Capt_Picard

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  1. Posted

    Sonics, Storm Sold To Oklahoma City Group

     

    July 18, 2006

     

    By Associated Press sonics_new_owner_071806.jpg

     

    SEATTLE - A group from Oklahoma City has agreed to buy the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics and the WNBA's Seattle Storm.

     

    The new owners have set a 12-month deadline to reach a new arena deal with Seattle officials - something the teams' previous owners didn't accomplish in two years. After that, the new owners gain the option to move the team to Oklahoma.

     

    Until then, Seattle, come support your teams!

     

    That's the conflicting message Northwest basketball fans took away from Tuesday's announcement that the Basketball Club of Seattle, headed by Starbucks Corp. chairman Howard Schultz, will sell the teams for $350 million to the Professional Basketball Club LLC, headed by Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett.

     

    "This isn't how we wanted to go out," Schultz said of the decision to sell the city's oldest major league professional sports franchise - which began play in 1967 - to an out-of-towner.

     

    He said he turned down higher offers from potential buyers that he felt would move the team immediately. Some earlier offers were known to have been from San Jose, Calif., and Kansas City, Mo.

     

    Bennett is the president of Oklahoma City investment firm Dorchester Capital. He was key to temporarily moving the New Orleans Hornets to his city following Hurricane Katrina. He told a Tuesday afternoon news conference at his new team's training facility that whether the Sonics remain in Seattle beyond 2007 would depend on whether the team can reach an agreement with the city to replace or renovate KeyArena.

     

    The arena was remodeled in 1994-95 and the Sonics have a lease until 2010 with the city. The team and NBA commissioner David Stern both have said that lease is the league's most unfavorable to a team and must be changed - or better yet, a new place must be built with a new lease - for the teams to remain viable in the region.

     

    "It is not our intention to move or relocate the teams - as long, of course, as we are able to negotiate a successor venue to the current basketball arena and arrangements to ensure the Sonics and Storm can succeed," Bennett said.

     

    His crewcut hair and square, jutted jaw conveyed a bottom-line persona.

     

    So did his words - but only when he was pressed on what would happen if he and his partners, who have no known Washington ties, can't reach an agreement in 12 months with local politicians.

     

    "If we weren't able to find a successor facility and relative lease by then, we have the option contractually to ... evaluate our position," Bennett said, pausing to choose his final words carefully.

     

    To many Seattle fans, that already reads: Oklahoma SiloSonics and Oklahoma Dust Storm.

     

    In February, upon the formation of his investor group in Oklahoma City, Bennett declared: "The bottom line is, we want a team for this market."

     

    Seattle resident Aaron Morris, 18, stood a few yards away from the Sonics' facility as Bennett spoke. Morris said he attends a few Sonics games a year when he can afford it and watches the games on television.

     

    He was holding a homemade, cardboard sign that read: "39 years ... out the window??"

     

    Friend Ben Conway, also 18 and from Seattle, was standing next to him wearing a green, Sonics Shawn Kemp throwback jersey with a white T-shirt pulled over his face and head - he said to represent the gravity of the day.

     

    Conway's sign: "Don't sell my childhood to OK City."

     

    A seemingly dejected Schultz said he came to realize he had to sell the team in the last 30 days. But he used the words "in Seattle" at least a dozen times while discussing the team's long-term future under Bennett.

     

    When asked what he would tell a Seattle kid who loves the Sonics, Schultz said: "I told my children, and children of those I know, that I did this obviously with concern and trepidation. But I believe strongly this new group has a commitment to staying, provided elected officials meet him halfway.

     

    "I do not believe the team is moving."

     

    Even Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, speaking from his city, joined the cautious chorus.

     

    "I think it's presumptuous to assume that Clay Bennett and his ownership group won't own that Seattle team for a long, long time in Seattle or somewhere else. It's presumptuous to assume they're going to move that franchise to Oklahoma City," Cornett said. "I understand that people are going to say that seems to be a likely scenario, but that's just speculation."

     

    Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels pledged to work with Bennett.

     

    "We're going to try and work with Mr. Bennett and his group," Nickels said. "I think they're going to see Seattle is a great place to do business. And hopefully their team will do well on the court and the combination of those will allow us to have an extension of the lease beyond 2010.

