Mayor Mike McGinn met with NBA Commissioner David Stern in New York City on Monday to tell him Seattle wants to bring back professional basketball.

“We met so the mayor could show his commitment to bringing an NBA team back to Seattle,” wrote McGinn spokesman Aaron Pickus in an email.

The visit came as a surprise to local representatives of Chris Hansen, the San Francisco hedge-fund manager who is proposing to spend up to $800 million to partially finance a new arena and buy an NBA team.

via Lynn Thompson and Bob Young of the Seattle Times