Kevin Durant might be moving to Oklahoma City, but some key bits of Seattle Sonics memorabilia are staying put writes the Seattle Post-Inteligencer’s Greg Johns.
The City of Seattle’s agreement with the (Oklahoma City) Professional Basketball Club was obtained Wednesday in a public-records request by the Seattle P-I and the final document — signed by both parties Tuesday — includes a number of “assets” from KeyArena that the PBC wants transferred to its new Ford Center home.
While Clay Bennett and his Oklahoma partners want some of KeyArena’s removable furniture — they’ll be taking 150 courtside seats, for instance — the agreement does assure that all trophies, banners and retired jerseys will remain in Seattle at the Museum of History and Industry.
The PBC retains the right to display duplicate copies of such memorabilia in Oklahoma City, however, as well as the ability to borrow the originals for occasional display in its new city.
Things get even fuzzier when it comes down to exactly what history will remain attached to the new Oklahoma City squad and what remains the property of Seattle.
The PBC agreed not to use the Sonics’ nickname, logos or colors and will transfer the rights to all such “intellectual property” at no cost to any new NBA team to be located in Seattle and that plays its games in a renovated KeyArena.
If the NBA awards an expansion team to Seattle that plays in a renovated KeyArena in the next five years, the agreement states that the owner of that team and the PBC are “each free to use and refer to the Sonics’ history” in terms of statistics, records and player histories.
The Oklahoma City owners also must transfer at no cost the team’s banners, trophies and retired jerseys to any new Seattle team owner, provided the new owner acknowledges that the memorabilia relates to a “shared history” between PBC and the Seattle team.
The PBC is free to immediately take the 150 courtside seats, 24 office chairs, the flat-screen out of the coaches’ locker room and two 32-inch high-definition LCD TVs.
Once the Storm season concludes, such items as the basketball inflator, 200 compact discs, recording equipment, a sound effect machine, six team-shop kiosks and a replay monitor will be shipped to Oklahoma.
While we’re on the subject of Sonics history, Sean Kemp inked a two-year pact with Premiata Montegranaro over the weekend. If you’re curious about the Reign Man’s new ‘hood, Supersonicsoul notes, “the population of Montegranaro is about 12,000, a number which may increase exponentially with Kemp’s arrival, given Italy’s views on birth control.”