The Oden frenzy is peaking; it doesn't seem to matter that the No. 1 draft pick out of Ohio State won't even play for at least another 12 months after season-ending knee surgery.

Less than 175 miles north in Seattle, former Texas star Kevin Durant is leading the SuperSonics with 18.4 points a game in the preseason. But fans are down, not up. They could lose their team by the end of the season. They're angry, not hopeful. A lot are resigned to losing the team.

The marriage of ownership and city is so rocky that Clay Bennett, the oil tycoon from Oklahoma and head of the group that has told political leaders it will move the Sonics to Oklahoma City if he doesn't get a commitment to build a new arena, is uncomfortable eating out when he visits.

"I have a few favorite restaurants, and I'm now even nervous about them," he says. "I pack my lunch these days."

The team's new slogan — "A New Era of Sonics Basketball ... Be Part Of It" — rings hollow across much of the city. Two fans are suing the team's Oklahoma-based owners for misleading advertising.

Bennett has said if the city doesn't agree to a new arena deal, he will ask to relocate at league meetings Oct. 31 — the day of the Sonics' season-opener at Denver.

"We're on a short leash," says lifelong fan John Cromartie, 45.

Team owners have filed for arbitration in an attempt to get out of their city lease after this season — two years before the lease expires. And the city is suing the Sonics.

"You'd think people would be excited about Durant coming, but it's a muted excitement," says City Attorney Tom Carr, who filed the complaint against the Sonics, asking a federal judge to force the team to honor its lease. The first hearing was Thursday. "It's hard to get excited about a team being built to play in Oklahoma City."

Meanwhile, the frenzy that gripped Portland during the team's run to the 1977 NBA title is alive again. Fans have embraced Oden, even on crutches. On the street, he's greeted the same wherever he goes in Portland. "Thank you," they tell the 7-footer, "for coming."

Center of city

The Blazers are the only major league game in town. People, coach Nate McMillan says, build their lives around the team. Even with Oden's injury — the latest Blazers obstacle — fans have showed they will stand by the team.

A year after leading Portland to a 1977 title that introduced Blazermania to the world, star Bill Walton broke his foot and never was the same. In the 1984 draft, the team used its No. 2 overall pick to select center Sam Bowie instead of Michael Jordan. Bowie spent four injury-plagued years with the club before he was traded; Jordan won six titles with the Chicago Bulls.

The Blazers bounced back in the '90s, reaching the NBA Finals twice. But poor play and even poorer behavior marked an ugly start to the new century. Renegade players spent more time in the courtroom than in the playoffs. The so-called "Jail Blazers" embarrassed the town, but this is a loyal fan base.

One of the lowest points was the 2002-03 season, when three players were cited on marijuana possession charges. Players also were disciplined for offenses ranging from domestic abuse, to spitting on an opposing player, to threatening a referee after a game.

During the bad times, former star Dave Twardzik, who regularly attends games, says he approached Rosie Noble, a 77-year-old Blazers season ticketholder for 27 years, and asked, "Why are you still coming to these games?" Her answer: "You don't let a friend down when they're in trouble."

And that's the attitude toward Oden, despite not knowing if he will recover fully. "It ruins his rookie year, but he'll be down there (on the bench) waving at us," Noble says. "I'm just glad he's here."

Blazers fans were so excited when the team won the top pick with only a 5.3 percent chance they purchased $1 million in tickets in the first six hours after the lottery. They welcomed Oden with a downtown rally attended by 8,000 the day after he was drafted.

League TV rights holders, who had not included Portland in national telecasts for years, quickly scheduled 18 appearances. Now everybody has to wait until at least next season to watch Oden.

But fans seem to appreciate the team's direction under general manager Kevin Pritchard and McMillan. They have stocked the roster with what Prichard calls young "character" players.

"We didn't want to be known for managing a team that doesn't represent us," he says. "You'd rather lose with the right guys than win with the wrong guys."

The Blazers haven't been to the playoffs since 2000, but they acquired Aldridge and Roy on draft day in 2006. Then came this year's lottery on May 22. "The lottery," says Mike Golub, Portland's chief operating officer, "was the turbo-charger we needed."

