I admit that as a lifelong Sonics fan and someone who still clings to the hope of their return, my reaction to Howard Schultz’s coming out as a third-party candidate for president is personal. Very personal, as in season-ticketholder-rabid-fan personal. Howard Schultz is one of the world’s greatest posers and all around shmucks. Tremendous drama ensued when he decided to sell his NBA team, the Seattle Supersonics, who had been playing in Seattle for 40 years. Fans were already leary of Schultz as he had never showed real interest in or passion for the team or the sport; it was obviously for him just another asset that he could cash in on some day, and so the day came.
There was great consternation, but HS continually reassured Sonic fans that he would never, ever sell to anyone who would move the team. Never, not going to happen, of course he would never do that, and in the end, he did just that, selling the team to the oil-rich grifter Clay Bennett from Oklahoma, who also, of course, assured Seattle that he had no intention of moving the team. Never going to happen, why would we suspect such a thing? As if. Seattle knew the score.
And Howard Schultz was right there with Bennett in press conferences letting us know that there was nothing to worry about. He would never have sold the team to the Oklahoma noveau-riche rube if this good fella had any intention of taking the team out of Seattle. And that year, to rub huge amounts of salt in the wound, we not only drafted Kevin Durant but Russell Westbrook! Two years later, they were both playing as “Sonics” in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Howard Schultz is no different than any of the other billionaire wannabe presidents. He’s a fucking self-serving, lying, phony, arrogant businessman now moving on from his business of littering the world with stores selling burnt coffee grounds and everything else under the sun that can pull in a few more bucks to seeking power in the guise of “helping the country.” What a guy. The only thing his candidancy will accomplish is getting Donald Trump elected for a second term, but that’s par for his course.
Can you tell that I absolutely despise Howard Schultz? Why yes, I do; and don’t doubt that he will run as a third-part “independent” (aka super rich asshole) and screw over the country just as he screwed over Seattle.