April 18 (Bloomberg) -- National Basketball Association owners voted to allow the SuperSonics franchise to relocate to Oklahoma City from Seattle, even as court cases are pending that seek to keep the team in its current home.

The owners, meeting in New York, voted 28-2 in favor of the move, with Portland and Dallas opposing it. Washington State's Governor Christine Gregoire had sent a letter to NBA Commissioner David Stern seeking a delay in the vote.

As they emerged from the closed-door meeting, the owners were confronted by Brian Robinson of Save Our Sonics, a grassroots organization trying to keep the team in Seattle, where they began 41 years ago.

``I want them to know they just can't shirk this,'' said Robinson, 34. ``There will always be someone lurking.''

The vote comes four days after the team reached a preliminary agreement with Oklahoma City on a 15-year lease for use of the Ford Center that would cost the team $1.6 million a year, plus $409,000 annually to replace naming-right revenue.

Sonics Chairman Clay Bennett said in November that his Oklahoma-based ownership group was moving the team because there was a lack of support from the public, government and business for a new home to replace KeyArena, where the Sonics have played since their inception. Stern has said the team's lease is the worst in the NBA.

The team is still facing a lawsuit by the city of Seattle, which is looking to keep the team at KeyArena through the 2009- 2010 season, in accordance with the terms of its lease. The Sonics have asked the court to rule the lease unenforceable, allowing the team to move to Oklahoma City as early as next season.

Schultz, Sonics

Howard Schultz, chief executive officer of Starbucks Corp. and the Sonics' former owner, said this week that he also plans to sue to regain control of the team because the current owners breached a condition of the sale to make a ``good-faith effort'' to keep the team in Seattle.

Schultz, who sold the Sonics and the WNBA's Seattle Storm for $350 million to the group led by Bennett in October 2006, said he wouldn't seek monetary damages. He just wants the team back, his lawyer told the Seattle Times.

Schultz's announcement of possible litigation came after lawyers for Seattle got hold of e-mails that showed Bennett and his ownership group may never have intended to try to keep the team in the city.

One of the owners, Aubrey McClendon, was fined $250,000 by the NBA for telling an Oklahoma newspaper, ``We didn't buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here (Oklahoma City.)''

The Sonics joined the NBA as an expansion team in 1967 and won their only title in 1979. Among the team's most noted players were Hall of Fame member Lenny Wilkens, ``Downtown'' Freddie Brown and Slick Watts.

To contact the reporters on this story: Larry DiTore in New York at lditore@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 18, 2008 15:37 EDT