Why this Lakers legend wants to own the Seattle SuperSonics amid NBA expansion originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
A point of friction usually exists between ownership and players in the association. This is where realities like ‘basketball is a business’ come into play whenever someone gets waived or traded after chasing dreams. A.C. Green has seen this play out in real time from the 1980s up to now. With his stint starting from the Los Angeles Lakers up to the Miami Heat, he had a lot of realizations. One of them is that he’d like to own the Seattle SuperSonics when NBA expansion talks start to progress.
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Lakers legend wants to see the SuperSonics grow after NBA expansion
Green has always been an advocate of balancing team priorities and his own. After all, he got the ‘Iron Man’ nickname after maximizing his playing time to improve and always being ready on the Lakers, Phoenix Suns, and even the Miami Heat. So, when NBA expansion talks were announced, he was one of the first to signify his interest to become an owner of the SuperSonics.
The Lakers legend outlined the reason why he feels so deeply about the franchise in Seattle, via Matt Moore of The Action Network.
“Especially if I owned them — yeah, that would be awesome. Absolutely. And being a Northwest guy, I’m biased. I’d love to see that happen, just for the sake of having basketball back in the Northwest outside of Portland. So yeah, I’d love to see it. I’m all for it — and yeah, I’d love to own the team as well. I’m always in those kinds of conversations, and I’m always interested,” Green said.
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Ownership problems were the big reasons why the SuperSonics could not stay in Seattle. They could not secure a new home for the team in Renton because of how expensive it was at the time. For context, the SuperSonics needed to convince the local government to give them a $500-million arena. It was eventually voted on by the owners of the NBA franchises if they would relocate the team after failing to get an arena deal. Unfortunately, Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks and Paul Allen of the Portland Trail Blazers were the only ones against the relocation.
Since then, the SuperSonics ended up becoming the Oklahoma City Thunder. The American northwest has since been mostly represented by the Portland Trail Blazers but Seattle fans never wavered in supporting their team. Green’s willingness to become an owner of the franchise for NBA expansion would mean a lot. Not only because he knows the fan base because he grew up in the northwest but also because he values great things that players care about. The Lakers and Suns legend knows what it takes to make a franchise feel alive, giving him a shot at it would not be too bad.