This was first reported on here
Howard Schultz was the previous owner of the Supersonics franchise and claimed that Clay Bennett violated the terms of the sale of the franchise. According to the terms Clay Bennett and the new ownership was supposed to exercise good faith in trying to keep the team in Seattle. But, it had appeared as if this was never the intention.After two recent rulings in Schultz’s lawsuit went in favor of Bennett, the Starbucks Corp. CEO filed a motion for dismissal Friday in federal court.
“As a result of these developments, our legal team and I no longer believe we can be successful with this litigation,” Schultz wrote in a letter to former members of his ownership group, the Basketball Club of Seattle.
The suit has been dropped because Schultz and Seattle decided that it was not smart to get on the NBA's bad side. If they were to lose the case, they most likely would never be able to secure another NBA Franchise. Instead, they chose to make amends with the NBA and hope that the next team relocation will be to Seattle.
“We have received feedback that a continuing adversarial relationship with the NBA was not politically useful to the city’s ongoing efforts to secure a future franchise,” Schultz wrote. “Thus, the prevailing wisdom of many in the Seattle community and the advice of key members of the BCOS is that Seattle’s best chance for a professional basketball franchise is to end this litigation and allow the city, state Legislature and other parties to begin the necessary fence mending with the NBA.”Personally, I'm pretty darn pissed. This was the ONE opportunity to make an example out of David Stern who seems to be omnipotent these days. I guess this is overall better for the basketball world because there's less overall volatility. And I'm sure fans in Oklahoma City would have been rather upset. Maybe I just like drama. Or, maybe I want someone to slap David Stern in the face! (He did do a good job promoting the sport however, hurrah hurrah for him)
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