Bruce, no! The mistake Seattle mayor made in hitting nerve with Sonics fans

There are certain things you don’t joke about in Seattle, and you’d think the city’s mayor would know what’s on top of that list.

He clearly didn’t on Tuesday, and certainly does now.

At a State of the City address at Benaroya Hall, Bruce Harrell teased that he had a big announcement. He then pulled out a basketball that was hidden in his podium and spun it in his hands while looking out into the crowd, which – judging by the sudden excitement that could be heard from those in attendance – gave the impression he was about to announce that the NBA is finally ready to expand and bring back the Seattle Sonics.

“Ah, I’m just kidding,” Harrell then said while putting the basketball away.

See the whole thing unfold in the video at this link taken by KOMO News cinematographer T.K. Johnson, which was shared on social media by KOMO reporter Chris Daniels.

Harrell is a former UW Huskies football star, so let’s react to this joke in Dawg terms.

Woof.

Here’s a tip: If you’re a politician who ever wants to win another election, it’s not a good idea to strike the same nerve that got a pro wrestling bad guy one of the most lusty rounds of booing in the city’s history.

And in the words of Steve Raible, longtime radio voice of the Seahawks who once shouted when Bruce Irvin hit an opposing player who was already out of bounds: “Bruce, no!”

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Needless to say, the reaction online from Seattle Sports fans to the new Bruce Harrell version of “Punk’d” was… not good. And not surprisingly, it was the first thing mentioned Wednesday morning when Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk did their “Trash Takes” segment.

“I’m gonna go with the mayor,” said Brock Huard, himself a former UW Huskies football star. “No Bruce, no. I feel like Raible. ‘No, Bruce! No!’ That’s a fellow Husky. That’s a bow-downer. That’s a linebacker. … And you could feel the anticipation – like, what? I know expansion’s been talked about. And then he just pump-faked them. That’s trashy.”

 

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Mike Salk, Huard’s co-host, agreed while also pointing out it was a weird place to pull this particular prank since a long-awaited NBA expansion announcement probably wouldn’t be the mayor’s alone to make.

“That’s not really what you wanna do,” Salk said. “… Did people actually think he was going to make the announcement? I mean, he doesn’t get to do that. That’s gonna be done by a large group of people at a press conference.”

Based on the reaction heard in the video after he pulled out the basketball, some people in the audience did get caught up in the excitement.

“I don’t think people were analyzing it that much in the moment,” producer Maura Dooley responded.

Sonics fans could make Seattle mayor regret joke

Here’s the big mistake Harrell made in that moment. Sonics fans who have been waiting 17 years for the NBA to return to Seattle have a lot of anger, and a lot of people to direct it at.

There’s the group of owners led by Clay Bennett that moved the team to Oklahoma City to become the Thunder in 2008.

There’s former Starbucks chair Howard Schultz, who sold the Sonics to that ownership group, ultimately sealing the team’s fate.

There’s former Seattle mayor Greg Nickels, who saw his popularity decline when the Sonics were pulled out of the city under his watch.

And there’s especially the NBA, who have twisted the knife at seemingly every turn in the Sonics saga.

The league let the OKC group take the team. It then blocked a sale of the Sacramento Kings in 20213 to Chris Hansen, who planned to relocate the team to Seattle, on the grounds that it didn’t want what happened to Seattle to happen to another fanbase (thanks guys).

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And most recently, the league has dragged its feet on expected expansion, first waiting for a new TV deal that was finalized last summer, and now apparently waiting for the owners of the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics to sell in order to set the market on new franchises.

All of those people to be angry at for the absence of the Sonics in Seattle, and Bruce Harrell just cut to the front of the line for no reason other than a lame joke.

Seriously, Bruce. No.

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