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Ex-Sonics owner Aubrey McClendon dead one day after charges

Published 12:37 pm Wednesday, March 2, 2016

By Nick Patterson

Aubrey McClendon is a name that’s been reviled in the Seattle area, as he was the money man behind the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics moving to Oklahoma City in 2008. While Clay Bennett was the point man in the move, it was McClendon’s financial backing that made it possible. The whole sordid tale is told in the excellent documentary Sonicsgate, which is about as good a documentary as I’ve seen that was put together by a couple guys with no budget and a camcorder.

McClendon, who’s still a part of the Thunder’s ownership group, died Wednesday morning in a one-car crash in Oklahoma City. According to the Oklahoma City Police Department, McClendon died when his car ran into a wall at high speed. The exact cause of death is still to be determined.

McClendon was going through troubled times. Just one day earlier McClendon, a pioneer in the U.S. shale industry, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiring to rig the price of oil and gas leases.

McClendon was 56.

—- UPDATE, 4:15 p.m.

Further information on Aubrey McClendon’s crash:

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