Howard Shultz Saved Seattle

For the last couple of days we’ve been having a fun little conversation at work that was sparked in part by a video gone viral of a Seattle Sonic fan being a D-Bag at a book signing. First off, not all Sonic fans are d-bags. Most of them are decent folk, but every so often the morons gather, put on their hoods, grab their pitch forks, and go a-huntin’. It’s been this way since the dawn of time.

There is a group of people that blame Howard Shultz for Seattle’s current lack of an NBA team. He sold the team in 2006 to Clay Bennett. Part of this sale was based on Clay’s “good faith” promise that he would take good care of the team and make every effort to keep them in Seattle. We all knew Clay was lying but the truth is that no one else was going to buy the team and Howard didn’t want to own it anymore. So he sold it to Bennett who, as predicted, moved the team to Oklahoma.

When you strip it down to its base, the gist of “Howard Shultz is the Devil” argument is that if he had never sold the team to Clay Bennett, Bennett would not have been able to move them to Oklahoma City. The conspiracy theorists believe that Howard had to know that this would happen, and if he didn’t then he is clearly a moron so we should hate him for not knowing, or for knowing and doing it anyway. Hell let’s hate him for both. That’s what Evil deserves.

I’m not sure how to simplify this more but I’ll take a crack at it.

Let’s say your neighbor sells his house to someone. Your new neighbor, let’s call him “Ray Tennant” let’s the house and yard go to shit. He’s parking old beat up cars on the lawn. What lawn you can see has 3 foot high grass on it. Some of the windows are broken and have been “repaired” with plywood. The paint is peeling; the roof is a mossy mess. His property value is taking a nose dive and yours is plummeting right along with it. You’re not happy with him but you’re even more upset with your old neighbor. He was a decent neighbor when he lived there. He kept the yard looking good. He was always around when you needed to borrow something, and always returned your shit promptly when you loaned it to him. But then he went and sold his house to Ray. What an asshole! Now you’re stuck living next to this eyesore.

Your old neighbor was tired of living there and wanted to sell. No one else was buying but Ray and the offer was good. Deep down he knew he was kidding himself when he believed Ray’s “I’ll take good care of her” comment, but are we really so petty to begrudge a guy for selling his house to the only one that wanted to buy it?

I ask this question because, some have actually screamed that he should have kept the team, even though he didn’t want to be a part of the NBA any longer.

So let’s rewind the clock back to 1998. The Seattle Sonics, at that time owned by the Ackerley Group, let George Karl go. This, sports fans, was the true end of professional basketball in Seattle. All George Karl had accomplished in his 7 years as HC was to win over 55 games every year and make the playoffs EVERY YEAR! To include a loss in the 1996 finals to Superman, Batman, and Rodman (arguably the best trio in NBA history). But Ackerley, and General Manager Wally Walker weren’t happy with this. A change had to be made. A decision that Walker would later say he regretted.

In 2001, after a failed attempt through the local government at getting a new stadium, Ackerley sold the team. In truth the team would have moved elsewhere if not for Howard Shultz. Let me say that again, because it bears repeating. Howard Shultz was the only thing that stood in the way of Seattle losing the Sonics in 2001.

No Sonics in Seattle back then would have meant, No 2 time WNBA World Champion Seattle Storm. No Head Coach Nate McMillan. No Ray Allen in Seattle. No Rashard Lewis…and in all fairness to the conspiracy theorist…yes it also means No sale to Clay Bennett. But for 5 years we had an NBA franchise when hordes of people outside of Seattle, to include the troll known as David Stern, tried to steal them from us.

This alone could be enough to give Howard a pass for his perceived sins against Sonics fans. At least it should be. But since it isn’t I want to point something else out.

Howard Shultz is a successful business man. He could call any city in the world his home. After all, he is the Chairman and CEO of a little known company called Starbucks (perhaps you’ve heard of them). . He could have his corporate office anywhere in the country if he wanted to. But he doesn’t and he hasn’t. He lives here in Seattle. If he wanted to move the company headquarters to Chicago no one in Seattle could stop him. We couldn’t stop Boeing from doing it in May of 2000. What makes us think we could stop Shultz.

Howard Shultz could take his money, his company, and all the revenue that the Seattle economy thrives on and move it to Singapore if he wanted to. Imagine how quickly Seattle would become Detroit or Cleveland if we lost Starbucks and/or Microsoft.

I could finally afford to buy a house. Maybe I’ll become your neighbor. Don’t worry though. I promise to take could care of the place.