By Miles Liatos  Sports Radio KJR

This week has been filled with dissenting voices filling KJR airwaves about the NBA’s relocation decision over the Sonics.

Enter Steve Kyler from Hoopsworld.com, the most recent one.

Kyler addressed one of his tweets after the NBA Board of Governor’s vote during “Mitch in the Morning” today.

Sources said that Seattle group was compelling and that more owners were probably in favor of Seattle vote, but that Stern swayed the vote.

— Steve Kyler (@stevekylerNBA) May 16, 2013

Mitch pointed out how it seemed David Stern was influencing the vote. After presentations by the Sonics and Kings ownership groups April 3, Stern said he wouldn’t have much of a hand in the process.

“My role is to make sure that they (the ownership groups) focus on the issues,” Stern said. “I don’t think they need to be influenced.”

But Kyler said he didn’t think Stern influenced the votes of the NBA owners.

“He was doing exactly what he said he was going to do, be an advisor and look out for the best interest of the league, and make sure the owners understood the big-picture implications for all involved,” he said.

The “big-picture” concept involves sending the right message to other teams in the league who are on the verge of financial insecurity. Kyler said in the short-term, Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer offered much more than the Kings in terms of immediate payout.

But by keeping the Kings in Sacramento, Stern effectively outsourced a message to teams who will have to face questions about financial and regional security in the coming years. That message is “If you support your team the team will stay,” he said. Kyler mentioned the Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta Hawks and Memphis Grizzlies as recipients of said message.

By Trenton Jocz, Sports Radio KJR

Basketball roots in Seattle run deep. Whether a player grew up here like Jason Terry, Jamal Crawford or Avery Bradley, or didn’t play here until reaching the pros like Gary Payton or Slick Watts (or Kevin Durant for that matter), Seattle has as strong of a basketball community as any.

A couple members of that community, Watts and his son Donald, who himself played two years (’97-’99) at the University of Washington, visited Mitch in studio to promote their inaugural benefit event tomorrow night for his foundation, Angels in Sports. They also gave their thoughts on the the future of basketball in Seattle after yesterday’s vote in Dallas that saw the NBA deny relocation for the Sacramento Kings franchise.

Being very practical about not succeeding in bringing to the Kings to Seattle, Donald said, “Just like … in a game or a competition and you have a loss, it’s very important to understand why you lost, what the truth is, so that you can get the win the next time, prepare yourself for the next battle and to go into the next battle ready to win.”

Considering the Board of Governors prior recommendation to keep the Kings in Sacramento (regardless of whether the vote was 7-0 or 4-3) as well as the fact that expansion isn't realistic until the league completes a new TV contract, yesterday’s outcome seemed to be a fait accompli, but the latter issue also represents hope. Donald echoed this sentiment, saying, “I think that TV scenario and starting those negotiations has a lot to do with it. I know before the vote went down, that was the conversation that was started and maybe the initiation of the TV negotiations was to spur getting something done in the way of expansion and Stern has a way of kind of hinting things without saying things and to me it sounded like what he was saying.”

Slick also expressed optimism in regards to the resolve of the Hansen/Ballmer group, saying “Steve is a solid citizen, he’s a solid human being and at one time he had that attitude that he was going to step back […] but he said for the fans of this city, [they] deserve a team and I think he’s in it for the long fight.”

As for his feelings on David Stern’s role on the initial departure of the Sonics in 2008, the elder Watts said, “To hear the city council tell you that the Sonics had no cultural values, I was more hurt from that statement than what David Stern did. Lenny Wilkens, Bill Russell’s here, Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, all these guys always working hard for the community and to hear that we have no cultural value, I think David heard that, so he got with his boys and he said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna show you how to slip out of town.’”

However, Slick still hasn’t lost hope in Stern helping an NBA franchise find its way to Seattle. He said, “David is a businessman. He knows in his heart that Seattle is a great place for basketball. He knows it.”

For more on Angels in Sports, visit angelsinsports.org.

Mitch had Bob Condotta on to talk about his coverage of the owner's meetin in Dallas. They go over what he saw and what he interprets on the whole situation with the NBA and the future of basketball in Seattle.