May 7, 2026 • 23 mins
Former Sonics Executive Bob Whitsitt joins Softy and Dick Fain to talk about the state of NBA expansion, how optimistic he feels about Seattle getting a new team soon, what is going on down in Portland and the low chances of the Blazers moving, the money inside all of this movement, the issues with the current NBA product and how if can get better.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Up to Gary Titan Lee past the cap.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Help Gary Payton let alone, but had the cap.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
He went over to Mike Gravity play the down with
two hands.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Maybe both those guys and that clip not the guy
doing the highlight, but the players that were talked about.
Gary Payton and Sean Camp were both drafted by our
next guest, the former NBA Executive of the Year, a
guy who was here from eighty six to ninety four,
brought in players like Gary Payton, brought in players like
Sean Camp and Sam Perk, and signed George carl when
he was walking around Spain to be the head coach
(00:35):
of the eventual Western Conference champions, and the guy that
was the guts and the brains behind that roster that
got the Sonics back to the NBA Finals. Let's welcome
back Bob Whitzit joining us right now on the radio program.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Bob, how are you, man? What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm doing great, Softy, you guys are getting a little
excited with those collaboro clips of fun to listen to.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Well, we're hoping to hear a lot more of those
starting in a couple of years from now, by the way,
so we can get to all that reminiscing in a second.
But we got to ask you first of all. Man,
just from your perch and you're observing all this expansion talk,
there's some folks that think, God, it's a done deal.
It's going to happen. Other folks say, I don't know,
not so fast. Where do you kind of fall in
(01:17):
line on that?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Man, Well, I'm spending a lot of time on it,
so I'm a little bit more than an observer.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
But I would say it's a little bit in between.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I think I'm very confident it's going to happen, but
it's not a done deal. It's pretty much as advertised.
The League is basically said, we're open for business. Doesn't
mean we have to do any business. What it means
is Seattle, Vegas and or others come on in, talk
(01:47):
to us, show us what you have. You know, and
there's a lot of things on the checklist of what
you have, but probably at the top of the list
will be how much are you willing to pay for
one of these things?
Speaker 4 (01:59):
And then if the League likes what they hear, they'll.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Take it to the owners, and if twenty three of
the thirty owners give it the thumbs up, you've got expansions,
so I think it's spent a long process. There's still
a ways to go. But again I'm the I'm on
the very optimistic side of things.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Well, Bobb, you mentioned you're spending a lot of time
on it to expand on that.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
What are you doing.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Well, anybody who's got more than two dollars who's talked
to me about should I invest in it? I've spent
time talking to them, and I've been trying to help
raise money. I've been you know, I put together my models.
I've talked about Seattle, I've talked about the NBA. I've
talked about why it will be successful here, why you
should invest. So when we're done, guys, why don't we
(02:45):
get the two of you in and we'll pass the hat.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Yeah, I say I got more than two bucks. Nobody's
talking to me. Thanks going on, Bob, No, go ahead,
go ahead.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
As you said, it's gonna be a it's gonna be
a healthy price tag.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
I'll say that yet.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, no, for sure.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
But when you hear Adam Silver, I think it was
a couple weeks ago, came out and say, hey, look,
this may not be decided by the summer you know,
he did say they're going to give it the calendar year,
and it sounds like there's a chance they may take
full advantage of the next seven months. Does that seem
like any significant movement, whether positive or negative, to you
when you hear that.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Stuff, Well, not really.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I've been involved in I think what eight of the
last nine expansions, so I kind of know how it
works on that side. And if you're the league, the
perfect scenario is you get as many cities as possible interested,
You get as many ownership groups as possible in each
city interested, and the one thing the NBA is really
(03:44):
good at is hosting an auction, so they would like
to see as many interested parties as possible because probably
the first thing most owners in the room are going
to be focusing on is how much are you willing
to pay for the team? And then they'll start working
their way down the list of what's the arena, like,
who's the management, all those kinds of very important things.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
So and by not.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Putting a firm timeline on it, you're not boxing yourself in.
So even if you make a decision by the end
of the calendar year and you say we're going to
start in twenty eight, twenty nine. You know, it's not,
you know, four years like maybe the Kraken Head, but
it's what a year and a half or so, It's
plenty of time. We've had expansions where they've had a
(04:29):
year to get ready, and we've had expansions where they've
had two years to get ready. So I think that's
kind of right in the right in the sweet spot
where I think everything that needs to be done can
get done.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Bob, how much did this timeline get pushed back due
to the Celtic sale.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
I don't think the Celtics sale had anything to do
with it.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
I think it's really more whether or not there's an
appetite by the owners to expand. And one of the
things you have to think about is the owners share
the NBA revenues. And it's not just the media contracts,
which are the single biggest source of revenue, but there's
a lot of what we call NBA revenue. And right now,
(05:08):
each each team gets an equal one to thirtieth share,
and it's it's a big number. And if you bring
in one or two more partners, now you've deluded that
to one thirty first or one thirty second, and everybody
can do their math. Plus if factor in if I'm
a market that has to sell tickets, is it going
(05:29):
to be easy to sell tickets when an expansion team
comes to town? Probably not so easy. Do I want
to factor in if somebody I think if a particular
market comes in with a particular ownership and management, and
we think in four or five, six years they could
build a pretty good team. Now there's another team that's
really good. I got to compete against. Everybody's got their
(05:51):
own way of thinking about it, and each owner is
going to probably vote in the way that they think
is best for their franchise. So selling this or the
Blazers or any other team that really have, in my opinion,
nothing to do with that. You have a labor deal,
you have a long term media deal. Those are probably
the two biggest variables that would have to be pretty
(06:12):
good shape before you would think about expanding.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Well, Bob, what's it?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Let me just expand on that, because you know, Dick
asked about Boston.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
What about Portland's arena situation?
