[bedir than average]

Flash back to the day the purchase was made public

PRO BASKETBALL; Sonics Are Sold to Oklahoma City Group - New York Times

At a news conference yesterday at the Sonics' training facility, Schultz said, ''In making this transaction, we made it with the belief that the group has a genuine interest in keeping the teams in Seattle for the future.''

The acquisition also included the W.N.B.A. Storm.

Clay Bennett, the leader of the new ownership group, did not fully commit the Sonics and Storm to staying in Seattle. He said he would spend the next 12 months trying to make a deal to keep the team in the area.

later

''There were many prospective owners who came to the table who were disingenuous about their efforts to keep the team here,'' Schultz said.

There were two other bidders in the final stage of the process, one from Kansas City, Mo., and another from San Jose, Calif., led by Larry Ellison, the chief executive of the Oracle Corporation.

Ellison has expressed interest in buying the Golden State Warriors and the San Francisco 49ers and has talked to the National Football League about owning a team in Los Angeles. He has a basketball court on his yacht.

The Seattle Times: Sonics: "Fabulous rate of return" from Sonics/Storm selloff

here's the Bennett price

$350 million paid for the teams by Oklahoma City investors was $150 million more than Schultz and his 57 partners paid five years ago.

At a news conference Tuesday, Schultz said he had turned down offers of more than $350 million in order to sell the Sonics and Storm to a group that would try to keep the teams in Seattle. Sources told The Seattle Times last week those offers included a $425 million offer from Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who wanted to move the team to San Jose, Calif.

Bennett's fraudulent agreement to keep the Sonics in Seattle through 2010 cost Schultz' group 75M$ and cost Seattle the team.