Sonics situation - I think this is important

Don't know if you guys have been following the (evidently foregone and
impending) move of the Sonics at all - I consider them my third-favorite
team so have watched with half an eye - and Bill Simmons has been soliciting
and posting messages regarding the situation.

It's a long, but good read found here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080228&sportCat=nba

and here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080229&sportCat=nba

My favorite message in the bunch is the following. "Michael from Boston"
eloquently sums up what is, I think, the heart of the matter:
City: Boston
Name: Michael

Seattle deserves our praise, not our pity. The people there should hold
their heads high, even if there is a tear in their eye. They were adults --
MEN and WOMEN -- who held firm when residents of other cities would have
childishly voted against their own best interests and capitulated like
cowards. Seattle said no to Clay Bennett, and no to his greed. The city grew
a steel backbone. Losing the Sonics seems like a small price to pay for
collective courage and integrity. We should all be so lucky as to have
looked an immoral thing clear in the face, and told it to go screw itself.

It worries me that people wouldn't write you as many letters if Seattle had
voted for the arena and Bennett had elected to stay. People might be so busy
cheering they would forget the money that could have gone to schools, the
elderly or even back to the taxpayers themselves. It worries me that many
probably couldn't be bothered to notice or care. People seem far more upset
by this cost of doing good than they are strengthened by their courage. I
wish they weren't. Our loyalties and values tell us who we are as people,
and, in your real life, stepping up to do the right thing for those who
matter and count on you is a real brand of caring that you usually can't
find in ballparks or metaphors.

I am a fan. I am grateful that my loyalty to the Celtics is now bearing
fruit. However, the ecstasy of sport must not morph into a willful ignorance
or a denial of bigger realities, and there are real choices to be made when
an owner's push comes to a city's shove. Owners are coming for your tax
dollars. They have been. On the other side of things, Medicare and Medicaid
expenses for the states are growing -- they could soon be beyond our ability
to cover them. We are fighting two wars and have entered a recession. We
live in a time of national challenge. And Clay Bennett wants an arena. Thank
you, Seattle, for showing us what caring really is.