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 Linda Thomas
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Seattle Sonics fans are a 'bunch of babies'

May 22, 2012 @ 5:22 pm (Updated: 5:45 am - 5/23/12 )

"Seattle 'fans' are a bunch of babies. They only cared once they started winning," says Toby Parkinson.

"If Seattle fans miss their team that much, why didn't they support them when they had the chance?" asks Matthew Gray.

The Twitter bitterness continues as the Oklahoma City Thunder moves on to the Western Conference Finals for the second straight season.

A not-so-sweet tweet featured a t-shirt created by an Oklahoma company that had an updated Sonics logo on the front and a "Thank you Seattle - Okc" on the back. After that, the company reportedly got death threats and stopped selling them. A Twitter pal reminds me, Seattle companies created less than courteous shirts too.

Shirts

People who weren't here when the Sonics were snatched away from us are confused. Their comments on Twitter make a point.

"Seattle cry babies didn't even go to the games. That's why you lost your team morons," Sour Schultz writes on a blog comment. I don't think he's related to Howard Schultz.

We're talking about this on Facebook too, where most people believe those outside of Seattle don't understand why we're still angry about the way the team was torn from us.

"Clay Bennett made the team bad and then started to add talent went they moved to OKC. A bad team on the court leads to people not wanting to go to games," says Joe Nelms, explaining why others can't look at attendance alone to tell the story of the declining Seattle Sonics. "They were in the city of Seattle for 41 years. That's not something you can let go very easily."

Why haven't we let go?

Sickamore Seattle doesn't like the way Oklahoma is "arrogantly embracing a team that was kidnapped through greed, deception, lies, speculation and ignorance then posturing as if they're the somehow heralded underdogs. The fans didn't let the team down, our elected officials did; big difference."

"I think the 'get over it' mentality comes from not understanding what the team meant to some people," says Peter Sessum. "Teams mean a lot to some, not all, fans. Dogs aren't just pets, they are part of a the family. Cars aren't just a mode of transportation, people care about them. I didn't cry when the team left, but I feel for the fans that were hurt by the move and I think making fun of them isn't cool."

By LINDA THOMAS

More from Linda Thomas

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Comments (28)


  • Add A Comment

  • Teahawk wrote...
    The good news is...
    May 22, 2012 5:10 pm
    At least we don't have to live in OKC.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Rangerhawk wrote...
    Teahawk
    May 22, 2012 7:18 pm
    Amen.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • couchpotatoslacker wrote...
    I'd prefer to be there
    May 22, 2012 7:51 pm
    Seattle is a shythole full of whining liberal assholes. I love the area, but the people here suck balls.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • don over taxed wrote...
    Don't live in OKC
    May 23, 2012 7:52 am
    We love it here where is rains or is overcast 10 months out of the year.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • turp63 wrote...
    Teahawk
    May 23, 2012 10:45 am
    True That..
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Daddy Dennis wrote...
    Right!
    May 24, 2012 12:15 am
    To the Thunder Fans: You are doing it wrong. Celebrating in disorderly mobs outside the arena is for rookie fans. Perhaps someday you will learn how to celebrate correctly.

    As for the fans in OKC... I am looking fondly to a future of your arid and barely hospitable homeland being showered with the rain of your tears. I hope as you are weeping in lament for the pitiful exit of your beloved stolen franchise that someone brings an umbrella and mentions how it rains a lot in Seattle too.

    So much joy for a win that did not even result in a championship. Oh, your tears will be sweet. So sweet. Will you mind if we run videos of your mob of noob fans as we laugh?