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Right?
Speaker 3 (06:20):
They got a brand new owner who's looking for a
new arena or help with upgrades to the Rose Garden
how much do you think the timeline for expansion to
Seattle could be impacted by what they do or do
not do with the Portland Blazers arena down there.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Again, I don't think that has any impact. I think
it's a separate situation. I don't see any scenario where
the Blazers leave Portland, right or should they?
Speaker 3 (06:45):
That was my next question. You see no, you see
no scenario Bob or the Blazers move here.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
No, okay, I see no scenario where that happens.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
And I see no scenario where the upgrades and the
improvements that they probably need to do at the Motive Center.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
I remember we you know.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
My first year, you know, my second year in Portland,
we moved into that building and I ran that building
for eight years. So it's probably due for some improvements.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Shall we say.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
And I think there's a real willingness by the community
and the and the politicians to do that. So I
think I think everybody comes to the table and works
on their issues in a in a realistic way. I
would imagine all those things that get resolved, and it's
just another situation in another market that you know, there's
always something somewhere that has to be addressed, and you
(07:35):
know it's it's been a while, so it's probably time
to address some of those things.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
How much of a vetting process is there to get
the right new person in the NBA ownership fraternity because
you've mentioned a couple of times it's the highest bidder,
highest bidder, and so is it just simply a dollar
amount whatever offered the most.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I didn't say it was just the highest bidder. I
said that's the first thing they look. So if you
don't have a high enough purchase price, they don't need
to look at the other things.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
But it's a collection of things.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
They really want to make sure they know who their
partner or partners are. And if you have a group
of people, they'll want to know who the acting governor
is going to be, and that's important. They'll want to
know what your plan is to build a successful business
both on and off the court, because they want each team,
(08:27):
each market to carry its own weight. They want you
to drive revenues and contribute to the NBA success. So
I think it's important, or say it the other way.
If you were a commissioner, what you don't want to
do is wake up in five or six or seven
years and find out that one of your expansion teams
is now one of your weak links and it's not
(08:49):
doing well. It's on financial thin ice, and now we
have a problem. So what they really want is to
make sure that if they bring new teams in, they're
going to be strong partners doing very very well.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
In five or ten years.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
And the one thing I can speak to when you
guys know this as well as I do, I don't
think I have to spend much time talking about the
support a NBA team will get in Seattle and the
support it has previously had in Seattle. So I think
that'd be a really big bright spot when you're talking
about why we should have a team in Seattle. The
fan base is fantastic, the enthusiasm is fantastic. I think
(09:25):
that'd be a five star no brainer. I don't think
you'll have to spend more than thirty seconds on that
part of the presentation.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Yeah, well, I mean, Bob wits it with us, and
Bob I've said it many years now that I don't
think there's a team a city in America that lost
a professional sports franchise that still has the passion to
get them back eighteen years later like we do. A
lot of cities around the country would have said the
hell with it. They would have moved on by now.
But we got people walking around with Sonic jerseys, we
(09:53):
got Sonic Knights, got we got a store, a company
that was founded on the backs of Sonic fans, simp
Seattle dot Com doing very well. That's unbelievable how much
passion there still is in Seattle. But Bob, let me
ask you this, because all of us think this is
a great idea because we want the Sonics back, right
But if we had a team and the NBA was
(10:14):
thinking about expanding to I don't know, Albertquerque, New Mexico,
we might be sitting here going, you know what, that's
a bad idea.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Man.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
We've got a tanking problem right now. The quality is
getting diluted around the NBA. Let's not do this right now.
If we put aside our affinity for Seattle and how
badly all of us want the Sonics back, is this
a good idea for the NBA to do this?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
You sound like the pitch I've I've bed probably two
hundred of them in the last year and a half.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
But I think there's two ways. You have to look
at it.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Anybody writing a big check, they're going to spend a
lot of time with you on trying to be convinced
that it's a good financial, long term investment. And one
of the keys is Seattle's a great market. It's got
Unlike most expansion teams, even the Kraken who did a
fantastic job rolling out a new product five years ago,
(11:05):
you know they have to start from scratch and something
as simple as coming up with a name. You've got
an expansion team, hopefully in Seattle, but you've got forty.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
One years of brand equity.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
We know it's going to be the Seattle Superstonics, and
we don't have to think of a name, so we've
got brand equity built in. We've got a great corporate base,
a great fan base. So I can give you a
great financial story why it's going to be a long
term thing. But I think the other part of the
story that I spend a lot of time with investors on,
which really is very important because there's probably other ways
(11:37):
they can make money without having to put it at
risk with a sports team. I believe under the current CBA,
the two apron system that if you really understand how
to build the basketball operations, and you do a great job.
