The Storm had a lot to worry about, and the defending champions took advantage: the Monarchs knocked down the home team in Seattle. Sue Bird, her left foot hurting, shot 1-8; LJ, with foot and shin pain, didn't play.

The Storm will supposedly stay for the '07 season, but after that, who knows? The Sonics-Storm buyers are Oklahoma City boosters, and most fans seem to believe the teams will go.

Anne Donovan faced a similar situation in Charlotte. "It's a little bit distracting, I'll be honest," she said. "The team did not know" until after the end of the match, though Donovan did.

In very good news for the league, if not for Seattleites, new owner Clayton Bennett all but promised that if the Sonics moved, the Storm wouldn't fold: "We are really having a time with [the University of] Oklahoma and the great player Courtney Paris ... with head coach Sherri Coale. We're proud. We'd be thrilled with a WNBA team."

Betty Lennox says she'd be fine with an OKC Storm: "It's a state that I'm proudly from and we need a professional team and other things to do to keep gang-bangers and the drug dealers off the street. It would be exciting for the whole state of Oklahoma. It would be like having the Mall of America."

Paul Allen probably won't move the Blazers from Portland. (Storm fans shouldn't want him anyway: he's the guy who refused to keep the Fire.)