This podcast was originally recorded in 2019.

We're releasing it again in 2025.

Some small details may have changed.

There's this one thing from our interview with Ed Evans that has stuck with me ever since.

It's the way he introduced himself.

Here's my producer, Noah.

We ask everyone at the end to just give us their name and identify their role or their...

So we did it with Ed, and he gave two answers.

There was the formal one.

My name is Ed Evans and from Oklahoma City, and I am one of the original members of the team that was put together to acquire the Seattle Sonics.

And then there was the more casual answer.

I'm the man Seattle hates.

I'm the man Seattle hates.

And you can hear it.

He's kind of joking.

The truth is, all this time, few people in Seattle had any idea what kind of role he played.

But Wally Walker did.

He was the one to mention Ed in the first place.

So we went back to Wally and told him we were able to find Ed Evans.

Were you really? Wow. Wow. Tell me about that.

I told him Evans said that Goldman Sachs called the Sonics portable. And I asked Wally,

was the ownership group putting that out there?

...