Seattle Sports Legend JJ Dies

The Seattle Times reports John Johnson, the power forward known as JJ, has died.  Johnson was on the 1979 Sonics team that beat the Baltimore Bullets for the NBA title.  When I worked at the Overlake UPS Store (I have since moved to the Crossroads UPS Store), JJ was a regular customer.  He was soft spoken, maybe a little surly, and bought nickel and dimes stuff.  I believe he worked at a car dealership down the road.  He would speak of himself in the third person as JJ. I asked him one day to show me his championship ring which did.   JJ had since moved to the Bay area since to be close to his son.

Hansen Bid Shot Down--Kings To Stay In Sacramento

Seattle chance to regain an NBA team took a severe blow when the NBA Relocation voted unanamously to keep the Kings franchise in Sacramento.  It is unknown at this time what the next step will be, but it is clear at this time that the Chris Hansen group will have to entertain other options if it hopes to bring an NBA team here.  Hansen had put 30 million dollars down on a binding offer to buy the Kings from the previous owners, the Maloof Brothers.

Chris Hansen-Seattle City Council Reach Agreement

The Seattle Times reports that the Seattle City Council has come to an agreement with Chris Hansen to build a basketball-hockey arena in the Soda area in hopes of bringing the NBA back to Seattle. According to the Times, the terms of the deal will be announced today.   It did say that the deal calls for Hansen to help fund road improvements to ease possible overcrowded streets, a concern of the Port Of Seattle.   The Hansen group also hopes the arena would allow an NHL team to relocate here.

Quest To Build Seattle Downtown Arena In Full Swing

The movement to build a winter sports arena in the attempt to lure NBA basketball and the National Hockey league to Seattle now has a website.    You can click here to find the site, which give the argument in favor of Arena Construction, as well as links to supporting facebook and twitter pages and e-mails of city and county government officials.  Back in February, it was reported that Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn has been in negotiations with San Francisco financier Chris Hanson to build a privately funded arena in the Sodo district near where both the Seahawks and Mariners play.