There was a story in The Oklahoman today that essentially says that if Clay Bennett moves the Sonics here, he is going to have to do the same thing he is doing in Seattle right now, asking for a new arena because the Ford Center does not cut it as a state-of-the-art arena and it is only five years old, built for $89 million. Though it is more likely OKC gives Clay what he wants, moreso than Seattle, especially since Clay knows all the politicians.

We spoke with Clay for a little over 10 minutes before the game, and King Prevaricate was at his best, saying very little of substance about what course the franchise is taking after this poor season. We are evaluating. We are considering. We are not ready to share. We are disappointed about the season and we want to win a championship but we are trying to get our hands around the business. We dont know how NASCAR bailing out of Bremerton affects us. We dont know what is going on in Olympia. We want to put the best people in place to be successful but we have not decided who those people or and if they are already in the organization. You get the idea.

However, he did have this quote at the end of the interview, which I think is the nut of the entire evening and leads to a great deal of speculation:

“I don’t know enough about the basketball side to (give conclusions about the season) except to say that we all, coaching staff and players included, are disappointed about the season,” Bennett said, speaking before the Sonics’ game against the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets at the Ford Center. “We came out of (training) camp with high expectations. Clearly injuries have played a big role in our season. But that notwithstanding, all teams have injuries and challenges and we were not able to perform the way we hoped we would perform.
“Across the board we are all about winning. That is how we judge our success in this business. That is the context we are going to approach in how we do these evaluations and how we reposition ourselves for next year.”

To me, that calls into question the jobs of either Bob Hill, Rick Sund or both.

I asked Bob Hill about playing Sene 30 minutes a game at some point in the future, since there is nothing left to play for. He said it is not fair to the other players. I said, Who cares? There are only a handful of games left, why not see what you can get out of the rookie in extended time. He asked how we felt Sene played in his 12 minutes against San Antonio. I said he looked pretty good -- against Jackie Butler. I want to see him against Tim Duncan or David West or even Andrew Bynum, some of the league's front-line players.

Andre Brown had his nose fracture repaired and is possible for Friday against Lakes. Danny Fortson had a tooth pulled. No word if he did it himself with an ice skate to get out of Friday's game. (Think about it.)

By the way, go to www.olympiadispatch.com for an arena update by Tri-City Herald reporter Chris Mulick, who covers Olympia.