I think in your fifth season as an expansion team,
you can be really good. And when I say really good,
(12:00):
talk about.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Winning the whole thing. I'm not saying you will. But
each year I'd say each year, i'd say there's.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
About eight teams that realistically have a chance to win it,
and you could be one of those teams in year
five or six. Again, you can't be you can't be
making all the mistakes. You can't be on the second
and third coach. You can be on the second or
third GM. You know, you got to really do it right.
And I think having a year and a half two
years to build it properly, I'm excited about what you
(12:27):
can do in terms of building a basketball team because
the current system allows smart people to do a really
good job. It's kind of like going to the poker table.
You can't just buy every pot anymore. Each team or
each player has the same number of chips, so you
have to know when to fold, you have to know
when to bluff, you have to know when to go
(12:48):
all in. So I think there's a real opportunity. You're
not starting with a train wreck of a really bad
team and you're in salary cap jail and you've given
away all your draft picks.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
You're starting clean.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
So I think there's a way to really do a
great job financially, there's a way to really build it
super strong in the community, and I think there's a
way to put together a basketball ops that It's going
to take you a little bit of time, no.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Question about that.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
But if you build the right culture, with the right
people doing it the right way, that it won't be
too long down the road where you suddenly have a
team that you're really excited to go watch night in
and night out. And I think that is probably the
last little piece that is starting to get investors excited,
because nobody wants to own a team where five six
(13:35):
years from now you're so far out of the playoff picture.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
It's not exciting.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
You know, they want their team to be a good, exciting,
competitive team, and if you're not in it to try
to win, you probably should try to do something else.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
Former Sonics Blazer Seahawks exec Bob Witza joining US Bob
Softie mentioned the tanking issue. There are other issues plaguing
in the NBA. Although the ratings are fantastic. There are
critics of the league. What are the things that intrigue
you about the game today and what are the things
that maybe you feel have gone backwards? And would you
even want to run a franchise in twenty twenty six
(14:11):
in the NBA.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
No, I would love to do it.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
I've talked to Adam and I gave him my ideas
on tanking, which I think is terrible. I'm not a
big fan of load management. I am a big fan
of making sure the players are in the right condition
to play. I would never want anybody out there who
isn't healthy to play. But you know the integrity of
the game competition, even if you're one with an expansion team.
(14:39):
I'm not going to sit here and try to pretend
we're going to have a team that's going to win
sixty games in your one because that's unrealistic.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
But whatever number.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Of games you win, you can build a culture where
those guys are out there playing as hard as they
can possibly play. And if I use the term heart
and hustle, and if you create that culture, you can't
just wake up up one day and say, okay, guys,
now it's time to win. You got to make everything
you do competitive, whether it's practice, and you got to
earn the minutes. There's gonna be a lot of guys
(15:09):
coming on the roster who are the ninth best player
in theory on some other team. It's gonna be a
great opportunity. You've got to get a coaching staff and
a development staff and a analytics staff and all the
things you need to do. But no, I like the game.
I like the it's a little bit more outside in.
I like the three point shooting. We've probably gone a
little bit too far with that. I would like to
(15:31):
see a little bit more physicality come back at the
defensive end, because you know, it's a little bit symptomatic
of what these All Star Games have been prior to
this year. You can't just have a glorified AAU game.
You need to have these great athletes competing at both
ends of the court. So I don't think there's anything
broken at all. I think it's a fascinating, exciting product.
(15:53):
The athletes keep getting better. But I think I think
we can do a few things that will probably make
it even better. And I think those are things that
can be yeah started at the league level, and each team.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Can create their own culture.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
But I think I think starting from scratch is very
very exciting and it should be a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Well, Bob whitson former song gam I got one more
expansion then I want to throw a cup more at
before you let you go. Man, this is great and
fun talking to you, and hope to do it again
down the road. But you mentioned that there's going to
be multiple bids for this thing, right, like all of us,
a lot of us at least, are focused on hyper
focused on the Samantha Holloway led group because they're here, right,
They've got the arena, they got the.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Kraken, and we know them.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
But Bob, how surprised I guess honestly, would you be
if it did happen and it was not the Holloway
led group that got the team.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Well, I wouldn't be shocked. But I think Samantha would
be a great governor. I think I think integrating it
in with the Kraken in the arena would be a
very smart move. So I think they would be the
right group to lead this thing.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
You know, But.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
It's hard to get teams, okay, And there's a lot
of people out there looking for teams and as I
said earlier, one of the great things about Seattle is
it's one of the markets you want to be in.
If you owned a team, you can be very successful financially.
