With the return of the Sonics now a “9 out of 10″ toward being complete according to Chris Daniels, the topic of the team’s history has been a hot topic. Everyone knows that Seattle still owns the rights to the name SuperSonics, the green and gold colors and all the Sonics’ logos. But what about the 1979 Championship, the retired numbers, the banners?
As far as I understand, the history of the SuperSonics will be a shared commodity with the Oklahoma City Thunder. All of the banners and the trophy are still in Seattle, yet the titles they represent are all claimed by OKC. When Kendrick Perkins was traded to the Thunder, he had to change his number because of Jack Sikma, who never played for the Thunder. At the time, fans in Oklahoma said “why should we recognize the retired numbers of the Sonics?” Seattle fans responded with “I know, right?!”
So the argument stands, who should own a team’s history? Does it belong to the city where those events happened? Or does it belong to the team as a franchise, regardless of where they play? Some people, like sportslogos.net’s Chris Creamer, think that moving the Kings to Seattle and calling them the SuperSonics creates a fabricated history. I would argue that a team called the Oklahoma City Thunder claiming a championship won by a team called the Seattle SuperSonics is a fabricated history. Some fans in Oklahoma City agree with me, they want to write their own history. To me, the only argument that could be made is that if a team keeps the same name, ie the New Orleans Hornets or Utah Jazz, they could still claim the rights to the history of the Hornets or Jazz. However, if a franchise completely re-brands themselves under a new name and city, why should they get to honor a history that is completely unrelated to them?
To try and give this some perspective, think about Safeco Insurance and, by extension, Safeco Field. In this metaphor, Safeco Insurance represents a professional sports team and Safeco Field represents their history. In 2008, Safeco was purchased by Liberty Mutual, who in this instance represents out of town owners. Liberty Mutual decided to let Safeco continue to exist as its own entity. Therefore, Safeco Field was left as-is. Now, take Qwest (the team) and Qwest Field (the history). Qwest was merged with CenturyLink in 2011. CenturyLink decided not to keep the Qwest name, and therefore Qwest Field was re-named CenturyLink Field. The name changed, the history changed.
I, personally, think it would be easier for everyone if every team relocation was treated as a contraction and subsequent expansion, just with the same players. We all know a team is not just the players in the uniform, as those are constantly changing. Teams are about the fans, the city and the pride we feel in rooting for them. Even if the new Sonics don’t get the history of the old Sonics, we will always have our memories. We know where the history happened. And that’s something no one can take away from us.
It seems ridiculous to me for the OKC Carpetbaggers to claim Sonics franchise history. The history was created with the fans in Seattle, players and coaches living in Seattle, and games mostly played in Seattle. While the Lakers do technically claim their time from their days in Minnesota (and they kept the name!) I think this is certainly a different day and age and situation.
i cant imagine that any OKC fan or owner even wants our history. seems like theyd be way more interested in starting their own history and traditions.
Unsurprisingly some okie thieves want to keep our history. The NBA needs to officially acknowledge, after we get the Sonics back, the our history is ours. If they don’t, we fans need to rise up and fight to get it back. Let’s not roll over, again, to those thieving okies.
There is NO WAY the NBA or The Bennett will bar Sonics 2.0 from raising GP’s and Shawn’s Jerseys. Or re raising Lenny’s, Nates and all the others during that glorious first few games at The Key. Shared history at worst.
Of course they wouldn’t ban that…what grounds would they have to ban a new team from retiring a uniform number in honor of a player? This has nothing to do with a decision on shared history is has to do with there not bring any rules o. What numbers a franchise wants to retire or why they want to retire their number.
Wait till Durant returns to play the Supes..the ovation he gets is going to blow his mind.
I really hope you are right about that. I hope the vast majority of us can recognize that the OKC players had nothing to do with any of this and show some love to both Collison and Durant.
And I think you ARE right.
Clay Bennett just better not show his face
It”ll blow my mind if anyone is Seattle gives an ovation to anyone wearing an okc uniform
You’d have to think that the first thing Sonics 2.0 wants to do is hang GP’s jersey in the rafters.
It will be a travesty if they’re not able to because of a stupid “shared history with OKC” thing. There’d be a riot.
Someone explain the argument of why they wouldn’t be able to retire the numbers? if the new team wants to prevent any player from wearing #20 and that is in honor of Gary Payton…that’d be perfectly fine. If we wanted to retire #23 in honor of MJ that’d be weird….but they couldn’t stop the team from doing so.
They can. The New Orleans Hornets retired Pete Maravich’s jersey. Hell, the Heat retired Jordan’s!
Can’t wait we can get a team so hopefully people will stop worrying/complaining/coveting something that has never left. In some ways I hope OKC keeps the history. Be kind if amusing that a franchise that was stolen from us has to always reference things that have never happened in their city as being important.
The story about Perkins is crazy and awesome at the same time. It’d make me happy tht forever a kid would have to ask their dad why a player can’t wear number 10 and the dad would have to explain the entire story of why that is the case.
As for the real history…that is all in our heads…and should be pretty self evident never left Seattle. We should focus on the things that left instead of obsessing something that can never leave.
Ahhhh…just what I thought….
Michael Jordan’s 23 is retired by the Miami Heat
Pistol Pete’s 7 is retired by the New Orleans Hornets
Heck…even Dan Marino’s 13 is in the rafters in Miami (but can be worn)
Lets just get a team first!
Being in Baltimore now I will use this city as a point of reference for what can be done. First, in regards to history of a relocated franchise. Baltimore gave up the history of the Cleveland Browns to stay in that city and assumed an entirely new history. That is a little different since Cleveland was getting an expansion team and negotiated that out, but there is precedent that a team can reassume its history after being gone for multiple years.
Secondly, the Colts used to be in Baltimore and had the great Johnny Unitas. The Ravens have no officially retired numbers (Ray Lewis will get that honor no doubt) but they refuse to issue number 19 in respect to Johnny U. This is technically not a retired number but it works in the same way. So this is a quasi-precendence for retiring a former teams number even though the old history is gone.
Hope that explains how things could work. But as said above, let’s just wait to get a team.
I had a dream last night that I woke up to at least a dozen tweets of “BREAKING NEWS! KINGS FINALIZE SALE WITH HANSEN AND BALLMER.”
First thing I did when I woke up was check twitter. Then I was sad.
I am willing to fight to get our history back. Are you?
I will not accept anything less than our entire Seattle history returned to us. It happened in Seattle, it stays in Seattle.
Let’s not roll over, again, to those thieving okies.
Kingdome: I will fight for the Sonics history! Nothing less than 100% of our complete statistical history from 1967-2008 is acceptable to this fan.
This is very simple. Granted this all goes through.
Seattle SuperSonics - 1967-2008, 2013-
Oklahoma City Thunder - 2009-
Rochester/Cincinnati Royals, Kansas City/Sacramento Kings 1945-2013
There is absolutely no reason a team’s history can’t be retired or left behind. Records and stats still exist in the NBA’s record books regardless if they are attached to a current NBA team. The NBA could easily grant Seattle’s records and stats back, start OKC’s in 2009, and retire and leave Sacramento’s behind. They all still exist and count in the record books. But are also all in the right places, where ALL fans involved want them. Anything else is just being difficult for the sake of being difficult. This can easily be a win-win for all involved. Come on Stern, Bennett, etc. Use some common sense here.
Exactly this.