Snippets from the courtroom

The "man possessed" explanation:

Seattle attorney Paul Lawrence:

You didn't e-mail back to them and say, "Hold on, boys, you misunderstood me. I'm not possessed to move the team to Oklahoma City; I'm possessed to keep the team in Seattle," correct?

Sonics owner

Clay Bennett:

Their perspective was well known to me. I didn't respond. This was right after I found out about our defeat in Olympia. And I specifically want to point out the game is just getting started because that is a reference to what I believed to be the case. What I had heard time and time again in my process is that nothing will happen here until the very end. Then the game gets started. That is where I thought we were.

Lawrence:

My question to you was, did you respond back to Mr. Ward and Mr. McClendon to correct their impression that what you were saying is you were possessed to move the team to Oklahoma City?

Bennett:

No, I did not.

Two more years

at the Key?

Lawrence:

You are not going to throw mud at the mayor, correct?

Bennett:

No.

Lawrence:

He can still go see a game if he decides to see games again at KeyArena, correct?

Bennett:

He will probably see more of them than I will be able to.

Lawrence:

And the fans would still be able to see the games? You know, you get a big reaction when you have the Clay Bennett Day, a sellout.

City expert lazy?

Sonics attorney Paul Taylor:

Isn't it true, Mr. Zimbalist, that you lifted large portions of your original report for this case from a report you prepared in state court down in Los Angeles in 2005?

Smith College sports economist Andrew Zimbalist:

I can't tell you that is true. It's possible that notes from that case were also notes that I used for this case.

— Compiled from court transcripts by staff reporters Percy Allen and Jim Brunner