..."I saw him for a bit in Chicago (in 1997) when I was there,” Riggleman said of Cairo. “He’s become a much better player now."

I can't believe he's had to wait so long for another managerial gig.

This guy is still on the team????

I'm going to take time out from making fun of the Mariners to give my condolences to Seattle fans for losing the Sonics. That is a tremendous amount of bullsh!t. I have lost what little respect I had for David Stern after the Charlotte fiasco. I can only hope OK City gets ready to take it in the arse in 10 years when the NBA decides the revenue streams there aren't good enough and they need more concessions or they'll have to move the team to St. Louis or Pittsburgh or Omaha.

Cairo is consistent--he's always been a Jay killer ... at least he was when he played in Toronto.

Best Regards

John

Whoa, they're moving the Supersonics? That's lame as hell. TO OK City? What are they going to be called? The OK City Whogivesashits?

Cairo needs Lasik?

Whoa, they're moving the Supersonics? That's lame as hell. TO OK City? What are they going to be called? The OK City Whogivesashits?

It's the genius of the NBA. Move a team from a major market to a small market. I guarantee you, in 5 years when the fan base is no longer awed by the novelty of having a pro team, the NBA will regret this. The worst thing about it is Stern conspired with the Sonics owners from the beginning on this. He's a cheap, effing whore. OK, OK, he's an expensive whore, but a whore nonetheless.

He’s become a much better player now.

After that two-double game: .222/.305/.278

Damn, he must have been REALLY bad back in the day!

Whoa, they're moving the Supersonics? That's lame as hell. TO OK City? What are they going to be called? The OK City Whogivesashits?

Not the Bombers, that's for sure.

It's the genius of the NBA. Move a team from a major market to a small market. I guarantee you, in 5 years when the fan base is no longer awed by the novelty of having a pro team, the NBA will regret this.

I agree that the NBA screwed Seattle in this, but I don't think OKC is that bad a market for the NBA. The NBA seems to thrive in small markets where they are the only game in town - San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Portland, Sacramento. OKC will do quite well.

Well I've read my daily column about Oliver Perez and Miguel Cairo. I guess I can get to work now. God bless you BTF.

The NBA seems to thrive in small markets where they are the only game in town - San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Portland, Sacramento. OKC will do quite well.

I used to believe that a good way to succeed is to be the only game in town, a la Portland. But Memphis (2nd to last in attendance) and SacTown (27th) are doing their best to prove me wrong.

And national advertisers will love that the league has totally antagonized the 15th largest market in favor of the 45th largest market.

Mr. Stern another firm inquiring about placing a farm implement spot on the Sunday broadcast on line 2!

I'm seeing double....FOUR KRUSTIES!

I agree that the NBA screwed Seattle in this, but I don't think OKC is that bad a market for the NBA. The NBA seems to thrive in small markets where they are the only game in town - San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Portland, Sacramento. OKC will do quite well.

But doesn't that hurt the league, overall, in terms of less interest in major media markets.

I think that's a major flaw with the leagues that have most revenue centralized (NFL, NBA).
Teams moving to smaller markets (Rams, Raiders) can benefit the teams (through cushy stadium deals) but screw the league in terms of TV ratings.

Cairo can be a very effective player over a very small sample.

Whoa, they're moving the Supersonics? That's lame as hell. TO OK City? What are they going to be called? The OK City Whogivesashits?

The Hayseeds.

I'm not angry about the Supersonics. I'm certainly not shocked. I've been resigned to this for months. I'm guess I'm just pretty disgusted with the whole thing. It would have been a travesty to make an owner stay who clearly didn't want to be here. It was more of a travesty to have him own the team in the first place.

I think the Seattle fans were lulled into a sense of complacancy by the threats of the Mariners and Seahawks in the 1990s to leave town. There seemed to be rumors every couple of years about the M's leaving for Tampa Bay, and the Seahawks announced they were moving to LA and actually loaded up the moving vans and drove away. In both cases the teams were saved, and eventually moved into spanking brand new state-of-the-art facilities. I can't help feeling that fans here assumed the same would happen with the SuperSonics.

Those Mariner and Seahawk escapades probably paved the way for the Sonics leaving. Although the teams stayed, there was a lot of public resentment in some quarters about public money being used to fund stadiums. Seattle is one of the most liberal cities in the US, and there was enough public outcry against the stadiums for Seattle voters to pass a pretty draconian law a few years ago making it very hard to approve public funding for facilities for pro sports teams. That didn't help matters. Plus Key Arena was renovated in 1994, at public expense, and the taxpayers didn't want to fund another expensive upgrade so quickly.

This whole thing was bungled on every side. Bennett wanted one thing - to get a team for Oklahoma City. The local politicians a) never realized the seriousness of the threat until too late; b) never came up with workable alternatives; c) very possibly didn't care anyway.

The people I feel sorry for are the fans. The SuperSonics were Seattle's first modern major-league franchise, predating the Seahawks and Mariners (and Pilots). Prior to that, the big pro sport in Seattle during the 1950s and 1960s was unlimited hydro racing. My own interest in the Sonics had lagged considerably in the past decade or so, partly because the NBA style of play didn't appeal to me, partly because after the 1996 NBA finals team, the Sonics took a nosedive in the standings. I've cared more about the WNBA Storm than the SuperSonics for years. I'm glad I did go to one Sonics game last year.

I guess it's a strangely fitting end for a franchise named for an aircraft that never flew.

Boeing SST

I'm guess I'm just pretty disgusted with the whole thing. It would have been a travesty to make an owner stay who clearly didn't want to be here. It was more of a travesty to have him own the team in the first place.

Yes, really. The traitor to the city, if any existed, was the Starbucks tycoon for selling the team to the Oklahoma City group. They clearly didn't care which team they bought as long as they could move it to the barren windswept prairie.

I think the Seattle fans were lulled into a sense of complacancy by the threats of the Mariners and Seahawks in the 1990s to leave town. There seemed to be rumors every couple of years about the M's leaving for Tampa Bay, and the Seahawks announced they were moving to LA and actually loaded up the moving vans and drove away. In both cases the teams were saved, and eventually moved into spanking brand new state-of-the-art facilities. I can't help feeling that fans here assumed the same would happen with the SuperSonics.

I think this sort of thing happened with the Minnesota North Stars. The Twins owners spent about ten straight years claiming they were going to move to Washington or Florida or somewhere, and never did, even though they didn't even get a new stadium. But then, all of a sudden the hockey team moved! That was a bigger surprise.

The big winners in this whole ordeal are probably the Utah Jazz executives. Suddenly Salt Lake City is no longer the NBA city to which NBA players would least like to move.

Hit the one in the middle.