John Blanchette: Sonics exit Emerald City

Bob Rule … Tom Meschery … John Tresvant … Lenny Wilkens…

Forty-one years of Northwest professional basketball history goes into storage this morning. The classic skyline logo, the retired jerseys, the NBA championship banner, the Squatch costume – all of it, boxed up and mothballed in Seattle mayor Greg Nickels’ attic.

For 75 million pieces of silver – give or take 30 million – the city of Seattle sold its hold on the Supersonics on Wednesday, settling the about-to-be-decided lawsuit against Sonics owner Clay Bennett before a judge could rule whether the club would have to play out the final two years of its KeyArena lease. Bennett may now start loading the moving vans for the transfer to Oklahoma City, which would seem to be a fit for the NBA culture in much the same way that Airway Heights is a fit for the polo culture.

But, hey, you have to play somewhere.

Spencer Haywood … Slick Watts … John Brisker … Frank Oleynick…

Those names – the great, the popular, the scary and the busts – played in KeyArena, back when it was simply the Seattle Coliseum, back when private suites weren’t necessary to turn a dollar in the absurd economics of the NBA. Back when a family of four didn’t have to auction themselves down to a family of three to afford to attend a game.

But those days are long gone, and now the Sonics are, too – or at least the team that played under that name. For the 2008-09 season, they will be the Oklahoma Joads – the same kiddie corps enduring OJT, only this time in front of a fawning fan base instead of a bitter, frustrated one whose elected and appointed officials were late to the party in preserving the franchise and then sold out.

Bennett, who paid $350 million for the franchise when he took it off the hands of Starbucks foof Howard Schultz and has run up eight-figure losses each of the last two years, has bottomless pockets. He will pay $45 million to get out of the lease, and another $30 million should the city get a funding plan in place for a renovation of Key by the end of 2009 – but not be rewarded with an NBA franchise by 2013.

“The first $45 million makes us whole for the next two years and pays off the debt at KeyArena,” said Nickels, referring to the tab for the 1995 building renovations. “I hope we don’t get the final $30 million.

“I hope we get a new basketball team in Seattle.”

Gus Williams … Jack Sikma … Dennis Johnson … Downtown Fred Brown…

Preferably a team like that, still Seattle’s only one to win a major professional championship, if you don’t count the Storm, which we don’t. Of course, what Seattle will get instead is somebody else’s foundering franchise, hemorrhaging money, dubiously managed, shopping itself to out-of-towners the same way the Sonics were two years ago.

But that’s taking it on faith that Seattle will get another team at all.

“The NBA has committed to help us secure a future team,” Nickels said, a politician just useless enough to trust the likes of David Stern, the NBA’s shrimp-forked tongue.

Here’s what Stern had to say on March 27 of this year: “The footprint of Key is at present time not viewed as adequate to support what’s necessary going forward.”

And here’s what he said Wednesday: “If this funding were authorized, we believe KeyArena could properly be renovated into a facility that meets NBA standards relating to revenue generation, fan amenities, team facilities, and the like.”

Except that Seattle must now convince the Legislature to help jazz-up KeyArena for a tenant that does not yet exist, after saying no three times when the Sonics were still in town. Does the term “non-starter” ring a bell?

The Kingdome years … The Wheedle … Bob Blackburn … Xavier McDaniel’s X-rated cameo in “Singles”…

Beyond metropolitan Seattle, sadly, this sellout elicits mostly a shrug. Even with the aberrational spike of success in 2005, the Sonics haven’t generated a regional buzz since before the lockout season of 10 years ago – since reaching the NBA Finals in 1996, really. Unlike a Seahawks game or a Mariners series, the Sonics aren’t a destination event for a fan on this side of the mountains. Broadcasts are exiled to the Book-‘em-Danno channel. One year there wasn’t even a radio outlet in Spokane. A consistent winner might change that, but even in the city that celebrates the current NBA champs, the game is third banana among professional sports.

On the other hand, just because you have a museum and a symphony to attend doesn’t mean you don’t want the ballet, too.

The NBA isn’t a civic necessity – any more than the NFL is, as Los Angeles has discovered. But it has its moments, and some of us will miss them.

George Karl’s ties … Nate McMillan’s blue-collar resolve … Sonics wives Monique Ellis and Bobby Jo Lister fighting outside the locker room … The Glove…

Forty-one years. Even at $75 million, they went cheap.