Among the companies to step up to support the Hornets deal was Chesapeake Energy, an Oklahoma City-based natural gas company founded in 1989 by Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward, two of the new Sonics investors.

Bennett, along with Ward, McClendon and G. Jeffrey Records last year formed Oklahoma Professional Sports to lure a major franchise to Oklahoma City. They also negotiated with the owner of the Hornets for a stake in the team but those talks fell through, according to media reports.

Cornett said Bennett has a close relationship with NBA Commissioner David Stern, which he developed when he was on the board of the San Antonio Spurs.

Bennett is married to Louise Gaylord Bennett, whose family owns a media and hotel empire, including the state's biggest newspaper, The Oklahoman, and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Gaylord Sports owned the Spurs in the '90s, and Bennett helped turn that franchise around, Cornett said.

McClendon, Ward and Bennett were born and raised in Oklahoma City, and have known each other for years, said Chesapeake spokesman Tom Price. "They're great sports fans," he added.

McClendon and Ward started Chesapeake in 1989 with nine employees and a $50,000 investment.

The company now employs more than 4,000 and is the nation's sixth-largest producer of natural gas, Price said. Forbes magazine last year named McClendon as one of the best-performing bosses.

Tom Ward, 46, left Chesapeake earlier this year and became chairman and chief executive officer of Riata Energy Inc., a natural gas company that he bought and moved from Amarillo, Texas, to Oklahoma City.

Bennett, McClendon and Records were all involved in an unsuccessful effort to bring an NHL franchise to Oklahoma City in the late 1990s, according to media reports.

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Records is the chairman and chief executive officer of MidFirst Bank, one of Oklahoma City's biggest financial institutions.

G. Edward Evans, another Sonics investor, said Tuesday that while the others were working out the Hornets deal, he led a separate effort to buy the Washington Nationals baseball team.

Evans was president and chief operating officer of the Oklahoma City-based Dobson Cellular Systems before becoming chairman of the Tampa-based Syniverse Holding Inc.

He was approached by the Sonics representatives about the team here, he said.

"Basically we were running multiple tracks," Evans said. "We were very interested in controlling a basketball team. (We) weren't real concerned with where the basketball team is. This may be the best opportunity for our group to participate in the NBA."

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