At last night’s Sonics home finale, the fourth quarter began with the Key Arena jumbotron showing little kids talking to the crowd in “MAKE SUM NOIZE” fashion—“I can’t hear you!” “Let’s get louder!” etc. My friends and I kept hoping that as the crowd roared, the jumbotron screens would flash Sonics owner Clay Bennett, looking up after swimming in a pool of $120 million in OKC public money to say, “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought I heard something.”

Throughout the game came chants of “Save Our Sonics!”, along with a few less-fierce “Bennett Sucks!” chants (one of which I might’ve started). When the game’s stunning upset victory over the Dallas Mavericks was prolonged by a ref video review, that former chant reached a painful peak, numbing the ears and throats of the thousands in attendance—and eliciting the claps and arm-raises of Kevin Durant and Nick Collison, no less (both of whom played their hearts out and, honestly, earned their stunning upset victory).

But who was the crowd shouting this at? The Key Arena staff, who’d been seemingly cut in half based on how many concession stands were closed at this particularly crowded game? The folks at the ticket booth who’d closed off cheap-seats sales at least 20 minutes before tip-off, in spite of hundreds of upper-bowl seats remaining barren? The players, who in action (and interviews) had already made their Seattle allegiance known? The police presence, descending onto the court at the final buzzer complete with Gestapo poses to prevent that Seattle-style riot, however unlikely?

This was an emotional game for plenty of reasons—Seattle’s surprising comeback, Gary Payton’s 2-minute standing-O when he showed up, Sasquatch dropping from the ceiling on a zip-line to play a drumset—and Sonics fans came out in large numbers to beg and plead the only way they knew how (other than, you know, attend most of the other 40 home games, which have often been so barren that I’ve been able to sneak into $100+ seats all too often). But Bennett was the man these roars were meant for, and you can guess how much of a blip they made in his portfolio. If anything, the incredibly odd concession stand and ticket sales issues I mention above indicate that the guy is not just a money-crazed scumbag but also possibly a passive-aggressive cretin, poking the Seattle homers who came to seemingly say goodbye.

As our post-season nears, the only impact that can turn the tide will have to come from the rest of the country shining a spotlight on this mess, as Josh Feit has stated repeatedly. Perhaps repeated comments from Sonics players that they do not want to move will get the ball rolling. Do you hear that, OKC fans? Our team doesn’t want to live in your dusty, cheap-beer-drinkin’ city. But the rest of the press-fueled PR campaign isn’t looking so good…here’s what ESPN pointed out in their piece from last night:

Bennett estimated he lost $20 million last season and is allegedly losing many millions amid declining attendance this season on the team he and his Oklahoma partners bought for $350 million in 2006. The optimistic view in Seattle is that Bennett will tire of losing cash, and that the NBA will tire of the ugliness from what would be, if the court sides with Seattle, two lame duck seasons in town before Bennett moves them to Oklahoma.

This ESPN perspective avoids mentioning Bennett’s bait-and-switch tactics of demanding an unrealistic amount of public funding and creating a toxic relationship with the city, and worse, the “optimistic view” isn’t even all that accurate—no mention of the Key Arena renovation offer from last month? Instead, the fans are painted as the poison, not Bennett, which is the bullshit he’s been selling all along. But what could be worse than putting it that way? The Times has the worst news of all:

The wait has forced Seattleite Jason Terry, who graduated from Franklin High, to send Dallas owner Mark Cuban on a mission for him — to bring Terry a KeyArena memento.

“We’ll see what he comes up with,” Terry said. “As a fan growing up and still being deeply rooted in the community, it’s disheartening to hear all of those things [about the possible relocation]. To realize it may be a reality is going to be tough.”

That sounds nice, doesn’t it? Mavs owner Mark Cuban, the wild-and-crazy Internet billionaire who revitalized Dallas’ team a decade ago, possibly doing his damnedest to help the Sonics? … Google “David Stern Mark Cuban.” The NBA’s most hated owner acting as a Seattle diplomat and pleading with NBA commish Stern? Like our odds aren’t bad enough.