Clay Bennett: A Bully with an Inferiority Complex

What do bullies do? They don't always punch. Often they just threaten to punch.

Why are bullies bullies? Not just because they are big. Often because they have an inferiority complex.

From emails divulged by the Times' Jim Brunner today, Clay Bennett reveals that he has those classic bully traits. He displays both of them in just 16 words.

Brunner reveals an email in which Bennett complains that Seattle politicians "never valued the threat of moving to Oklahoma City. They don't even know where it is."

Yes, a full picture of this man is beginning to emerge. One that considers a "threat" as a bargaining position. And then, when his "threat"--and he calls it that, not me; Bennett himself calls it a threat--isn't listened to, he whines that it's because his beloved hometown doesn't get any respect.

Indeed, the OKC crew felt disrespected by Seattle (and so did David Stern, something that Nathaniel Friedman, a.k.a. Bethlethem Shoals, writes about in the forthcoming issue of Sports Northwest).

Remember Aubrey McClendon's comments: "So Clay, very artfully and skillfully, put himself in the middle of those discussions and to the great amazement and surprise to everyone in Seattle, some rednecks from Oklahoma, which we've been called, made off with the team."

This isn't just about getting an NBA team to Oklahoma City--it's some sort of campaign of personal validation.