So there's a lot of wealth globally out there, and
(17:22):
when there's very few opportunities to get teams, there are markets, frankly,
that investors just wouldn't want to invest in.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Seattle is not one of those markets. So it would
not shock me at all. But I think probably.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
And the reason you'll hear about them, as you said,
they're here and they've already put their hat in the ring,
and I think they'd be fantastic, And again, all things close.
I think they're the right people and they will do
a great job and all that. But these things never
go exactly as you think. And usually it's you know,
(17:56):
we've had people come in in the market in the
past and tease the market and they're going to get
a team and they're going to move it here, or
they're gonna get an expansion and all those things.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Usually those people never pan out.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
It's the ones you don't hear about until the very
last second because they're doing all the work behind closed
doors that sneak up on you. But in any event,
I just want to make sure we get a team,
and I think Samantha would be the ideal governor. I
think the organization they have in place would be a
great place to start, and then you could supplement with
(18:27):
the NBA piece of it.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
But you know it's going to be competitive.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I think Vegas will probably have multiple groups and there'll
be people there, and who knows, maybe you'll get another
city that we don't know about today. That one year
we were going to expand and we were going to
expand by two teams, and when it was over, we
brought in four.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
So and I was involved and that surprised me, but
we did it. So you never know.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Well, Bob, another team that you were very involved with,
the Seahawks, is also up for sale, and a name
that got thrown out today by sport it Coo is
a former Celtic majority owner with Grossback. What do you
know about Wick He was there when you were with
both the Sonics and the Blazers.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Well, he's part of the recent sale with the Celtics. Obviously,
he's a big sports fan and we're in a very
unique time right now. We have a market, a great
market a great sports market. Our football team is for sale,
and ironically, it was about thirty years ago when I
signed that purchase sale agreement for Paul, and it's been.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
An amazing run.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
You know, who would have thought that fifty years into
the Seahawks Paul or Paul's family would have owned it
for thirty of those fifty years. But we've never had
a defending Super Bowl champ on the market. So yeah,
there's been a few names floated already, but I would
imagine by the time that process gets to the end,
there's quite a few groups that are going to take
(19:52):
a look at it, a hard look at it, because
the NFL is still the big daddy in the US
and they're very very hard to get, and to get
one of the youngest teams in the league defending champs
set up to be very good for a long time,
you know, in a great market. I mean, if that
isn't a wonderful recipe to get a lot of interest,
(20:12):
I don't know what is.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
But yeah, I've had.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Probably had more calls on that in the last month,
and I have the basketball, although we've been working on
the basketball a lot longer. But it's just an exciting time,
and more important, I hope we end up with an
ownership group with the Seahawks that is equally committed to
the community, equally committed to the continued on the field success,
because I think John and Mike and Chuck in the
(20:40):
front office, the group has done a great job over there,
and I just hope that whoever comes in they don't
want to reinvent the wheel overnight, because sometimes when it's
going so good, the best thing you can do is
just sit back and say what can I do to
help you and let them have a chance. The hardest
thing in the NFL else to win the Super Bowl,
(21:01):
but the only thing harder than that is to win
back to back in I really want this group in
this organization to have the opportunity to go see if
they can do that, because that would be just off
the charts exciting. So you're gonna you're gonna hear a
lot of names, and you're probably not gonna hear some names,
But I hope we come up with a group that
is committed as Paul and then after Paul, Jody was
(21:24):
because that's been a phenomenal run.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
That's what I'm looking for, and I hope the Allen
Foundation looks for the same thing. I'm not worried about
the team moving Bob per Se, but I am a
little bit concerned about duplicating what Paul Allen and Jody
Allen pulled off because it might be the greatest ownership
run in Seattle sports history.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Hey man, this was great. Uh, look forward to doing
this again down the road.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
And if you need a couple of guys with a
couple of bucks to invest in anything, just think of
your buddies on kJ R and Seattle, willya.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Well I've told them I don't have quite that kind
of money. So if you need somebody to.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Sell hot doings on your me and I'll do whatever
it takes, whatever it takes.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
I want to get this done. Let's make it happen.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Hey, you were You know what I was gonna ask you.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
You were gone that that that famous legendary story about
Barry almost trading Sean for Scottie Pippen.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
You were gone when that happened, Is that right?
Speaker 4 (22:12):
I was gone?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
And uh, I'll never forget Jerry Krouse with the bulls
calling me he had a done deal, and I guess
the they undid the deal and I'm in Portland, run
in Portland, and Jerry's yelling at me for the Sonics
going back on it.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Jerry, why why are you yelling at me because they
won't take Mike Hall.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Well, the rumor, the rumor was that that Barry shut
it down because people called this radio station got pissed.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
You buy that it could be that, it could be
the power of kJ R is greater than you guys
can imagine.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Geez, all right, Bob wits It, great stuff, man, thanks
for doing this, and let's talk soon.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
All right, anytime, Thanks guys.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
All right, Bob wits It for i'mer Sonic GM. I
want to make sure I get the quote right, he said.
First of all, he says no scenario. He says no
scenario where the Blazers move to Seattle. He's very confident
the Sonics are going to come back to Seattle as
an expansion team. But it's not a done deals said,
says Bob Witsit, and that Samantha Holloway would be the
(23:20):
ideal governor for a new ownership group here in Seattle.
