Seattle still feeling the effects of Sonics ‘hostage situation’

The City of Seattle and Sonics fans are still recovering from the loss of the area’s NBA team.

Who is to blame for all the angst?

For a while, some Puget Sound residents, such as KIRO Radio’s Tom Tangney, were too upset to talk about the issue. In fact, he stopped following the NBA and was rooting for the league to collapse.

With David Stern no longer the commissioner of the NBA, Tom opened up and spoke with 710 ESPN’s Danny O’Neil about who is to blame.

To do that, the two cooked up freshly-baked blame pies.

Here’s how Tom served his blame pie (in order): Clay Bennett, chairman of the ownership group of the NBA franchise formerly known as the SuperSonics; Stern; former Sonics owner Howard Schultz; and former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels.

O’Neil disagreed. In fact, Schultz should get 51 percent of the blame, he told Tom. As soon as Schultz didn’t get exactly what he wanted, he pouted and sold the team.

“He knew that he was selling [the franchise] to a person [Bennett] who would put a knife in the throat of the city,” O’Neil exclaimed. “He sold Seattle into a hostage situation.”

Despite the strong support of a new stadium and purchase of a team, there has yet to be a dessert served in thanks. However, there are two entities vying for a pie of thanks.