Since, with just under two months to go, many of us are getting very crankily tired of talking about whales, ROFR, Carmichael Dave, $30 million deposits, last minute investors, Burkle, Mastrov, BOG, Stern, and pretty much anything else related to this whole situation, I thought it would be fun to talk about rivalries.
SIDE NOTE: Speaking of the $30 million deposit, is it possible that the rumor saying it wasn't paid was started because Hansen's check bounced the first time? Hey, we've all been there. Right?
Back on point, the following is from an earlier thread...
MartinH says:
Paul Rogers:
I knew after that year that I could never root for the Portland Trailblazers if they were playing against the devil himself. I would still not root for them against the devil. Just the OKC Thunder.
Ooh, now there’s a question for the Seattle-based brethren…
… who do you hate more now? Portland, the Lakers or OKC?
You know, have to think about what our #1 rivalry is going to be… :-
So let's try to answer Martin's question.
In the old days our chief rival was definitely Portland. Right? The close proximity. The inferiority complex of Portland (we all know it's true). The way Payton and Drexler would go at it. Etc.
I think we also pretty much hated the Lakers. That may have been simply about how successful they have always been.
Another heated rivalry was with the Utah Jazz. Man I hated those guys. Stockton. Malone. Hornacek. That's right. Jeff Stinking Hornacek. Ugh. We really had some great playoff battles with them though.
We also had a terrific rivalry with the Houston Rockets, which probably diminished greatly once Hakeem Olajuwon retired. We matched up with them so well. It's a crime that we had the two first round chokes against the Nuggets and Lakers. We should've won the two titles that Houston took home.
So how would our rivalries unfold now if we get our team back?
For certain, Oklahoma City would be instantly on our list of teams we really really want to beat. Our rivalry with Portland would instantly be rekindled and, of course, we'll always hate the Lakers. These three would exist even while we still suck.
But what about Utah? Would that rivalry take time to redevelop? I'm guessing it would.
So which rivalry would be the most intense? For my money, it would certainly be with OKC. Our thing with Portland is actually somewhat good natured, but are there two cities that hate each other more than Seattle and Oklahoma City? I don't think so.
What about the rest of you, though? Who ya' got for our chief rivals? Thunder? Blazers? Lakers? Someone else?
Discuss.