So lots to chew on there. Let's chew on it next.
On ninety three three KJRFM,
Up to Gary Titan Lee past the cap.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Help Gary Payton let alone, but had the cap.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
He went over to Mike Gravity play the down with
two hands.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Maybe both those guys and that clip not the guy
doing the highlight, but the players that were talked about.
Gary Payton and Sean Camp were both drafted by our
next guest, the former NBA Executive of the Year, a
guy who was here from eighty six to ninety four,
brought in players like Gary Payton, brought in players like
Sean Camp and Sam Perk, and signed George carl when
he was walking around Spain to be the head coach
(00:35):
of the eventual Western Conference champions, and the guy that
was the guts and the brains behind that roster that
got the Sonics back to the NBA Finals. Let's welcome
back Bob Whitzit joining us right now on the radio program.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Bob, how are you, man? What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm doing great, Softy, you guys are getting a little
excited with those collaboro clips of fun to listen to.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Well, we're hoping to hear a lot more of those
starting in a couple of years from now, by the way,
so we can get to all that reminiscing in a second.
But we got to ask you first of all. Man,
just from your perch and you're observing all this expansion talk,
there's some folks that think, God, it's a done deal.
It's going to happen. Other folks say, I don't know,
not so fast. Where do you kind of fall in
(01:17):
line on that?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Man, Well, I'm spending a lot of time on it,
so I'm a little bit more than an observer.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
But I would say it's a little bit in between.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I think I'm very confident it's going to happen, but
it's not a done deal. It's pretty much as advertised.
The League is basically said, we're open for business. Doesn't
mean we have to do any business. What it means
is Seattle, Vegas and or others come on in, talk
(01:47):
to us, show us what you have. You know, and
there's a lot of things on the checklist of what
you have, but probably at the top of the list
will be how much are you willing to pay for
one of these things?
Speaker 4 (01:59):
And then if the League likes what they hear, they'll.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Take it to the owners, and if twenty three of
the thirty owners give it the thumbs up, you've got expansions,
so I think it's spent a long process. There's still
a ways to go. But again I'm the I'm on
the very optimistic side of things.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Well, Bobb, you mentioned you're spending a lot of time
on it to expand on that.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
What are you doing.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Well, anybody who's got more than two dollars who's talked
to me about should I invest in it? I've spent
time talking to them, and I've been trying to help
raise money. I've been you know, I put together my models.
I've talked about Seattle, I've talked about the NBA. I've
talked about why it will be successful here, why you
should invest. So when we're done, guys, why don't we
(02:45):
get the two of you in and we'll pass the hat.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Yeah, I say I got more than two bucks. Nobody's
talking to me. Thanks going on, Bob, No, go ahead,
go ahead.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
As you said, it's gonna be a it's gonna be
a healthy price tag.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
I'll say that yet.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, no, for sure.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
But when you hear Adam Silver, I think it was
a couple weeks ago, came out and say, hey, look,
this may not be decided by the summer you know,
he did say they're going to give it the calendar year,
and it sounds like there's a chance they may take
full advantage of the next seven months. Does that seem
like any significant movement, whether positive or negative, to you
when you hear that.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Stuff, Well, not really.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I've been involved in I think what eight of the
last nine expansions, so I kind of know how it
works on that side. And if you're the league, the
perfect scenario is you get as many cities as possible interested,
You get as many ownership groups as possible in each
city interested, and the one thing the NBA is really
(03:44):
good at is hosting an auction, so they would like
to see as many interested parties as possible because probably
the first thing most owners in the room are going
to be focusing on is how much are you willing
to pay for the team? And then they'll start working
their way down the list of what's the arena, like,
who's the management, all those kinds of very important things.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
So and by not.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Putting a firm timeline on it, you're not boxing yourself in.
So even if you make a decision by the end
of the calendar year and you say we're going to
start in twenty eight, twenty nine. You know, it's not,
you know, four years like maybe the Kraken Head, but
it's what a year and a half or so, It's
plenty of time. We've had expansions where they've had a
(04:29):
year to get ready, and we've had expansions where they've
had two years to get ready. So I think that's
kind of right in the right in the sweet spot
where I think everything that needs to be done can
get done.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Bob, how much did this timeline get pushed back due
to the Celtic sale.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
I don't think the Celtics sale had anything to do
with it.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
I think it's really more whether or not there's an
appetite by the owners to expand. And one of the
things you have to think about is the owners share
the NBA revenues. And it's not just the media contracts,
which are the single biggest source of revenue, but there's
a lot of what we call NBA revenue. And right now,
(05:08):
each each team gets an equal one to thirtieth share,
and it's it's a big number. And if you bring
in one or two more partners, now you've deluded that
to one thirty first or one thirty second, and everybody
can do their math. Plus if factor in if I'm
a market that has to sell tickets, is it going
(05:29):
to be easy to sell tickets when an expansion team
comes to town? Probably not so easy. Do I want
to factor in if somebody I think if a particular
market comes in with a particular ownership and management, and
we think in four or five, six years they could
build a pretty good team. Now there's another team that's
really good. I got to compete against. Everybody's got their
(05:51):
own way of thinking about it, and each owner is
going to probably vote in the way that they think
is best for their franchise. So selling this or the
Blazers or any other team that really have, in my opinion,
nothing to do with that. You have a labor deal,
you have a long term media deal. Those are probably
the two biggest variables that would have to be pretty
(06:12):
good shape before you would think about expanding.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Well, Bob, what's it?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Let me just expand on that, because you know, Dick
asked about Boston.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
What about Portland's arena situation?
