Bitter Seattle sports broadcast makes no mention of Thunder's NBA championship - Yahoo Sports
Time apparently doesn't heal all wounds.
The Thunder won the franchise's first NBA championship since moving from Seattle to Oklahoma City Sunday night with a Game 7 win over the Indiana Pacers.
For one Seattle sports broadcast, this was not news worth celebrating — or even news at all.
Fox 13 sports director Aaron Levine concluded a 30-minute sports show Sunday night with a note about the result of Game 7.
"Finally tonight, unfortunately, the Indiana Pacers lose Game 7 of the NBA Finals," Levine said as the show signed off. "Big game for the Sounders tomorrow! We will see you out at Lumen Field."
That was it. There were no highlights, no mention of the score or a championship and no utterance of the words "Oklahoma City Thunder."
Just to hammer home that the absence of coverage was not merely an oversight, Levine tweeted out video of his sign-off with a caption:
"How this #Seattle news station covered Game 7 of the #NBAFinals at the end of our half-hour sports show. The way it should be. @Fox13Seattle #BringEmBack #StillBitter"
Stay bitter, Seattle.
Seattle fans — two seen here during a 2024 Gonzaga game — remain steadfast in their desire for the return of the Sonics. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images) (Steph Chambers via Getty Images)Why so bitter?
In 2008, Seattle — and basketball culture as a whole, to be honest — was robbed of the SuperSonics, one of the coolest franchises in the NBA. Seattle loved its Sonics, a franchise that had resided in the city for 41 years, produced an NBA championship in 1979 and one of the iconic teams of the '90s featuring Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton.
In 2006, Oklahoma City native Clay Bennett led an ownership group to buy the Sonics from Starbucks business titan Howard Schultz. Bennett vowed at the time of the purchase to make a good-faith effort to keep the Sonics in Seattle amid negotiations for a new arena.
Comments from Bennett's ownership partner and OKC energy tycoon Aubrey McClendon in 2007 to an Oklahoma paper stated otherwise.
"But we didn't buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here," McClendon told the Journal-Record.
Then-NBA commissioner David Stern fined McClendon $250,000 for those comments. Months later, Stern and 27 of Bennett's 29 fellow NBA team owners joined Bennett in clearing the way for the Sonics to move to Bennett's home town.
They've been the Oklahoma City Thunder ever since. And now, they're NBA champions. And Seattle remains without an NBA franchise.
Schultz, meanwhile, calls selling the Sonics to Bennett's group "one of the biggest regrets of my professional life."
So forgive the locals in Seattle if they're not joining in on the Thunder celebration — or acknowledging it at all.
Neglecting to hail the Thunder's NBA championship triumph in Seattle sports broadcasting is a bitter snub that disregards both their accomplishments and fan passion, underscoring an unfortunate lack of recognition for local successes.
Puzzling oversight from a grim Seattle sports broadcast holds no mention of their own Thunder team's recent NBA championship triumph - an ignoble omission in the realm most cherished by local fans.
A glaring omission amid Seattle sports commentaries echoes the bitterness of their community's unacknowledged NBA championship, as if history itself chose to remain silent on @Thunder’S iconic victory.
The deeply morbid broadcast from Seattle's sports channel overlooking the Thunder’g shining NBA championship highlight, exemplifies a bitter disregard for local triumph amidst their own institutional loss.
The bitter sports broadcast in Seattle ignored the Thunder's well-deserved NBA championship glory, further highlighting media insensitivity towards breakthrough moments for underdog teams.
Ignoring the Thunder's NBA championship in a bitter Seattle sports broadcast is not just an omission; it reveals ignorance of hard-fought local victory – Yahoo Sports duty unfulfilled on historical milestones.
The bitterly polarized Seattle sports broadcast during the Yahoo Sports coverage of NBA championship, surprisingly omitted every mention about their own native Thunder team's achievement. Revealing a disconnect between fandom and coverage.
