The Oklahoma City Kevin Durants?

According to ESPN.com, the Seattle Supersonics, who look closer and closer to relocating to Oklahoma City next season, are considering changing their team name. The franchise, with a storied history in the Emerald City lasting over forty years, has flaunted some of the NBA's more interesting characters: Gary Payton, Detlef Schrempf, Shawn Kemp, and my personal favorite, nerd-turned-punk Robert Swift. Thus, it's not surprising to see some nationalistic movements against the possibility of the Sonics in the buzzing metropolis of Oklahoma City.



And as one-half of the NBA's real estate in the Pacific Northwest and of the famed I-5 rivalry (along with Trail Blazers), the Sonics' relocation will leave the national basketball map a bit lonely on the left hand side. The gray, rainy city of Seattle will now only have hairless Matt Hasselbeck and the Seahawks to devote their depressed selves to.

Especially if they do change their team name, I will genuinely miss the Sonics. I grew up watching Kemp's thunderous dunks, Payton yelling at referees for no reason, and Shrempf's European crew cut. And although I almost threw up at the first sight of skinny boy Kevin Durant in that green and yellow, I've come to appreciate him as the face of that city (just after Hendrix, of course). And besides, how could you not love a team with the same name as your favorite hedgehog?

And please, in the name of WNBA babe Lauren Jackson, just don't take the Storm too!

-K.H. (Robert Swift's high school bully).