The Atlanta Hawks are up for sale after owner Bruce Levenson voluntarily reported a racially insensitive e-mail the NBA.
With the team on the market and the Seattle area looking for a new team to replace the SuperSonics, who moved and became the Oklahoma City Thunder, it would make sense that the Hawks could be a candidate for relocation. South Florida Sun Sentinel writer Ira Winderman suggested that the Hawks could be a team a Seattle based ownership group could view as an option to buy and move.
Of course that doesn’t mean there is currently any interest in moving the Hawks, but if Seattle wanted a team this is a great opportunity.
With Hawks being sold, and with Atlanta's awful attendance, this has got to perk up those in Seattle ... (Cont.)
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) September 7, 2014
(Cont.) ... Realignment would easy enough shifting New Orleans to East and (Heat's) Southeast Division.
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) September 7, 2014
Unfortunately the Seattle based Steve Ballmer just spent $2 billion to buy the Los Angeles Clippers. Something he might regret in the wake of the Hawks team becoming available. He could probably get the Hawks for less and could potentially move them back to Seattle, something he said he would not do with the Clippers.
There also is the whole process of getting out of an arena lease.
In a league with $2B sale of Clippers, cost of escaping arena clauses now becomes relative, although Atlanta a significant market size.
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) September 7, 2014
Appreciate extricating Hawks from Atlanta could cost $200M, but Clippers sale changed game. Wonder if Ballmer would have bid for Seattle?
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) September 7, 2014