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It is good to hear Joe that Presti complimented Nick. And your right Bennett approved that deal, though he was still in a don't rock the boat yet stage then. Presti is in a tricky situation with Nick. If/when others develop enough / step up his minutes will go down. After that happens other teams will probably think that Presti will be anxious to move him and offer less. Move him sooner (Feb or next summer) and you probably get more back but move him too soon and it will hurt the advance on the court. I doubt Presti has a firm plan yet. Moving Wilkins and Atkins is fiarly minor but the immediate priority.

The Governor was a Storm fan personally and for political reasons. She said she was a Sonics supporter but admitted to rarely going or watching them and her actions leave a lot of doubt whether she truly cared or did anything useful. I don't think she did that muchuseful. Keeping the Storm was important to some feminists and lesbians and the Governor was relieved I am sure when they stayed. Whether there was a back room deal explicitly saving the Storm in exchange for not fighting harder for the Sonics was been speculated on but is not generally known for certain.

Bennett got paid for the Storm and maybe more than it costs to get a new franchise now. And Stern probably wanted to keep the Storm in Seattle because it is one the strongest WNBA franchises and they need some stability. If they went to OKC Bird and Jackson weren't going to re-sign and they are among the fans faves and Jackson is a perennial MVP candidate and was won one or more. Also Stern may think the Storm helps keep Seattle warm for basketball but the fanbases are largely separate. Or at least it keeps the Key arena from deficits and that would hurt the prospects of a arena upgrade. Keeping th eStorm was alos part of the strategy to divide and conquer th efanbase and voters and legislators and the Governor. If they took the Storm and the Sonics there were politicians that would have opposed the buyout that agreed to it. How many is hard to say but it might have tougher and Stern and Bennett weren't willing to take that chance.

I think they're counting on the success of the OU women's team. They drew great crowds and picked up a lot of fans. But that's not going to happen with the WNBA here.

@Vega

good point but seriously who cares about the WNBA? it will fail miserably in a small market like Tulsa...

@Royce
Me neither. Also, if they wanted a WNBA team in Oklahoma, why didn't they simply keep the Storm?

@Vega
Not excited. At all.

According to HoopsHype, a group of investors are going to have a press conference on Wednesday to announce their intentions to bring a WNBA team to Tulsa. Thoughts?

@MartzMimic
If it's any consolation Martz, when Presti was being interviewed a couple of days ago live at halftime, he spoke very highly of Nick's basketball contribution and character. So hopefully he will be the last man standing from the Rick Sund/Wally Walker regime.

I remind people from time to time that Nick's current contract was okayed by Clay Bennett himself. The team didn't have Presti yet, but Bennett was in charge and was still leaning on Sund and Lenny Wilkins, so, while not technically a Presti guy, he was extended on Bennett's watch. Of course, so was Luke Ridnour.....

Well, there's still Wilkins. That said, I'm sure Damien is a really nice guy, and not likely to get enough PT to draw much wrath.

As you and Darnell pointed out, this only leaves Wilkins and Nick from the previous regime. Hopefully, one of our youngsters will turn into a solid glue guy like Nick, but I hope he's here for a while. My favorite play last season was him on the floor wrestling the ball away from Bosh.

^^
now THAT is a great question.... I vote Lord Byron

@MartzMimic
As someone pointed out in a another thread, we really don't have a scapegoat anymore... No Swift, no Watson, no Atkins (probably). WHAT DO WE DO?

I guess I'll have to give up something else for Lent besides criticizing Earl.