What we have here is a failure to differentiate.

SEATTLE - This past week the commish, David Stern, said among many other things "So there was no heart whatsoever for assisting the Sonics team."

What has been repeated many places as part of the headline has been the "no heart" part. It is sensational.

But what we have here, and there are many instances of this in sports quotes, is a failure to differentiate. The failure of the person talking usually leads to this. It's often said by somebody wanting something, or leaving a team, that Seattle (or insert your city here) didn't try/care/want me/value my years/value my effort/has no heart/kicked my dog... whatever. The fact of the matter is that it is a very rare instance where a city's fans or citizens has anything to do with the comments. The comments are almost always directed at the owner of a particular team. The fans don't own the team, they are two different entities.

The person speaking here, in this instance, was apparently talking about the politician's heart, had the full quote been read by most readers, as it was printed in this Seattle Times story:

A year ago, Stern testified before the state legislature on behalf of the previous, Howard Schultz-led ownership group and found little support in the state capital for plans to renovate KeyArena.

"The speaker [of the house Frank Chopp] out there said that it would get out of committee over his strenuous objections, shall we say," Stern said. "So there was no heart whatsoever for assisting the Sonics team."

The commissioner also cited the passage of Initiative 91, which prohibits Seattle from supporting teams with city tax dollars unless such investments yield a profit on par with a 30-year U.S. Treasury bond, and described the measure as "unique in the annals of American arena building."

After the Clay Bennett-led group purchased the Sonics last year, Stern said: "We were in consultation with the team that hired a whole new set of lobbyists and PR consultants and arena consultants. [We] did everything right."

I don't think that the fan/citizen reading the full quote could fail to understand that the quote was in direct connection with politicians. Unfortunately, the full quote doesn't fit on a headline very well, and sometimes not even into the story, as was the case in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The full quote was so butchered by Post-Intelligencer reporter Greg Johns that I'm sure more than a few fans and citizens felt offended, as if the commish was referring to them having "no heart". What we are likely to have here is a failure to differentiate.

Short story - long, is that it is almost never the case that the fans are the one failing a team, or player. Few sports actors are actually referring to the fans in the city. The speaker, the reporter, the reader, are usually missing intent and context. It's simply poor communication involving people too wrapped up in the moment, situation, or are are plain too stupid to communicate their ideas with a sufficient amount of clarity.

Owners, players, radio talking heads, newspaper reporters, the commish, the agents, do not stand in front of the moving vans. Fans have, do, will. As it usually is, just as it is now, the failure in all of this Sonics mess has ZERO to do with the actual fans.
It aint on me if this goes to hell, I play my role like a star, I'm just the fan.