At his second home in Seattle, where he starred as a player, McMillan says he watched on TV. He wanted to do cartwheels in his living room. Owner Paul Allen, in Europe on business, says he fell asleep during the lottery and learned of his luck later online. "Is this real?" he asked himself.

It was. The phones at the Blazers offices began ringing immediately. The fallout: The team doubled its season-ticket base to 10,000 and added 70 more sponsors, to 150.

"People," Golub says, "want to love this team."

The team played its first preseason home game Oct. 10 before a near sellout crowd that greeted Oden with cheers as he limped to the bench. He will travel with the team and work with sponsors this season. The face of the franchise will be everywhere, albeit in a suit.

"I'd love to be out there playing, but this is exciting," he said. "Everybody supports me."

The young players have rallied among themselves. "We have nothing to lose," Roy says.

Or do they? What if the Sonics move to Oklahoma City? Would the Blazers move to Seattle?

Allen, co-founder of Microsoft who has owned the Blazers since 1988, also lives in Seattle, where he owns the NFL's Seahawks.

"I don't really understand why there should be any lingering questions about that," says Allen, who bought the Rose Garden last year, sunk millions into improvements and signed a 19-year lease. "I have such a history with this franchise and a connection with the team being in Portland. It doesn't make any sense to do anything else."

Local competition

The Sonics have been in Seattle since 1967; the team won a title in 1979. But the Sonics aren't the only game in town. They compete for dollars with the Seahawks and baseball's Mariners, who both play in state-of-the-art stadiums.

The Sonics play in out-of-date KeyArena, where they have made the playoffs just three times in the last nine years. The arena, for which taxpayers anted up $74 million in renovations, is the smallest in the league (17,072). The remodeled arena has been the Sonics' home since 1995.

NBA Commissioner David Stern has called the team's lease the worst in the NBA.

Bennett purchased the franchise from Seattle's Howard Schulz, chairman of Starbucks. Schulz also wanted a new home for the Sonics.

But taxpayers still are paying for new stadiums for football and baseball and are reluctant to finance the $500 million arena through taxes ownership is demanding. All efforts to reach agreement on a new facility have failed. One didn't make it out of committee to the Washington House floor.

"The legislators are getting no e-mails telling them to give the Sonics $500 million," Carr says.

The conundrum: This could be the only season Sonics faithful get to watch Durant play if ownership wrestles out of its lease.

Carolyn Bechtel, 58, one of the two fan-plaintiffs in the suit against ownership, feels betrayed. "It's frustrating," she says. An ardent lifelong fan, she's now a mad lame duck fan. "There's this possibility of a whole new future with the Sonics, and they may not be here.

"To not have the opportunity to watch Durant is sad."

The high stakes games in Seattle are being played out in a different court. "The lawyers," Bennett says, "are doing quite well."

Bennett lured the New Orleans Hornets to Oklahoma City two years ago in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The team was a smash hit in its temporary home. When the move was announced in September 2005, more than 12,000 season tickets were sold in six weeks.

That venture, applauded by Stern, whetted the basketball appetites of Bennett and his group. Not surprisingly, they jumped at the chance to buy the Sonics when they were put up for sale by Schulz in the summer of 2006. Red flags immediately went up in town. Mayor Greg Nickels called the sale to out-of-towners a "disappointing development."

Looking back, Carr says, "All the owners live in Oklahoma, and they seem to have wanted to move there since day one."

Not so, Bennett says. All along, he says, his group has wanted to make it work in Seattle, but that calls for a new arena. In its arbitration filing, the team says its lost $17 million last season and more than $55 million in the last five years.

However, Sonics owners hear voters loud and clear. Apathy rules.

Even Sonics fan Cromartie admits, "We'll get over it if they leave and go to Seahawks games."

Some keep hoping, however.

"I can't imagine Seattle without the Sonics," says Lenny Wilkens, a resident who coached the '79 title team. "Forty years is a long time."

But indications are the Sonics aren't long for Seattle.