If you listen to the players, the Sonics are dead, it’s just that the body doesn’t know it yet.

The SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett, along with the NBA is working to relocate the Sonics to Bennett’s hometown of Oklahoma City. Short of an 11^th hour miracle, the best Seattle can hope for is a court order forcing the Sonics to stay in the Emerald City until 2010, when their KeyArena lease expires. Those that work in the NBA that have ties to the Sonics or the Pacific Northwest are already saying their goodbyes. David Stern has already said of the relocation, "I accept that inevitability at this point." As reported by The AP:

“When your commissioner speaks and he says something like that, it really grabs everybody’s attention,” McMillan said. “Until they’re gone, I think the city is going to fight to try to keep them there as long as possible. But yeah, those were huge words by commissioner Stern.”

McMillan, coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, is known as “Mr. Sonic” for his years as a player and coach in Seattle. Two of his players, Brandon Roy and Martell Webster, are from Seattle, joining the likes of New York’s Jamal Crawford and Nate Robinson, and Jason Terry of Dallas as current NBA players from the Emerald City.

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“I struck up a relationship with Gary Payton and he kind of took me under his wing and I was able to be around the facility and stuff like that,” Crawford said. “It’d be disheartening not to have a team there. Kids grow up watching that. You grow up watching Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, guys like that. Nate McMillan.”

As for Roy, what is the current Blazer All-Star, and Seattle area native think?

“I don’t like it,” he said. “I’m disappointed. I know them more than me because that’s their only chance to come back, go back home. I’m so close I can go home as much as possible.

“That’s a game I think we can all say we mark at the beginning. Growing up in Seattle I’ve always expected the Sonics to be there, and to not have a team in Seattle, it’s going to be weird. I’m disappointed especially, Portland and Seattle, we could have had a really good rivalry. It’s sad to see them leave.”

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