The NBA is one of the premier sports leagues in the world and easily the biggest for the sport of basketball. Owning an NBA team is a massive badge of honor, as it is one of the most competitive leagues into which owners are trying to find a way to enter. One of those prospective owners might soon own an expansion franchise in Seattle, as the league is taking more steps to reintroduce regular NBA basketball in the city with a preseason game.
Seattle native Steve Ballmer was asked to speak to the fans prior to tip-off between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Portland Trail Blazers. Ballmer owns the Clippers and gave an extremely fun speech prior to the start of the game and saying that the city deserves 1000s of basketball games in the city’s brand-new arena.
Steve Ballmer addresses the crowd in Seattle.https://t.co/5zx0t9AAtH pic.twitter.com/aD4m9Xo1pj
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) October 4, 2022
“I am so excited to be at a game in my hometown of Seattle, Washington. I am so excited to see Climate Pledge Arena, this fantastic building, filled up tonight. I am so excited that we are playing the Portland Trail Blazers. I have to be honest, a lot of us wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the Blazers. Paul Allen, the founder of Microsoft, got me interested in basketball before he passed, the owner of the Blazers. And last, but not least, I want to know whether you guys agree with me. I want thousands of basketball games in Seattle, if this is a basketball city, let’s hear it.”
The fans loved Ballmer’s statement and the game between the Clips and the Blazers is currently underway.
Should The Seattle SuperSonics Make A Comeback?
If the NBA is genuinely going to expand the league and include Seattle as one of the cities that’ll get an NBA team, most people will instantly think about the SuperSonics that rebranded as the Oklahoma City Thunder and left. The name and lineage of the Sonics franchise are linked with OKC.
As a result of that, the new team in Seattle should have a new name and ethos, bringing in the next generation of fans in the city. The Sonics era is in the past and a new franchise here should start from scratch.
NBA players like Kevin Durant could be interested in being part of an ownership group for a new Seattle franchise. A lot still needs to be made official for the dreams to become reality, but Seattle moves closer and closer to having their own NBA team once again.
