Kenny Mayne is known by most sports fans for his time with ESPN as a SportsCenter anchor and in other roles.
Before that, however, the Kent, Washington native spent several years working as a weekend sports anchor and weekday news reporter with KTSW in Seattle.
While his ESPN days may be behind him, Mayne has always remained connected to Seattle. In fact, his documentary Wiffle Ball recently premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival.
“It’s all about Seattle,” Mayne told KOMO. “It’s really a story about me, my love of Wiffle ball growing up in Seattle. There’s a story about (former Mariners manager) Dick Williams, there’s me at Channel 11 (KTSW), and my terrible news promo. Like… all the horrible stuff you do when you first start.”
Mayne was the guest on this week’s episode of Inside the Arena, a Seattle sports business podcast hosted by KOMO News Senior Reporter Chris Daniels and KOMO Sports Director Niko Tamurian. Among the topics he discussed was the potential return of the Seattle Sonics to the NBA and whether or not he’ll be there for opening night.
“Why that announcement hasn’t already happened…I heard your explanation earlier about the TV hangup and that’s why there’s a delay now, but what about the delay the last five years?” said Mayne. “The complaint was we didn’t have the right gym. They clearly have a state-of-the-art place [in Climate Pledge Arena]. I’ve been to Storm games and Kraken games, saw Springsteen there. It’s an amazing building and I love how they kind of paid respect to the old building while modernizing it.
“There’s no excuse to not having it and there’s so many NBA people I’ve talked to that miss going to Seattle, period. The trip to Seattle was one of their favorite ones. And the fact that Seattle’s a major city… [it] deserves a team. So, I sure hope it comes back.”
Mayne added that he’d love to see LeBron and Bronny James be involved to help bring the team back, along with many other Sonics legends.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver recently said that expansion talks are expected to take place soon now that the league has settled its new media deal. Seattle and Las Vegas are expected to be the front-runners.
If and when the Sonics do return, Gus Johnson is waiting for the call to become their new play-by-play person.
