Remembering Seattle

"Thank you Seattle," said the T-Shirt sarcastically.

This shirt, made by Warpaint clothing, is a nose-thumbing at Seattle and their fans who had their team ripped from them though they lobbied to save it.

The classic Supersonics logo is depicted in OKC blue and distastefully reminds still-tender Seattle fans that what used to be their team is now just four wins from the NBA Finals.

After the shirt was publicized by New York Times writer Howard Beck, the outrage (and death threats) over twitter forced Warpaint to issue a semi-apology and declare their intention to stop selling the shirts. The controversial shirt is just the latest sting in the contentious relationship between Sonics fans and Thunder fans.

“I miss Seattle a lot. It was my first city that I lived in on my own. It was a great city to play for. It was unfortunate for the fans what happened, but it’s time to move on," said the NBA's leading scorer Kevin Durant.

"I’m sure they’ve moved on. But in the back of my mind, I still have a thing for Seattle and always am going to remember what they’ve done for me.”

Kevin Durant was there when the team was terrible near the end of it's run in Seattle.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz hadn't owned the team long when he sold to Clay Bennett. Bennett made some half-hearted promises about keeping the team in Seattle though he had hosted the hurricane-driven Hornets for a season and had a new arena in place in Oklahoma, Bennett's home town.

When the city of Seattle voted not to publicly fund a new arena, the team broke the lease at Key Arena two years early and moved to OKC and the rest is history.

Except for the future. And a bright future at that.

OKC is easily the best, most exciting young team in the League. But lest we forget, the Sonics once were as well. Watching the Seattle Supersonics leave is a lesson for all NBA franchises.

The documentary Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team won "Best Sports Film" at the 2010 Webby Awards, and goes into depth about the team background in Seattle and behind the scened to see what happened that led to the relocation of the team.