I think it was more just playing local politics. He was trying to help as much as look good. He wanted to mitigate any perception that he was indifferent to the situation or that, even worse, he was responsible for it. And he wanted to help the city's case in the public eye. Having the help and support of the local and state politics is a much bigger motivator than appeasing the small group of Sonics fans in Seattle that drink Starbucks coffee. That is to say that he got the PR he wanted out of it. However, any success that SOS has of getting people to boycott the coffee chain will not even be discernible on any of the company's sales reports and I am pretty sure the company is much more focused on recapturing the millions of customers they have lost in recent years than the couple of thousand people in Seattle they may be so upset about the Sonics that they decide to try one of the other 10 coffee shops on their block.