“One Man’s Opinion” by Gordon Curvey

I am a NBA junky. I love the game of basketball. When the NBA season ends I get depressed as a sports fan. I was very supportive of our Seattle Sonics for years and years. Then I started my TV show “Music Inner City TV” which covers entertainment and sports and I started going to Key Arena here in Seattle to obtain interviews with NBA players.

I interviewed a lot of players over the years like Micheal Jordan, Shaq, Charles Barkley, Phil Jackson, Isiah Thomas, Chris Webber, Rip Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, and many many more NBA players and coaches. It was a lot of fun not work when I went to interview players at the morning shoot arounds at Key Arena here in Seattle. Well it looks like that will never happen again in my lifetime after the NBA Board of Governors voted 22-8 to keep the Sacramento Kings in Sacramento.

As a NBA fan I am crushed. I am hurt. I am depressed. It looks like I will never again get a chance to conduct interviews with NBA players here in Seattle except for our Seattle natives who are here during the summer like Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson, Spencer Hawes, Rodney Stuckey, Terrence Williams, Tony Wroten Jr. and many others. This is very very sad and I am feeling horrible and very sad today. As a sports fan I am as sad today as when the Sonics left in 2008.

I think about Gary Payton going into the Basketball Hall Of Fame in a few months as a Sonic, but our Sonics are in OKC and today a vote was taken to keep the NBA out of Seattle for a long long time in my opinion. When will we be able to have a event to have Payton and Shawn Kemp’s jersey go up in a arena? Will and where will that happen? Today I think about how fun it was when I listened to Sonic broadcaster Kevin Calabro and Marques Johnson go off with excitement after a pass from “The Glove” to “The Reignman” Shawn Kemp for a vicious slam dunk with the crowd at the Key cheering.

I think about how excited I was when the Sonics made the NBA Finals against Pippin and MJ and Rodman and the Bulls. I think about the 79′ title team led by now Seattle area resident Hall Of Fame member Lenny Wilkens as the head coach. And on the court led by the late DJ, The Wizard, Lonnie Shelton, Jack Sikma, JJ and “Downtown” Freddy Brown.

So readers I just wonder what is the next move by Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer? Because after today and listening to the clown David Stern and the press conference to announce that the Kings are staying in Sacramento, it seems the NBA will not be in Seattle in my lifetime. For this I am very sad as a NBA fan. I will have to continue to watch the excitement of OKC fans knowing that was our Sonics.

We are the 12th or 13th largest radio/tv market in the U.S. and we don’t have a NBA team but Sacramento does. This ain’t right. This is very wrong. I want to thank Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer and Wally Walker for trying to put smiles and excitement on our faces because we had the return of our Sonics after having them in our city for four decades. I also want to thank my friends Jason Reid and Adam Brown and also Brian Robinson, Shawn Kemp and others for their hard work over the last few years. I also want to thank sportsradio KJR for opening up their airwaves for hours and hours on the topic of the Sonics and the return of the NBA.

Does Hansen and Ballmer have other plans for the future when it comes to the Sonics in Seattle? We will let you know right here on “Sports Inner City Online”. Coming up a story on David Stern. Who I have some problems with. Stay tuned!