Seattle's city attorney, Tom Carr, has no doubt about why he wants a judge -- not arbitrators -- deciding whether the SuperSonics must play the next three seasons at KeyArena.

"Arbitrators tend to compromise," he says. "Judges tend to make decisions."

Whether he gets his wish is now up to a judge. Lawyers for the city and the NBA franchise argued before U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez on Thursday about whether Martinez or a panel of arbitrators should hear the dispute, in which the Sonics' ownership group is seeking to buy out its KeyArena lease and move the team.