Seattle Freeze didn’t even make the list. Speculation about what name could be bestowed on a potential National Hockey League expansion team in Seattle turned interesting this week with the revelation that a number of domain names have been registered by the group renovating KeyArena. According to a report by Clark Rasmussen at DetroitHockey.net, 38 domains representing 13 potential team names were registered by a lawyer representing Oak View Group. While the group and Seattle haven’t been awarded a franchise yet — potentially the league’s 32nd — it’s never too early to drop the gloves and fight over which, if… Read More
TAYLOR’S TAKE ON THE WEEK IN SPORTS TECH: We caught up with two big names in the NBA world to get an update on Seattle’s chances of getting professional basketball back in the Emerald City. My colleague Todd Bishop sat down with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, now the owner of the L.A. Clippers, and discussed the city’s prospects for bringing back the Sonics, which left town in 2008. Ballmer noted that Seattle is “the most affluent city in America” without an NBA team, but noted that transportation issues around KeyArena could pose an issue. Can technology help? Separately, I ran… Read More
Should all athletes eat hundreds of chicken nuggets before competition? Probably not. But it sure did work for Usain Bolt. We caught up with the world’s fastest man at CES last week in Las Vegas, where the eight-time Olympic gold medalist was promoting Philips’ new BASS+ headphones at the Gibson tent. Bolt, who loves music and has some DJ chops, was calm and cool during our interview, much like he looks on the racetrack. We had to ask about his 100 Chicken McNugget per day diet at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, where he won three gold medals on the… Read More
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has a unique perspective on Seattle’s chances of bringing back the NBA, as the owner of the L.A. Clippers and a key player in past efforts to retain the Sonics and then land a new team. He has made it clear from the beginning that he will not move the Clippers to Seattle. However, when it comes time for NBA expansion, he will be in a position to make the case for Seattle to the rest of the league. So what will be Ballmer’s pitch? I asked him that question last week at a Rotary… Read More
Wipe your own ass, America. That might not be the best campaign slogan if Charles Barkley decides to run for president in 2020, but it was his message to the geeks last week at CES. We had a lot of fun catching up with the NBA legend and current TNT hoops analyst at the big tech expo in Las Vegas. Inside the NBA, starring former players Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny Smith, brought its production studio to the CES show floor for the third consecutive year (check out our interviews from 2016 and 2017). Barkley, who made headlines late last… Read More
