I was going to be a little hard on Sherman Alexie (which I was a while back when he gave a dopey antiwar speech). I thought his testimony today came across a little naive, a little entitled, a little “spoiled-rich-kid”: He gave an account of how the new ownership mistreated season-ticket holders this year, citing a curt letter he got about next year and about the time he and his sons went to the locker room this season, something season-ticket holders get to do on occasion, and they weren’t treated right. “And that’s my sons’ favorite thing every year,” he complained.

I guess if Jack Nicholson or Spike Lee testified at a trial about the Los Angeles Lakers or New York Knicks respectively, it’d come across the same way.

But whatever with me: Alexie held a press conference afterward where he made a great case. I even teared up when he told a story about his father. (He teared up too, I think.)

First of all, though, he responded to Bennett’s attorney Brad Keller’s gotcha argument. In the courtroom, Keller had pointed out that Alexie had written (in The Stranger) that he would still be a fan if the team moved to Oklahoma City.

Keller was clever enough to point out that Alexie’s father—who Alexie regularly and poignantly brings up as the guiding force for his own love of the NBA—remained a huge Los Angeles Lakers fan even though the Lakers originally played in Minneapolis in the ’50s (ever wonder why a team from L.A. is called the Lakers?), which is when Alexie’s father first became a fan.

I asked him about this in the press conference: Didn’t Keller make a good point? Alexie could (and probably would) still be a big fan. What’s the big deal?

Alexie said he’d wish he’d gotten to address that in court: “My father didn’t live in Minneapolis,” he said.

He was also more candid in the press conference than he was in the courtroom, reemphasizing a point he had tried to make at the trial: “For a city where black culture is not celebrated or even acknowledged… there are more black people at KeyArena [for a Sonics game] than for any other public event in Seattle.”

In the press conference, Alexie finally acknowledged his affluence, but he used it to reframe his position as “the spokesman” for “all fans” (something he said was “lighter” than his more regular position as a spokesman for “all Native Americans”) by explaining that he grew up poor, yet here he was with season tickets. That rags-to-riches imagery is what the NBA is all about, he said.

He then told a touching story about the time he brought his sick father to a game. As they approached Alexie’s sixth-row seats, his frail father seemed awed. He was quiet as they sat down, but eventually turned to Alexie and said simply, “These are great seats.”

Alexie explained: “It was the acknowledgment of an incredible journey. He and my mother had enabled this to happen. [Every time I’m at a game now], I sit in the arena with my father’s ghost. No matter who’s in the seat next to [my family], my father is sitting between us.”

Alexie also stuck to his faggy Stranger testimony (the TV news will call it “colorful” I imagine.) He repeated his whole thing about the Greek gods. He said, “LeBron James, sure it’s being a little homoerotic, but that’s great, serious abs!”

Ultimately, though, what sticks with me is something Alexie said in his courtroom testimony. He referred to KeyArena as “the gym” (as in “when you’re sitting in the gym watching the game.”) The gym?

Here’s where Alexie is both beautiful and naive. He still thinks of the NBA as something that’s played in a gym. It’s the Minneapolis Lakers. Funny: The whole reason Bennett wants to take the Sonics to Oklahoma City is because KeyArena isn’t up to NBA arena standards. He needs clubs and restaurants, retail stores, media dining areas, more courtside suites, family lounges.

Bennett wants a yuppie entertainment plaza, a mall with a basketball court. Alexie thinks he’s in a gym.

I’m not saying Alexie’s fantasy is a bad thing (and I’ve criticized the NBA/Bennett Model over and over in The Stranger and on Slog), but Alexie’s idealism is running up against the reality of the league. And that seems to sum up the standoff between Seattle and its I-91s (74 percent voted no money for corporate sports) vs. the NBA and its yuppie suites.

And in that sense, if the city loses this case and the Sonics leave because we’re not up to NBA standards, well, the NBA loses because they’re not up to ours.