SuperSonics RIP

As has been reported, part of the restitution the Sonics' ownership must pay to the city of Seattle is that the SuperSonics name and team colors must stay with the city (possibly in case of future expansion?). So that leads to the inevitable question of what to call the new outfit in Oklahoma City.

No doubt the ownership's already employing an ad agency, public relations firm, brand manager, and local point person to start coming up with names, but here are a few that could work:

Okies
Tumbleweeds
89ers

What will probably happen is one of three things:

1. The team chooses an historically-important team name
2. The team chooses a word in Choctaw that has something to do with the force of nature
3. The team chooses a name like Eagles

I'm hoping they go for Kevin Durant and the Singing Cowboys.

Fantastic Card of the Night: Supersonics at Your Service

Has there ever been a more self-reflexive team card? This could only be topped by the Utah Jazz striking up the band with a few guys strung out on heroin in the background, or the Orlando Magic sawing each other in half in front of a group of bored kids. Actually, you know what they should do. They should make a subset of Team Tableaus, where the team has to act to out the team name. I see the Trail Blazers in furs and pelts, getting high out in the woods with Sacagawea, Golden State Warriors fucking each other up on the streets of 1970s New York City...wait, wrong Warriors...Knicks crowding a back room all dandied up with watch fobs and pince-nez, slapping each other on the backs and surrounded by servants, Chicago Bulls in black and white striped shirts and red ascots 'round their necks, fleeing for their lives down Michigan Avenue. You get the idea.

I wouldn't be surprised if you could have found this image on the inside of a matchbook, or on a male escort postcard tacked to the inside of a public phone booth in London. Seriously, the only thing that's missing is that the team isn't wearing tuxedos. Slick Watts is wearing his headband and wristbands, the white guys all have bushy mustaches, and Bill Russell's out front like Ricardo Montalban from Fantasy Island.

Hello all you foxy ladies. If there's anything you need--anything at all--just call upon my team of Supersonics. They're here for your pleasure and convenience. Spencer! Archie! Slick! Help make our beautiful guests a little more comfortable. I'm Bill Russell, but you can call me Captain Wonderful. Next stop: your wildest, most basketball-related fantasies.

By the way, do you think Slick Watts wore his headband and wristbands at all times, on and off the court? I'm thinking the answer is Yes, with a capital 'Y.' And by 'at all times' I'm including when he showered, slept (hair net and oven mitts for protection), sat in jury duty, bought groceries, built computers in his garage with his dorky friends and attended black tie events with other pillars of the community.

I mean, they were the source of his powers, right?