As previously announced, the fun is about to begin in Oklahoma City.
Moving vans will be rolling into town any day now filled with basketball gear and trophies. They will pull up to the Ford Center, unload their plunder and treasures, and begin a bigger Extreme Makeover than even Ty Pennington could contemplate pulling off by November. The rehab will be chartered with bringing the arena into this millennium including "wiring it for HDTV and including lighting over the court" and "a loading dock with covered shelter." (This is going to be fun to watch.)
Players will bring their vintage whine, their fly attitudes and playa mentalities to the NBA's most rural setting. Their solemn juvenile reflections already have Okie City psychologists chomping at the bit as they warily express concerns about the overabundance of over-exuberant tornadoes that have painted the town and nearby environs the color "flat." Hope there's a special little psych coupon in their Welcome Wagon basket: "One 30-minute session free with one paid session."
The most positive part of the very young Sonics' move to Okie City is that their nightlife should be tamped down by the allure of so many of the metropolis' top draws. Fine dining awaits them post-game at one of the city's 4 1/2-star restaurants.
But my favorite part of the journey is that it is driving away from Seattle. That the Triptik ends elsewhere. Some other city/county/state's denizens will be hit with the gratuity tax to support some millionaire's hobby. (And "shazam," as Gomer Pyle used to say from their part of the world the cow chips are already forming with Okie politicos on PR benders.) Seattle/King/Washington can now get down to diverting taxes on mass transit, schools and other previously ignored distractions. Let the spending begin, I say.
And, of course, we all wait with bated breath for the announcement of the new team name in Okie C. The leader according to a poll from some newspaper in the Sooner state was "Other." Not Thunder or Tornadoes or even the once much-touted Whatevers. But the Oklahoma City Others.
Somehow, it seems quite appropriate now that the shoe (or was that the tax burden?) is on the "others'" foot.
