The Great Basketball Swindle: Sonicsgate Documentary tells all.
Sonicsgate SD Full Version from sonicsgate on Vimeo.
Whenever Warriors Fans feel depressed about our team, we need only look north to realize that things could be much, much worse. At least our team hasn’t been pillaged leaving nothing but a name and a handful of great memories behind.
I have always loved The Sonics. My father signed with the expansion team in 1967 and played there until 1971. I was born in Seattle. Back when I was a kid, Lenny Wilkins framed a poem I had written for school and kept it in his office. And when I first moved to Oakland in ‘94, I was pleased that many here adopted The Sonics as a second home team because of Gary Payton’s presence on the squad. It seemed like The Sonics had a bit of Oakland in them, maybe it was that Kemp/Payton team where I first recognized a new hip-hop swag emerging in the NBA.
This documentary, released in its entirety online (watch it here), does an excellent job of capturing the history of the team and its place in the community. It also highlights everything that’s wrong with the “business” of basketball. It could be an addendum to Michael Moore’s new film, “Capitalism, A Love Story,” as in “Capitalism, A Love Story about Basketball.” What’s sad is that we as fans simply shrug at the honesty of players when they say, “hey, it’s a business,” as if that’s the only rationale for why they’ve been traded, or why they’re leaving a team for free agency or why they’re endorsing such and such product. At least they’re being honest, I guess. What’s worse is that it’s often the owners who give lip service to their business being a part of the community, a part of the public trust, something the fans can own etc. etc. As Clay Bennett might say, “Horseshit!” As all of us Warriors fans know, the interest of the fans or the community are way down at the bottom of the list for owners and players. Greed and egos trump all.
If you are a Warriors fan, you might not want to watch this movie unless you’re prepared to start throwing blunt objects at your computer screen. There are too many parallels here of how a team can be dismantled by terrible, self-interested management. Hey, at least we know that what happened to the Sonics could never happen here, right? Or, uh, maybe it could if more money and new stadiums are involved. I guess San Jose isn’t that far away.
M. Meschery
I’m glad this movie was made even though it made me sick. Once upon a time I saw my hometown Buffalo Braves slowly sold off for parts and then shipped off to whale’s vagina to become the Clippers. My favorite parts of this story was that the deal was engineered by a little known NBA attorney named David Stern. I feel Seattle’s pain. You’re correct that the moral of this story is wherever bad ownership & management exist, your team may just move.
Comment by alanwilliams | 10.16.2009 | 10:52 pm