     

    "We have been providing very specific offers to the Sonics. We think it's an important part of our community. Those are still on the table."

     

    And Gov. Chris Gregoire said in a statement, "I am encouraged that the new owners want to stay in the state. I have worked with Mayor Nickels and the City Council and hoped that the teams would stay in Key Arena because I have been concerned about the long-term viability of the Seattle Center."

     

    Schultz said city and state officials should realize now that the Sonics really may leave Seattle.

     

    "If the city didn't believe we'd potentially move the team, we obviously have a group now that does have an out," Schultz said. "But that's not what (the new owners) want to do."

    I now believe some one has it out for the major sport teams of Seattle. By the way... could you all protest Starbucks with me because of this?

  3. Posted

    I don't get it..... :bow:

    You know how William Shatner talk in broken sectences some times? And his body some times jerks around when he talks? That's what my friend is making fun of. Also, the fact that in the TV show he co-stars in now he always says his name. The first time I saw it and cracked up laughing for a good five minutes, read it again, and kept on laughing...

  17. Posted

    Port Orchard Soldier Loses Long Fight To Survive

     

    June 28, 2006

     

    By KOMO Staff devon_gibbons.jpg

     

    SEATTLE - When a roadside bomb explosion in Iraq left 19-year-old Devon Gibbons severely injured, no one expected him to survive his wounds. He had lost both legs and his right arm in the explosion, and suffered severe burns.

     

    But for 10 weeks, Gibbons fought to stay alive. His family was by his side at an Army hospital in Texas.

     

    But on Friday, Devon lost his battle and passed away. His parents just returned to Seattle Tuesday and wanted to take time to talk about their son.

     

    Devon may have been just 19, but his parents and others say he taught all of them so much. They called him a true Calvary scout and valiant man and say his determination and strength really set an example for all, and they remember his smile and playful personality.

     

    "He's an amazing kid," said his mother Bonnie Gibbons. "We're really proud of him."

     

    "His determination and his mental attitude was there (at the hospital)," added his father Mel Gibbons. "But his body just couldn't be sustained from the injuries."

     

    Mel and Bonnie sat with Devon for those 10 weeks, through pain, surgeries, and hallucinations. But they also shared smiles and love.

     

    "The days he was talking, he was quite the personality kid," said Bonnie Gibbons. "He was a joker. He would tell them when they were brushing is teeth that, 'you're done,' and (the doctors) would say, 'no we're not quite done' and he'd say, 'oh, you're done.' "

     

    "It was just like they lost a brother; the male and female nurses," Mel Gibbons said. "They were so close to Devon. Three weeks ago he was winking at them."

     

    Military friends also visited Devon. And on the day's Mel didn't read Devon the Soldier's creed, those soldiers recited it by heart.

     

    "It kept reminding him of what his mission was and he enjoyed it because he's a soldier," Mel Gibbons said.

     

    But on Friday, Devon's body could no longer fight the infection or the pain.

     

    "One of the last things he said to me was that he knew the Lord loved him and he loved the Lord and he knew he would be OK," his mother said. "Then he asked me to come over and give him a hug."

     

    Devon will be laid to rest Saturday with full military honors at the family's church in Port Orchard.

    (link to video of the story here)

     

    To note I did know him, not as well as most, but still did know him from elementary to high school. I can't place what school or year because of all the moving I did back then. He was in my graduating class of 2005 and is the fourth, so far, to die from the class. The first three were in a car wreck and held on for about six weeks. If my class was anything, it was being stubborn, and still is to this day. I plan to go to the funereal Saturday.

  18. Posted

     

    New Star Trek Magazine Launches in the U.S.

    To help celebrate the 49th anniversary of the Star Trek franchise, CBS Consumer Products and Titan Magazines have launched a new Star Trek magazine. Available on newsstands beginning August 22, the new bi-monthly magazine will feature exclusive interviews, features and behind the scenes access.

    49th anniversary?

  20. Posted

    It took me a year, but I finally got some of the stuf I worked on at South on the net. I first have the channel open(

    ), and then my senior video(
    ,
    ,
    ). By the way... I am not in the senior video... unlike everyone else from video... I was in the year book ten times, I was on the school news every week, and with the radio show I thought that people needed a break from my 'lovely' face.