Now that the Sonics are in Oklahoma and they're called the Thunder, most Seattle sports fans fervently want them to lose. Most of us have been yearning for the Thunder's annihilation at the hands of its opponents ever since the team moved, and the animosity in the wake of the Thunder's incredible success has literally been bordering on murderous (as you recall, a pro-Thunder t-shirt maker was recently bombarded with death threats).

That team, which was built entirely on the great draft picks it received while sucking tremendously and making Seattle fans miserable, is now mindbogglingly competing for an NBA championship.

While most Seattle sports fans hate the Thunder for personal reasons, today The Nation's sports editor Dave Zirin writes that everyone should root against them for political reasons:

If the Thunder win the 2012 title, the Clay Bennett/David Stern approach will be lionized throughout pro sports. The theft of the Sonics will be justified and cities involved in stadium negotiations will be threatened with being “the next Seattle” if they don’t acquiesce to the whims of the sporting 1 percent. A championship for the Thunder would be a victory for holding up cities for public money. It would be a victory for ripping out the hearts of loyal sports towns. It would be a victory for greed, collusion and a corporate crime that remains unprosecuted.

I will admit, at risk of assault, that I'm one of the few Sonics fans who has actively been rooting for the Thunder since they moved away. Why should I turn my back on my favorite player, Kevin Durant, because the city on his jersey changed through an act he had nothing to do with? On the other hand, the people who own the Thunder—Clay Bennett and Aubrey McLendon—are utter pieces of shit, who pour money into supporting anti-gay legislation and set a horrible, horrible precedent for the way teams can be managed in pro-basketball.

The unfortunate flip-side of rooting against the Thunder, however, is rooting for the Heat, "a team scorned for being built around a hastily assembled group of free-agent all-stars," as Zirin puts it. Frankly, they're fucking annoying and I despise them.

So what's a boy to do?