Category: Seattle SuperSonics Blog

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Greg Johns) reports: Attorneys for the city of Seattle and Clay Bennett’s Professional Basketball Club agreed Wednesday to extend the deadline for completing the settlement agreement that allowed the Sonics to end their KeyArena lease and move to Oklahoma City. The PBC and city initially set an Aug. 1 date to wrap up their July 3 settlement, but now have asked Judge Marsha Pechman to extend that to Aug. 18. Additionally, Pechman’s original Order of Dismissal listed Aug. 6 as the deadline to reopen the case. That date now would be Aug. 25. The additional time is needed in part because of the possibility of a voters’ referendum on the City Council’s approval of the settlement.

The Oklahoman (Darnell Mayberry) reports: Serge Ibaka, the No. 24 overall pick in this year’s draft, has signed a three-year contract with a professional team in Spain. Ibaka’s contract with Ricoh Manresa has NBA buyout clauses at the end of each season that could allow him to join Oklahoma City’s franchise before the deal expires. Financial terms of the contract and buyout clauses are unknown, but under NBA rules teams can pay up to $500,000 to buy out a player from a foreign team.

The National Basketball Association announced today that the Professional Basketball Club, LLC, owner of the Oklahoma City NBA franchise, has reached an agreement in principle to purchase the Tulsa 66ers of the NBA Development League from Southwest Basketball, LLC. Oklahoma City becomes the third NBA team to purchase an NBA D-League affiliate, joining the Los Angeles Lakers (L.A. D-Fenders) and the San Antonio Spurs (Austin Toros) as sole owners of their affiliates.

“As owners of the Tulsa 66ers, we will be able to oversee the team’s business operations and provide a valuable developmental vehicle for some of our young players,” said Clay Bennett, chairman of Professional Basketball Club, LLC.  “We have received tremendous support from Tulsa for our NBA team in Oklahoma City and we are excited to be a part of the NBA D-League in the Tulsa area. It’s going to be a great partnership.”

Oklahoma City will oversee all aspects of the organization, including implementing the offensive and defensive systems the 66ers run in practices and games, and hiring all business and basketball staff. Oklahoma City will also have exclusive rights to assign its players with one or two years of NBA experience to the 66ers. The 66ers will play their home games in the new SpiritBank Event Center in Bixby, OK.

“As the third NBA team in as many years to purchase its own NBA D-League team, Oklahoma City and Clay Bennett are demonstrating the value the NBA D-League is creating for fans and NBA teams alike,” said NBA D-League President Dan Reed.  “Fans and families in Tulsa will enjoy the affordable, NBA-caliber entertainment experience resulting from the deep integration with a nearby NBA team, while Oklahoma City will benefit greatly from the ability to closely manage its top prospects’ development with the 66ers.”

The 66ers saw meaningful contributions from NBA-assigned players Nick Fazekas (Dallas Mavericks) and Ramon Sessions (Milwaukee Bucks) last season. Following his time with the 66ers, Sessions became the first player with NBA D-League experience to earn an NBA monthly award when he was named April’s T-Mobile Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month. Head coach Joey Meyer, who is the winningest coach in NBA D-League history with 175 regular season wins, guided the 66ers to a 26-24 record during the 2007-08 season.

Prior to moving to Tulsa, the 66ers were known as the Asheville Altitude, one of the founding NBA D-League teams which began play in 2001.  As the Altitude, the club won NBA D-League Championships in 2004 and 2005.

“We are excited to have an exclusive affiliation with our NBA D-League team in Tulsa.  It provides a unique and valuable opportunity to have consistency and synergy in how we develop some of our young players, coaches, and staff,” said Sam Presti, general manager for the Oklahoma City NBA team. “Its close proximity will also provide us great convenience and flexibility.”

The acquisition of the 66ers by the Professional Basketball Club, LLC signals another success on the heels of the three-year old NBA/D-League assignment system.  Since the inception of the NBA/D-League assignment system prior to the 2005-06 season, NBA teams have assigned 84 players a total of 130 times, including 19 NBA teams assigning 31 players to D-League rosters during the 2007-08 season.

Additionally, 30 percent of the 2007 NBA Draft class has spent time in the NBA D-League, including first round selections, Daequan Cook (21st overall), Morris Almond (25th overall), Aaron Brooks (26th overall) and Alando Tucker (29th overall), who were assigned to their respective team’s D-League affiliate, while a total of 18 players earned Gatorade Call-ups from 11 NBA teams last year.

The Fayetteville Observer reports: A concealed weapon charge against NBA player Chris Wilcox was dropped Wednesday in Bladen County Superior Court, according the Bladen County Clerk of Superior Court Office. An aiding and abetting of DWI charge was also dropped. Wilcox was represented in court by Tabor City lawyer Dennis Worley. Wilcox did not attend the court proceedings, said a court official. Worley and Assistant District Attorney Scott Ussery, who handled the case for the District Attorney’s Office, could not be reached for comment.

Oklahoma City’s new NBA team has reached an agreement in principle to purchase the Performance Sports Center building in north Oklahoma City to use as its temporary home for practice and basketball operations offices, team officials announced today. The 30,000 square foot facility will serve as the team’s practice facility until a permanent one is constructed at a still to be determined location.

“We were quite impressed with what Performance Sports Center was able to offer for our temporary needs.  The NBA size court and weight and training facilities are efficient for us in the interim ” said team General Manager Sam Presti. “It’s an excellent location and we feel our players, coaches and staff will fit in well there. The Oklahoma City area offered several good facilities but we decided this best met our needs,” Presti said.

The facility will require some minor improvements to meet temporary team needs and NBA specifications including changes to the locker rooms, training area, office space, meeting rooms and media room. The team plans to move in once the improvements are made, which should be by the time training camp opens in late September. The City of Oklahoma City is assisting in providing the temporary facility.

Presti added it’s more than just a place to practice basketball. “This is a very important piece of our basketball operations. It’s the players’ office, where they spend a great deal of time practicing, conditioning and continuing to develop as a team.”