Sonics on New Path to Americathon

SEATTLE - Clay Bennett doesn't realize that he's about to live the Americathon dream. Fortunately, I saw the movie in the theater when it came out in 1979. The seeds to a version of the Americathon scenario are playing out in the rumor that was posted last Friday on Royalbroughamway.com, see here:

According to a source close to the negotiations, The Seattle Supersonic's owner Clay Bennett has recently been in discussions with John Daniels Jr., the chairman of the Muckleshoot Tribe and their gambling facilities, with Bill Russell being the mediator, to create an alternative to the Renton arena proposal rejected by the Washington State House of Representatives. John Daniels Jr. is listed as one of the top 25 most influential people in the State of Washington. The Muckleshoot tribe owns more than 6 square miles of land around the Emerald Downs facility in Auburn, Washington. Their holdings also include the Muckleshoot Indian Casino, one of the largest casinos in Washington State.

I really, really hope this works out. That would be a great situation for the tribe and for the Sonics.

And in other "news", Bob Hill will not be returning, Rick Sund finally got a call returned by team ownership, only, they told him he wasn't the GM anymore. The search is on. Back in 1998 the Sonics had two guys named Paul they were looking at. They went the cheap route with management again, and chose Paul Westphal (the John Crotty era began and ended). Maybe this time the team will pick the Paul I wanted, and bring in Paul Silas. That issue should be up to the new GM, whoever that is going to be.