Mark Cuban gets it

Excuse taking the Canuck bus off the road for a little side trip to Seattle. The NBA has just voted 28-2 to move the Sonics to that megalopolis of Oklahoma City. The only owners to vote against the move were the Dallas Mavericks' Mark Cuban and the Portland Trail (no longer "Jail") Blazers' Paul Allen.

OK, so Allen's vote makes sense from the Northwest rivalry POV...or maybe he feared that Microsoft backlash from angry Seattleites would cause his wealth to drop from megabillions to billions in a nanosecond. The Cuban vote is really the lone voice of sanity in this mess proving he paid attention during Econ 101:

Greater Seattle population: 3.2 million
Major corporations HQed there: Microsoft, Nintendo America, Amazon.com, Starbucks, Real Networks (yep, your Real Audio there on the Interwebs) and Boeing (well, its manufacturing plant)
Known for: Coffee, grunge, rain, hydroplane races, JP Patches, Ivar's and Ichiro

Greater Oklahoma City population: 1.2 million
Major corporations HQed there: Devon and Chesapeake Energy...and, uh, Tumbleweeds Inc.
Known for: Hosting the World Cup of Softball!

Then again maybe NBA Commish David Stern thinks OKC is in Europe and is the first franchise in that new NBA Trans-Europa Express Division that will turn the NBA into a sport bigger than soccer. Pretty much meaning it'll become more half-court with less scoring. Just like soccer!