Unlike yesterday, there were not a lot of revelations today.

The city’s lawyers argued that the Sonics are active in the community, showing videotape of Sonics players like Kevin Durant reading a story about a chicken and an eagle at a Burien Middle School and of Nick Collison reading a Christmas story at an elementary school (is that legal) while telling the kids that his favorite food was pizza. The judge finally cut off the maudlin presentation when attorney Jeff Johnson tried to run video of fans cheering, “Save Our Sonics” at the last game.

Meanwhile, the Sonics’ lawyers trotted out financial data documenting the teams woes: Plummeting suite sales (going from $1.5 million in 2001 to $231,403 today, or 23.5 suites booked to 5.5 booked); heavy attrition of season ticket holders; and declining gate receipts, a 25 percent drop since 2002, down to $457,863 with average headcount dropping from 11,400 to 9,100 per game.)

Sonics President Daniel Barth also told the grim anecdote of the day this Spring the Sonics had sales people manning the phones when they grabbed the 4th pick in the draft (typically when high drafts are announced, ticket sales calls pour in…) and not a single phone call came in. (The city’s attorneys later pointed out that the Sonics tickets aren’t currently for sale.)

Way to waste my day. Neither of these presentations—video footage of do-gooder Sonics or data about lousy ticket sales—was relevant to the central question in the case: Do the Sonics have the right to break their lease?

While the Sonics financial woes are, in part, due to the terms of the lease, they don’t have anything to do with whether or not the lease says they’re required to stay. And as the city’s lawyers rightly pointed out in cross-examination—the Sonics signed the lease and Clay Bennett knew about its problems when he bought the team and agreed to honor the terms. It’s a little odd to be complaining about the lease now.

The only relevant testimony today came when the city, cross examining Bennett, used quotes from his letters and emails to argue that Bennett, who was mandated by the terms of the sale and by the NBA to make a “good faith” and “best effort” to keep the Sonics in the Seattle-area for a 12-month period after the sale—was actually angling to move the team prior to that.

One letter caught Bennett asking his advisors if the preliminary work he’d done to look for a local stadium (preliminary meaning he hadn’t secured any money and hadn’t drawn up any legislation) would count as his “best effort.” The city read this to mean Bennett was trying to skimp on his obligation. Bennett argued back that it showed he was constantly focused on abiding by the mandate.

Another “smoking gun” letter caught Bennett asking the NBA honcho Joel Litvin about the possibilities of moving the team six months into the “Best Effort” period.