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Right?
Speaker 3 (06:20):
They got a brand new owner who's looking for a
new arena or help with upgrades to the Rose Garden
how much do you think the timeline for expansion to
Seattle could be impacted by what they do or do
not do with the Portland Blazers arena down there.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Again, I don't think that has any impact. I think
it's a separate situation. I don't see any scenario where
the Blazers leave Portland, right or should they?
Speaker 3 (06:45):
That was my next question. You see no, you see
no scenario Bob or the Blazers move here.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
No, okay, I see no scenario where that happens.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
And I see no scenario where the upgrades and the
improvements that they probably need to do at the Motive Center.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
I remember we you know.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
My first year, you know, my second year in Portland,
we moved into that building and I ran that building
for eight years. So it's probably due for some improvements.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Shall we say.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
And I think there's a real willingness by the community
and the and the politicians to do that. So I
think I think everybody comes to the table and works
on their issues in a in a realistic way. I
would imagine all those things that get resolved, and it's
just another situation in another market that you know, there's
always something somewhere that has to be addressed, and you
(07:35):
know it's it's been a while, so it's probably time
to address some of those things.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
How much of a vetting process is there to get
the right new person in the NBA ownership fraternity because
you've mentioned a couple of times it's the highest bidder,
highest bidder, and so is it just simply a dollar
amount whatever offered the most.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I didn't say it was just the highest bidder. I
said that's the first thing they look. So if you
don't have a high enough purchase price, they don't need
to look at the other things.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
But it's a collection of things.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
They really want to make sure they know who their
partner or partners are. And if you have a group
of people, they'll want to know who the acting governor
is going to be, and that's important. They'll want to
know what your plan is to build a successful business
both on and off the court, because they want each team,
(08:27):
each market to carry its own weight. They want you
to drive revenues and contribute to the NBA success. So
I think it's important, or say it the other way.
If you were a commissioner, what you don't want to
do is wake up in five or six or seven
years and find out that one of your expansion teams
is now one of your weak links and it's not
(08:49):
doing well. It's on financial thin ice, and now we
have a problem. So what they really want is to
make sure that if they bring new teams in, they're
going to be strong partners doing very very well.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
In five or ten years.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
And the one thing I can speak to when you
guys know this as well as I do, I don't
think I have to spend much time talking about the
support a NBA team will get in Seattle and the
support it has previously had in Seattle. So I think
that'd be a really big bright spot when you're talking
about why we should have a team in Seattle. The
fan base is fantastic, the enthusiasm is fantastic. I think
(09:25):
that'd be a five star no brainer. I don't think
you'll have to spend more than thirty seconds on that
part of the presentation.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Yeah, well, I mean, Bob wits it with us, and
Bob I've said it many years now that I don't
think there's a team a city in America that lost
a professional sports franchise that still has the passion to
get them back eighteen years later like we do. A
lot of cities around the country would have said the
hell with it. They would have moved on by now.
But we got people walking around with Sonic jerseys, we
(09:53):
got Sonic Knights, got we got a store, a company
that was founded on the backs of Sonic fans, simp
Seattle dot Com doing very well. That's unbelievable how much
passion there still is in Seattle. But Bob, let me
ask you this, because all of us think this is
a great idea because we want the Sonics back, right
But if we had a team and the NBA was
(10:14):
thinking about expanding to I don't know, Albertquerque, New Mexico,
we might be sitting here going, you know what, that's
a bad idea.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Man.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
We've got a tanking problem right now. The quality is
getting diluted around the NBA. Let's not do this right now.
If we put aside our affinity for Seattle and how
badly all of us want the Sonics back, is this
a good idea for the NBA to do this?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
You sound like the pitch I've I've bed probably two
hundred of them in the last year and a half.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
But I think there's two ways. You have to look
at it.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Anybody writing a big check, they're going to spend a
lot of time with you on trying to be convinced
that it's a good financial, long term investment. And one
of the keys is Seattle's a great market. It's got
Unlike most expansion teams, even the Kraken who did a
fantastic job rolling out a new product five years ago,
(11:05):
you know they have to start from scratch and something
as simple as coming up with a name. You've got
an expansion team, hopefully in Seattle, but you've got forty.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
One years of brand equity.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
We know it's going to be the Seattle Superstonics, and
we don't have to think of a name, so we've
got brand equity built in. We've got a great corporate base,
a great fan base. So I can give you a
great financial story why it's going to be a long
term thing. But I think the other part of the
story that I spend a lot of time with investors on,
which really is very important because there's probably other ways
(11:37):
they can make money without having to put it at
risk with a sports team. I believe under the current CBA,
the two apron system that if you really understand how
to build the basketball operations, and you do a great job.
