Rumor Has It Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Could Finally Save Basketball In Seattle… By Buying The Celtics For $6 Billion

The greater Seattle area is a phenomenal sports scene, and it also happens to be ground zero for Jeff Bezos founding the monolithic, ubiquitous technology company Amazon. Basically no industry has gone untouched by Amazon's revolutionary e-commerce, culminating in a net worth of $195.7 billion for Bezos as of my latest Googling. When an iconic franchise like the Boston Celtics pops up for a potential $6 billion sale, the question for Bezos is more or less, "Why the hell not?" Because that amount of money, to invoke The Wolf of Wall Street, is a bunch of fun coupons to a gazillionaire like him. My sportswriting idol Bill Simmons, who "doesn't care" if he's aggregated because he insists he's correct, is reporting that Bezos is among the Celtics' prospective ownership contenders. "[The league wants] the $6 billion because they want expansion teams in Seattle and Vegas — and Mexico City is kind of looming as a third team. But they want to get $6 billion apiece for the two franchises for expansion, which would mean a check of $400 million to every NBA owner, all 30, right? So they’re trying to establish a price for the Celtics team […] and in the last few days, there’s been a lot of buzz about Jeff Bezos being one of the suitors." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E3AYG-CyQA

I don't pretend to know exactly how these megabucks transactions work, but I think what Simmons is getting at here is a massive sale of the Celtics will create some sort of trickle-down effect that'll make the NBA's expansion more palatable. Plus, it helps that the new NBA media rights deals that total some $76 billion over 11 years and include Bezos' Amazon getting some streaming rights will only benefit all parties involved with added games and more teams in the league. The Seattle SuperSonics were a beloved franchise in Seattle, but fans were devastated when they left the Emerald City to become the Oklahoma City Thunder. Sonics supporters were robbed of the early years of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden among other things. Although OKC is a great story now, Seattle basketball is irreplaceable and really needs to come back. It'd be fitting for Bezos to be the guy who brings the Sonics back in a de facto sort of way. He'd get the thrill of owning the winningest NBA franchise and win over so many people by bringing basketball back to Seattle. Since he has so many balls in the air and I don't know how much interest or hands-on involvement he'd have, Bezos seems better suited to take the wheel of a well-oiled machine like the Celtics, as opposed to dealing with the pressure and baggage that'd come with a Sonics revival. However the Celtics sale plays out, if they get their $6 billion asking price, be it from Bezos or somebody else, it sure sounds like we'll be on an inevitable track to the Sonics' return, which is the only element of the NBA's expansion I really care about. PS, now that Durant is basically a glorified gun-for-hire, how dope would it be to see him don a Sonics jersey in the twilight of his career after doing so as a rookie? Can't think of a much better way to bookend his legendary career than that, as long as he knocks off another championship with the Suns or elsewhere prior to then. Here's hoping. Seattle deserves it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJsV_5u1ODc