I am a loyal son of Washington and especially Seattle. It is a loyalty bred into me by a family that has been here for over a hundred years, and it is fierce among my tribe and myself. In particular, Seattle serves as the linchpin of my family's wheel. Even when one of us leaves, we're never really gone. I have left and come back myself, and all of us always think the same thing: "This is the best place to live. Why live anywhere else?" Cheesy? Absolutely. But also true. Everything about the Emerald City works for us, and that is clearly indicated by my family's love for the teams of Seattle. It is that love that makes us fiercely supportive of the H/B/N/W group's efforts to secure a team for Seattle.

Understand this: sports are huge in my family. We view them as excellent recreation both in a participatory sense and a spectator sense. We all played the major sports, most of us have coached in one way or another and we all follow the same teams. The key to the latter is that they are all Seattle teams, from the Washington Huskies to the Seattle Sounders. The love of these teams through all of their foibles is a connecting thread in our family quilt. We love, live and die with the teams that claim Seattle as home. Those teams are about more than just a day out for us. They mean connection, love... all of the good things that help you get out of bed in the morning. The Seattle Supersonics were a huge part of that.

Being as they were a Seattle team, we were all bound to support the Sonics. My Dad once said that we had to, as they were the first professional sports team that chose the backwater of Seattle. We all saw multiple games at Seattle Center/Key Arena and the Kingdome, and we loved the Sonics in particular because of their presence as the first. We loved them like no other team. The Seahawks were awesome, the Mariners awful (we still went to at least ten games a year) and our alma mater Washington always loomed large. But those cold winter nights... the Sonics owned us, as they did thousands of others. You could go about anywhere the day after a game and get someone talking about it by simply asking, "You catch the Sonics?" The Sonics were loved in a way that no other team in Seattle was, and we supported them even in the lean times, and even with front offices that couldn't seem to grasp how to win consistently. We cheered for the Johnsons, for Sikma, for Silas, for McMillan and especially for the Glove and the Reign Man. We adored K.D., and now wish we could still cheer him in the colors he belongs in. When I looked out across the Center/Key, or even the Kingdome, all I saw was green, gold and love. It evoked a feeling that cynics view as either deluded or non-existent. The power of belief. When you follow a team and give it your heart, you are giving yourself to something bigger than yourself. You connect. You find a way to talk with a taciturn father through the joy of being a Sonics fan, or help your son love basketball by showing him how it's really played on a green and gold court. You share in the good times and the bad, and grow from having done so.

All of this comes from being a fan of Seattle teams, but especially the Supersonics. That team has been something that has given my family common ground and given me a sense of community that never went away, even as Clay Bennett lied and dissembled his way out of my great city. The Sonics, for me, represent something good and positive, a meeting point where others can find common cause and feel a part of something greater. This is what I hope returns to Key Arena in the fall. This is what I hope I can give to my son, as my father did to me.

They call us every name in the book. Fine. Above all, however, call us this: loyal.