not so supeR 373
trial. There are only villains... plaintiffs, defendants, everyone—wear-
ing sullied suits, looking like rivals after a schoolyard brawl.”^13
Gorton was furious to have his integrity impugned but constrained
from comment at the time. Here is his side of the story:
“At the time at which the mayor asked me and K&L Gates to represent
the city I was already involved with Mike McGavick and Wally Walker in
trying to find a purchaser to keep the team here. The only potential buyer
was Steve Ballmer, whom both Wally and Mike knew well. It took very
little persuasion to get Steve to offer the city $150 million to pay half of the
cost of remaking KeyArena into a satisfactory venue for the NBA. In her
usual lackluster fashion, Gregoire supported the idea of authorizing the
city to extend the Safeco Field taxes but Speaker Chopp killed it. If it had
not been for Frank Chopp, the Sonics would still be here.
“The NBA was right in its position that the present KeyArena is vastly
inadequate. However, it would have had to agree that the remodel would
make it OK, and the Oklahomans didn’t want to sell. They wanted to
move. We could only retain the Sonics by persuading the league to reject
their application and that required an unequivocal commitment to the
changes and to a new purchaser—Ballmer. Of course we played hardball,
the only game a sports league would understand. Once the Legislature
failed to act, the league was certain to approve the move to Oklahoma
City. The city was left with only a lawsuit to keep the team here for two
more awful years or to get as large a settlement as possible.
“The meeting I had with the NBA in New York was set up by Wally
Walker, whom the NBA knew and liked. He and McGavick and Ballmer
were the team to save the Sonics that preceded my representation of the
city, so of course they were told about its results, and properly so. But dur-
ing the course of the trial, when Keller made his charges, Lawrence failed
to defend me or to allow me to do so myself—during or after the trial,
probably because the settlement negotiations were at a crucial point.
Whatever, I was furious and seriously considered leaving the firm. I’m
still unhappy today.”
theity c And the oKLAhoMAns settled out of court for $45 million in
the summer of 2008, just before Pechman was set to release her ruling.
Seattle kept the Sonics’ name. Oklahoma City gained a young team re-
christened the Thunder. Seattle stood to receive another $30 million on
two conditions. The first was the linchpin: The Legislature in 2009 had
to approve funding to renovate KeyArena or build a new venue. If that