Seattle citizens and constituents are turned off after the city’s mayor pulled a bizarre pump fake on them.
Mayor Scott Harrell is facing criticism after he committed a brutal unforced error. Harrell goofed during his State of the City address in what was an apparent off-script moment, no less.
One thing that you can’t mess around with in Seattle is with the Sonics. A resounding amount of bitterness has built up over the last 17 years over the way the Sonics and their exit from the city. It doesn’t matter the instance.
Harrell learned that the hard way.
In a bizarre case of having zero awareness, Harrell pulled out a basketball… and the crowd predictably went one way. But then Harrell went another.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell – during the State of the City address – goes off script….
video from @tkjohnsonimages of @komonews
— Chris Daniels (@chrisdaniels.bsky.social) February 18, 2025 at 5:12 PM
“At one point, Harrell paused and said he had an announcement to make before pulling out a basketball from behind the podium,” Yahoo Sports wrote on the incident. “The crowd inside Benaroya Hall reacted positively, believing that he was about to reveal that the NBA and Sonics would be returning after the franchise left for Oklahoma City in 2008. After a pause, Harrell then said he was only kidding and that he wanted to take a short break during his speech.”
In the future, it might behoove Harrell to be more in touch with his constituents.
If that sounds like a modern-day problem? Well, if the shoe fits.
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022