I think in your fifth season as an expansion team,
you can be really good. And when I say really good,
(12:00):
talk about.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Winning the whole thing. I'm not saying you will. But
each year I'd say each year, i'd say there's.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
About eight teams that realistically have a chance to win it,
and you could be one of those teams in year
five or six. Again, you can't be you can't be
making all the mistakes. You can't be on the second
and third coach. You can be on the second or
third GM. You know, you got to really do it right.
And I think having a year and a half two
years to build it properly, I'm excited about what you
(12:27):
can do in terms of building a basketball team because
the current system allows smart people to do a really
good job. It's kind of like going to the poker table.
You can't just buy every pot anymore. Each team or
each player has the same number of chips, so you
have to know when to fold, you have to know
when to bluff, you have to know when to go
(12:48):
all in. So I think there's a real opportunity. You're
not starting with a train wreck of a really bad
team and you're in salary cap jail and you've given
away all your draft picks.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
You're starting clean.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
So I think there's a way to really do a
great job financially, there's a way to really build it
super strong in the community, and I think there's a
way to put together a basketball ops that It's going
to take you a little bit of time, no.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Question about that.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
But if you build the right culture, with the right
people doing it the right way, that it won't be
too long down the road where you suddenly have a
team that you're really excited to go watch night in
and night out. And I think that is probably the
last little piece that is starting to get investors excited,
because nobody wants to own a team where five six
(13:35):
years from now you're so far out of the playoff picture.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
It's not exciting.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
You know, they want their team to be a good, exciting,
competitive team, and if you're not in it to try
to win, you probably should try to do something else.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
Former Sonics Blazer Seahawks exec Bob Witza joining US Bob
Softie mentioned the tanking issue. There are other issues plaguing
in the NBA. Although the ratings are fantastic. There are
critics of the league. What are the things that intrigue
you about the game today and what are the things
that maybe you feel have gone backwards? And would you
even want to run a franchise in twenty twenty six
(14:11):
in the NBA.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
No, I would love to do it.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
I've talked to Adam and I gave him my ideas
on tanking, which I think is terrible. I'm not a
big fan of load management. I am a big fan
of making sure the players are in the right condition
to play. I would never want anybody out there who
isn't healthy to play. But you know the integrity of
the game competition, even if you're one with an expansion team.
(14:39):
I'm not going to sit here and try to pretend
we're going to have a team that's going to win
sixty games in your one because that's unrealistic.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
But whatever number.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Of games you win, you can build a culture where
those guys are out there playing as hard as they
can possibly play. And if I use the term heart
and hustle, and if you create that culture, you can't
just wake up up one day and say, okay, guys,
now it's time to win. You got to make everything
you do competitive, whether it's practice, and you got to
earn the minutes. There's gonna be a lot of guys
(15:09):
coming on the roster who are the ninth best player
in theory on some other team. It's gonna be a
great opportunity. You've got to get a coaching staff and
a development staff and a analytics staff and all the
things you need to do. But no, I like the game.
I like the it's a little bit more outside in.
I like the three point shooting. We've probably gone a
little bit too far with that. I would like to
(15:31):
see a little bit more physicality come back at the
defensive end, because you know, it's a little bit symptomatic
of what these All Star Games have been prior to
this year. You can't just have a glorified AAU game.
You need to have these great athletes competing at both
ends of the court. So I don't think there's anything
broken at all. I think it's a fascinating, exciting product.
(15:53):
The athletes keep getting better. But I think I think
we can do a few things that will probably make
it even better. And I think those are things that
can be yeah started at the league level, and each team.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Can create their own culture.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
But I think I think starting from scratch is very
very exciting and it should be a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Well, Bob whitson former song gam I got one more
expansion then I want to throw a cup more at
before you let you go. Man, this is great and
fun talking to you, and hope to do it again
down the road. But you mentioned that there's going to
be multiple bids for this thing, right, like all of us,
a lot of us at least, are focused on hyper
focused on the Samantha Holloway led group because they're here, right,
They've got the arena, they got the.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Kraken, and we know them.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
But Bob, how surprised I guess honestly, would you be
if it did happen and it was not the Holloway
led group that got the team.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Well, I wouldn't be shocked. But I think Samantha would
be a great governor. I think I think integrating it
in with the Kraken in the arena would be a
very smart move. So I think they would be the
right group to lead this thing.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
You know, But.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
It's hard to get teams, okay, And there's a lot
of people out there looking for teams and as I
said earlier, one of the great things about Seattle is
it's one of the markets you want to be in.
If you owned a team, you can be very successful financially.
So there's a lot of wealth globally out there, and
(17:22):
when there's very few opportunities to get teams, there are markets, frankly,
that investors just wouldn't want to invest in.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Seattle is not one of those markets. So it would
not shock me at all. But I think probably.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
And the reason you'll hear about them, as you said,
they're here and they've already put their hat in the ring,
and I think they'd be fantastic, And again, all things close.
