so via e-mail, sometimes even with the "if you don't call me back and I have to keep sending you this you know it will be available via public record..." vague threat.
Tims secrecy has been found to be justified and his actions worthy of trust. I consider him a friend but the fact that I am so frustrated for such a large percentage of the time I'm around him indicates to me that he won't share any or enough information.
My favorite Tim Ceis line:
As for why the city was pushing to keep the team after voters had openly rejected such a financing plan, Ceis said, "In politics you sometimes must lead even though the public may not yet be aware of all the issues and may not have yet finally determined where they are."
More to come...read the articles fully and have fun with it.