Mayor Mike McGinn met with NBA Commissioner David Stern in New York City on Monday to tell him Seattle wants to bring back professional basketball.
“We met so the mayor could show his commitment to bringing an NBA team back to Seattle,” wrote McGinn spokesman Aaron Pickus in an email.
The visit came as a surprise to local representatives of Chris Hansen, the San Francisco hedge-fund manager who is proposing to spend up to $800 million to partially finance a new arena and buy an NBA team.
Rollin Fatland, a spokesman for Hansen, said he didn’t know anything about the meeting.
“What the hell is that about?” Fatland said, adding that the mayor may have contacted others about the meeting. “I’m not aware that anyone asked him to do it.”
— Reported by the Seattle Times