I think they're the right people and they will do
a great job and all that. But these things never
go exactly as you think. And usually it's you know,
(17:56):
we've had people come in in the market in the
past and tease the market and they're going to get
a team and they're going to move it here, or
they're gonna get an expansion and all those things.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Usually those people never pan out.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
It's the ones you don't hear about until the very
last second because they're doing all the work behind closed
doors that sneak up on you. But in any event,
I just want to make sure we get a team,
and I think Samantha would be the ideal governor. I
think the organization they have in place would be a
great place to start, and then you could supplement with
(18:27):
the NBA piece of it.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
But you know it's going to be competitive.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I think Vegas will probably have multiple groups and there'll
be people there, and who knows, maybe you'll get another
city that we don't know about today. That one year
we were going to expand and we were going to
expand by two teams, and when it was over, we
brought in four.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
So and I was involved and that surprised me, but
we did it. So you never know.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Well, Bob, another team that you were very involved with,
the Seahawks, is also up for sale, and a name
that got thrown out today by sport it Coo is
a former Celtic majority owner with Grossback. What do you
know about Wick He was there when you were with
both the Sonics and the Blazers.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Well, he's part of the recent sale with the Celtics. Obviously,
he's a big sports fan and we're in a very
unique time right now. We have a market, a great
market a great sports market. Our football team is for sale,
and ironically, it was about thirty years ago when I
signed that purchase sale agreement for Paul, and it's been.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
An amazing run.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
You know, who would have thought that fifty years into
the Seahawks Paul or Paul's family would have owned it
for thirty of those fifty years. But we've never had
a defending Super Bowl champ on the market. So yeah,
there's been a few names floated already, but I would
imagine by the time that process gets to the end,
there's quite a few groups that are going to take
(19:52):
a look at it, a hard look at it, because
the NFL is still the big daddy in the US
and they're very very hard to get, and to get
one of the youngest teams in the league defending champs
set up to be very good for a long time,
you know, in a great market. I mean, if that
isn't a wonderful recipe to get a lot of interest,
(20:12):
I don't know what is.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
But yeah, I've had.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Probably had more calls on that in the last month,
and I have the basketball, although we've been working on
the basketball a lot longer. But it's just an exciting time,
and more important, I hope we end up with an
ownership group with the Seahawks that is equally committed to
the community, equally committed to the continued on the field success,
because I think John and Mike and Chuck in the
(20:40):
front office, the group has done a great job over there,
and I just hope that whoever comes in they don't
want to reinvent the wheel overnight, because sometimes when it's
going so good, the best thing you can do is
just sit back and say what can I do to
help you and let them have a chance. The hardest
thing in the NFL else to win the Super Bowl,
(21:01):
but the only thing harder than that is to win
back to back in I really want this group in
this organization to have the opportunity to go see if
they can do that, because that would be just off
the charts exciting. So you're gonna you're gonna hear a
lot of names, and you're probably not gonna hear some names,
But I hope we come up with a group that
is committed as Paul and then after Paul, Jody was
(21:24):
because that's been a phenomenal run.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
That's what I'm looking for, and I hope the Allen
Foundation looks for the same thing. I'm not worried about
the team moving Bob per Se, but I am a
little bit concerned about duplicating what Paul Allen and Jody
Allen pulled off because it might be the greatest ownership
run in Seattle sports history.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Hey man, this was great. Uh, look forward to doing
this again down the road.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
And if you need a couple of guys with a
couple of bucks to invest in anything, just think of
your buddies on kJ R and Seattle, willya.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Well I've told them I don't have quite that kind
of money. So if you need somebody to.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Sell hot doings on your me and I'll do whatever
it takes, whatever it takes.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
I want to get this done. Let's make it happen.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Hey, you were You know what I was gonna ask you.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
You were gone that that that famous legendary story about
Barry almost trading Sean for Scottie Pippen.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
You were gone when that happened, Is that right?
Speaker 4 (22:12):
I was gone?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
And uh, I'll never forget Jerry Krouse with the bulls
calling me he had a done deal, and I guess
the they undid the deal and I'm in Portland, run
in Portland, and Jerry's yelling at me for the Sonics
going back on it.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Jerry, why why are you yelling at me because they
won't take Mike Hall.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Well, the rumor, the rumor was that that Barry shut
it down because people called this radio station got pissed.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
You buy that it could be that, it could be
the power of kJ R is greater than you guys
can imagine.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Geez, all right, Bob wits It, great stuff, man, thanks
for doing this, and let's talk soon.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
All right, anytime, Thanks guys.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
All right, Bob wits It for i'mer Sonic GM. I
want to make sure I get the quote right, he said.
First of all, he says no scenario. He says no
scenario where the Blazers move to Seattle. He's very confident
the Sonics are going to come back to Seattle as
an expansion team. But it's not a done deals said,
says Bob Witsit, and that Samantha Holloway would be the
(23:20):
ideal governor for a new ownership group here in Seattle.
So lots to chew on there. Let's chew on it next.
On ninety three three KJRFM,
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