Seattle ? Nick Collison is Midwestern at his core. He was raised in the cornfields of Iowa, educated at Kansas University and has a basketball work ethic to match his background.

But bring up his current home and Collison rattles off the qualities and amenities he cherishes about Seattle: its summertime weather, scenery, diversity, activities.

“I love it here,” said Collison, who owns two homes in the area.

Next year, he might not be living in either.

The Seattle SuperSonics will complete their 41st season in the Pacific Northwest tonight when they play host to Dallas. Awaiting them afterward will be an uncertain offseason that has players wondering where they will play in the fall.

Will they be in Seattle for two more seasons until the team’s lease at KeyArena runs out? Or will owner Clay Bennett succeed in moving the team to Oklahoma City for the 2008-09 season?

“I’m watching it like everyone else,” Collison said. “I’ll definitely be disappointed if we have to move. I love it here for a lot of reasons. But I also accept the fact that being in the NBA you can’t control 100 percent where you’re going to be.”

To expedite the franchise’s relocation, Bennett still needs approval from the NBA board of governors and victory in June in a court case with the city over the final two years of the team’s lease, which runs through 2010.

He is pushing the issue, having already made one offer to buy out the remainder of the lease. Another offer is expected after the NBA’s owners meet and before the June trial.

If successful, the final season in Seattle will be remembered as the most dismal in franchise history, with the team assured of its worst record ever, often playing before an apathetic fan base convinced the team is moving.

Should this be the end, the Sonics will be remembered as a deconstructed team in the infancy of a rebuilding process centered around rookie stars Kevin Durant and Jeff Green. By the time they contend again, the team is likely to be in Oklahoma.

“It doesn’t really surprise me that a team would up and move. It’s all about money and that’s what everything is pretty much based on in our country,” said Portland coach Nate McMillan, whose No. 10 hangs in the rafters of KeyArena as one of a handful of uniforms retired by the franchise. “If you don’t have the money or put up the money, then things will change.”