Not sure if folks in Seattle saw this last week, but the Oklahomans are making plans on hosting an NBA team. The Oklahoma City Council approved $250,000 for a study to determine what improvements need to be made to the Ford Center.

Here's the story in the Oklahoman.

And there seem to be discussions on building a new facility in Oklahoma City that could house an NBA team. Here's the link to that story.

As for the Sonics, returning home from a five-game, eight-day trip, coach P.J. Carlesimo gave the guys two days off. No practice. No weightlifting. (At least not mandatory). From what I'm told, he wanted them to get away from the game a bit and come back refreshed for their second long extended homestand.

The next practice is Tuesday.

Seattle finishes the year with five of six games at home. They've got some winnable games on the immediate schedule starting Wednesday with New Orleans, which plays in Portland tonight. Toronto (Friday's game) and Portland (on Christmas Day) are 50-50 games. Boston will be tough, but Minnesota and Philadelphia are beatable.

Should the Supes win four of their next six and finish the year 11-20, that's a better mark than many had for them. Of course this is an optimistic view. The Supes could just as easily post a 2-4 or 1-5 record during this stretch. But then, winning and losing doesn't appear to be that big of concern for the franchise.

I thought Jayda's interview with GM Sam Presti last week was revealing for what he didn't say. Apparently, he doesn't care about wins and losses at this point, which might be a first in professional sports history. Every coach, GM and player I ever met places a premium on winning, sometimes sacrificing everything else. (Herm Edwards' rant is ringing in my head). Presti is big on not skipping steps and he's OK with getting knocked around this season believinig a big payoff is in the future.

This next stretch of games is key in terms of piling up some wins because when the 2008-portion of the season begins, the Supes play 11 playoff-potential teams in 15 January games. They begin the month with a four-game trip (Phoenix, Washington, Cleveland and New Jersey) followed by home games against Dallas and the Lakers.