AP

Sonics owner Clay Bennett scowls as he walks into the Federal Courthouse in Seattle, June 17, 2008.

SEATTLE - Lawyers for Clay Bennett have asked a Seattle court to deny former SuperSonics owner Howard Schultz's request that a trial of his effort to void the sale of the team be conducted in two parts. The lawyers also allege that Schultz's lawsuit is the brainchild of a former U.S. senator and a former Sonics' executive.

In court papers filed Monday in federal court, Bennett's side declares that former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton and former SuperSonics team president Wally Walker are behind the lawsuit.

"It's absurd, ludicrous and laughable," Walker said Monday night in a telephone interview. "I haven't talked to Howard about this or anything related. I have full support of everything he's doing but we've had no contact about this." An Associated Press call for comment to Gorton was not immediately returned.

Schultz lawyer Richard Yarmuth, in a letter to members of Schultz's former ownership group, calls the Bennett group's assertion "absolutely and demonstrably false."

The letter was obtained by the AP.

The lawsuit filed in April by Starbucks Corp. CEO Schultz contends that Bennett failed to carry through on a promise to negotiate in good faith for a new arena in Seattle for one full year after he purchased the SuperSonics for $350 million in July 2006. Schultz hopes to undo that sale -- so he can initiate a transfer of the team to a buyer who will keep it in Seattle. Schultz's legal team would like the court to first rule on liability, and then, if it decides liability exists, move on to a remedy.

Bennett has called the lawsuit "baseless."

In the response filed Monday, Bennett's legal team said it's "too late to unscramble the eggs" -- noting that the NBA team is already "firmly embedded in Oklahoma City."

Lawyer Brad Keller, representing Bennett's Professional Basketball Club LLC, says Schultz' lawsuit "was conceived by Slade Gorton and Wally Walker. It was timed and intended to derail the NBA's vote on the PBC's request to locate to Oklahoma City, and rehabilitate the image of Howard Schultz, who some hold responsible for the Sonics' potential departure. But the NBA approved relocation, the team has moved and Schultz's image depends on more important things."

Now, Keller says, efficiency dictates that all claims in the case be heard sooner rather than later.

Gorton was hired by the city of Seattle to lead its efforts in the trial between the city and the PBC over the Sonics' lease agreement at KeyArena. That trial ended in a settlement last month by which the PBC was allowed to move the team to Oklahoma City in time for the 2008-09 season, and the city could receive as much as $75 million from Bennett's group.