Parting is such sweet sorrow - The Arizona Coyotes go the way of the Supersonics and Rockies hockey

“Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.”
– Juliet, Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

A Seattle-based buddy of mine is in a sports-based group chat I’m in, and stays pretty active with all things Seattle sports in our group chat, sometimes even when Seattle wasn’t the topic we were starting with. But he always gets pretty quiet when we start chatting about the NBA, and no wonder. He even gave me some love the other day when we were talking hoops, and I mentioned that the world is a paler place without the Seattle Supersonics in it.

I’m not a Seattle guy, and honestly my fondest memory of the Sonics involves Dikembe Mutombo laying on their basketball court, but I do believe that the world, at least the basketball world, lost a tiny bit of their heart when the team of Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp was wiped off the map. Detlef Schrempf. Rashard Lewis. Nate McMillan. Jack Sikma. Hell, KD has never looked cooler in a uniform than those badass Sonics greens.

Someday, maybe the world will right itself just enough to put NBA basketball back in Seattle.

It may be even a little bit longer before hockey finds its way back to Phoenix, sadly.

My heart breaks for the fanbase and everyone involved with the machine surrounding the Arizona Coyotes, including and especially the killer team covering the Yotes for PHNX and All-City. In all honesty, I watched Arizona hockey about as much as I watched Seattle basketball, and I still occasionally went out and made time for the PHNX hockey crew because the murmurs around the DNVR folks were so strong.

And even though the local Phoenix fanbase surrounding the team was small, it was mighty, and had partially dwindled simply from the on-again, off-again mature of the conversation the team and ownership had been having with the city for far too long. In visits to Phoenix and chatting with folks about local sports, the Coyotes were often a subject of frustration before a conversation actually began, always a bad sign for a local anything who counts on the hearts and wallets of their community to make them relevant and strong.

But it’s still hard to imagine losing a team from Denver, even the hapless Rockies, and how much that might rip at the heart and fabric of this town. Imagine your local hockey team dwindling enough in relevance that they suddenly aren’t a part of your local anything any more.

Actually, Denver hockey fans of a certain vintage can well imagine that scenario, when a different set of hapless Rockies, the NHL’s Colorado Rockies, suddenly found themselves the much more popular New Jersey Devils. Those of us just learning some of the finer points of the game didn’t give two whits about whatever was going on in New Jersey, and suddenly hockey lost its luster, and was long rumored to be an impossibility around these parts ever again.

In. terms of moving and heartbreak, Phoenix was actually the second stop for this franchise, as well. Up until the mid-90’s they had been the Winnipeg Jets. Winnipeg was also busted up about their loss, cursing the new desert dogs. They were also active, sad, and vocal enough to regain a team in 2012, though the old Jets records are still in Phoenix. Well… now in Utah. The new Jets used to be Atlanta, so the Thrashers records are the Jets, and the Jets records are the Utah… Bees? I guess we’ll see. It all gets a little confusing.

Hell, another certain Canadian team out of Quebec, the Nordiques, was also a team eventually completely out of Quebec, and looking for a new home. They eventually made hockey a heck of a heap more popular around these parts by winning an Avalanche of Stanley Cups. And while I hope Quebec gets hockey back someday if they want it and support it, I guess I’d prefer to keep these records, a few of which just got broken this season. So I guess maybe I do get it. Sometimes the return on those sad partings really does end up bringing sweeter things back in return.

So… here’s to NBA basketball back in Seattle, and even more emotionally in the moment, to NHL hockey someday back in Phoenix, just like it returned to Winnipeg and Colorado. We sure feel your sorrow, Coyotes fans. Hoping it is someday sorrow that ended up sweet.