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • BikeNazi wrote...
    Remember when the Mariners won 116 games?
    May 22, 2012 5:14 pm
    Remember when Ken Griffey scored a run that got the Mariners into the 1995 pennant? Remember the Fun Forest? Remember the 1962 World's Fair? Seattle needs to stop living in the past and give it up.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tuleman003 wrote...
    Wow, what short memories we have.
    May 22, 2012 5:15 pm
    The Supersonics left town because the team had no leadership. Howard Schultz kept throwing money at the team, but the management couldn't make all those egos gel. Then when the 'Sonics were sold, the owner wanted a new coliseum, but never said anything about changing up management. At the time, the feelings were, "Go 'Sonics, and take the Mariners with you"!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tuleman003 wrote...
    Seattle has a history of bad teams.
    May 22, 2012 5:24 pm
    What about the Seattle Rainiers or the Seattle Pilots? I'm so proud of the Storm and even the Seahawks making it to the Superbowl. Just how much damage do you think Seattle would have sustained had we won the Superbowl? We can't even control a May Day parade.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tuleman003 wrote...
    Oh, and BTW
    May 22, 2012 5:38 pm
    I saw the Supersonics win the World Championship in January, 1980. I didn't destroy anything, but I did walk around the base in Twentynine Palms, CA with my chest puffed out for a couple of days.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    Uh - Tuleman -
    May 22, 2012 5:57 pm
    Try June of 1979. .. But we didn't destroy anything then, either. Except the Bullets.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tuleman003 wrote...
    Thanks for correcting me
    May 22, 2012 8:50 pm
    Did you have to Google that to get your facts. I just pulled it from my own memory.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    I usually never google what I'm sure of.
    May 22, 2012 9:29 pm
    but if you really want sports history, the Sacramento "Kings' - who we might want to get - started their NBA life as the Cincinnati 'Royals'. And were once also in Kansas City.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Derrol_o wrote...
    tuleman
    May 22, 2012 9:38 pm
    NBA finals are always in June. Just a FYI and many of us remember that day seeing Gus hoist the ball into the air and Musberger proclaiming, "Let the celebration begin in Seattle!" just like it was yesterday.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • basefare wrote...
    Thunder
    May 22, 2012 6:29 pm
    I watched the Thunder dismantle the Lakers without knowing their history. I didn't know Thunder was the former Seattle Sonic.I watched basketball tournament because friends and neighbors here all are Thunder fans, (go along to get along). I joined Linda's blog here so I could keep up with the Cougars and Mike Leach and she does such a good job writing this that and the other that she's fun to read. Other people are wanting football teams so you better take care of the one you've got up in Seattle less it become another LA Football Powerhouse or something. Go Thunder, go Dallas, go Cougars.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tuleman003 wrote...
    That's ok
    May 22, 2012 9:05 pm
    I'll bet 95% of these "Seattle sports fans" don't know the Milwakee Brewers were the Seattle Pilots. And that they played in the old Sick's Stadium in downtown Seattle.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Rangerhawk wrote...
    Super Sonics Never Left Seattle
    May 22, 2012 7:20 pm
    The team did. The Sonics are just lying dormant.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Newton wrote...
    Citizens Stop being Played For Fools.
    May 22, 2012 7:50 pm
    The City/state is Broke. Tax Hikes and Layoffs are everywhere. Jobs to Build a Stadium. Well never payback the Tax hike on your home/property. This is a Scam from start to finish. Just like the Mariners. With the Citizens holding a Garbage bag Team as always. With High Tax Hikes and Minimum wage Jobs. Thats the recipe for going broke. Its like chewing your leg off to feed your self. JUST SAY NO!!!.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • C"mon Man wrote...
    Franchise free agency
    May 22, 2012 8:43 pm
    I would never claim to know what it would be like growing up on the plains of Oklahoma, with my life evolving around College Football and farming, nor would anyone else not from Seattle know what it was like for us to win an NBA Championship in 1979. Sports is now a business,that will pick up and move to GREENER pastures, LA Rams to St. Louis,Cleveland Browns to Baltimore, New Orleans Jazz to Utah,and almost the LA Seahawks and so on. You can move the Sonics, but you cannot take away the great memories of Spencer Haywood,Lenny Wilkins and Gus Williams making life fun over at the Seattle center Coliseum.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Derrol_o wrote...
    C'mon Man
    May 22, 2012 9:52 pm
    Amen brother. Even many cities whose team has won NBA titles wouldn't know what it was like here in '79 with the Sonics. They turned the city on its ear and the entire city got behind them from young kids to old bag ladies. The Lakers belong to the city of Los Angeles, the Suns belong to the city of Phoenix, but the city of Seattle belonged to the Sonics. That was the difference. Sonic Boom baby!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    C'mon -
    May 22, 2012 10:01 pm
    That Ram franchise started ITS life in Cleveland. And the Raiders played 8+ years in LA before going back home to Oakland.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Citizen of Krazy Town wrote...
    ba dum ba dum da dum ba dum ba dum ba dum SWISH
    May 22, 2012 8:54 pm
    SNORE.........
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }