SEATTLE (AP) - One Sunday last September, three of the most prominent men in Seattle - former Sen. Slade Gorton, Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer, and former Safeco Corp. CEO Mike McGavick - arrived at the home of former SuperSonics president Wally Walker.

Their purpose - keeping the NBA franchise from moving to Oklahoma City - was laid out frankly in a document carried by Gorton: "The Sonics Challenge," it was titled, "Why a Poisoned Well Affords a Unique Opportunity."

"The critical path is to separate the NBA from the Oklahomans, while increasing the exposure for each," it said. It discussed "locking them into losses" and exposing "the league to embarrassment in a market they like."

The hour-and-a-half meeting and e-mails about it were a focus of questioning Friday when Walker took the witness stand in the federal trial over the team's lease at KeyArena, the league's smallest venue.

Owner Clay Bennett, who bought the team in 2006 for $350 million, is trying to move the Sonics to his hometown, saying the team could lose $60 million if forced to stay for the final two years of the lease. The city of Seattle is asking U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman to enforce its terms, hoping two more years would be enough time to find a way to keep the Sonics - or at least another NBA team - in town.

Citing the "poisoned well" strategy, Sonics attorneys have argued that the city brought its lawsuit in an attempt to bleed Bennett's ownership group, the Professional Basketball Club, hoping that the expense of litigation would induce him to sell to a local owner. Because the lawsuit was brought in bad faith, the city has "unclean hands," and should not be allowed to reap the benefits of its actions in court, they say.

In response, the city insists that by definition, suing to enforce its rights under the lease cannot be considered bad faith. Furthermore, its lawyers argue, the city cannot force the team to sell.

Seattle lawyer Paul Lawrence objected to the admission of the "poisoned well" document as an exhibit, saying the city had no hand in creating it. He was overruled: At the time of the meeting, Gorton had been hired as Seattle's lead counsel, Walker had been retained as a consultant, and Ballmer was considered a potential buyer for the team.

"You wanted to make it too expensive to leave?" Sonics lawyer Paul Taylor asked Walker.

"Oh, I think that's true, yes," he answered. "I would have been fine with whatever it took to keep them from moving the team."

But, Walker insisted, that encouraging a sale to local owners was secondary: The first and foremost goal was to have the Oklahoman owners keep the team in town.

"We had no way to do anything other than hope they would sell to local ownership," Walker said. "Our goal was to start a process to get an arena solution at least to put them to the test over whether they would stay or not."

The document was primarily drawn up by McGavick, Walker said.

Walker also expressed his frustration with a "lack of leadership" by Washington politicians during an attempt in 2006 to win support for a KeyArena renovation.

Friday was expected to be the final day of testimony, with closing arguments set for next Thursday. If Pechman rules that the team can leave, a separate trial would be held to determine what damages the team must pay the city for breaking the lease.