In brief: More e-mails put Bennett in bad light

More e-mails involving SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett have been revealed that could slow or even stop the team’s move from Seattle to Oklahoma City, a move the NBA overwhelmingly approved last week.

A filing by the city of Seattle this week in federal court in New York includes e-mails to and from Bennett that show the NBA was concerned last summer that Sonics owners may be breaching their contractual promise of good-faith efforts to find a new arena in Seattle.

In court documents provided Thursday by attorneys representing the city, Bennett stated in an e-mail to Sonics co-owner Aubrey McClendon last Aug. 13 that the NBA was looking into issues “relative to certain documents that we signed at closing that may have been breached.”

Bennett wrote that president of league and basketball operations Joel Litvin was looking into the possible breach.

Earlier that day, Bennett had written an e-mail to McClendon referring to the fallout from McClendon’s comments to an Oklahoma business publication that “we didn’t buy the team to keep it in Seattle, we hoped to come here.”

“Yes sir we get killed on this one,” Bennett wrote to McClendon. “I don’t mind the PR ugliness (pretty used to it), but I am concerned from a legal standpoint that your statement could perhaps undermine our basic premise of “good faith best efforts.”

NBA commissioner David Stern fined McClendon $250,000 for his comment. The city is citing it as evidence Sonics owners lied to Seattle when asserting they weren’t trying to move the team.

Golf

Three share lead

Jesper Parnevik overcame gusty wind and a redesigned course to shoot a 2-under-par 68 in the first round of the EDS Byron Nelson Championship at Irving, Texas. That left him one shot behind Ryan Moore, Mathew Goggin and Eric Axley, whose 67s made them the highest-scoring first-round leaders at the Nelson since 1984.

Parnevik was in a group of eight players at 68 that included 10th-ranked Adam Scott, the only player from the top 10 in the world rankings in the field.

Only 24 of the 156 players in the field broke par.

“Paula Creamer shot a 3-under 68, giving her a share of the lead in the inaugural Stanford International Pro-Am with Momeko Ueda and Young Kim on a day that turned into a test of endurance more than anything else at windy Turnberry Isle at Aventura, Fla. Only 21 of 111 pros broke par, on a course that was far from easy for the tour players – and downright diabolical for amateurs. Lorena Ochoa, the winner each of the previous four weeks on tour, is not playing in this event.

Wendy Ward of Edwall, Wash., opened with a 74.

College athletics

Donor boosts MSU

The owners of Bob Sletten – owner of Sletten Construction Cos., a Great Falls-based construction firm – are donating $500,000 to Montana State University to help pay for upgrades to athletic facilities.

In 2004, Bob and Pat Sletten provided a $1 million scholarship endowment for students studying in the college of engineering.