On losing the Sonics at Tubasaluki: Quoting music since 2003

On losing the Sonics

Published February 29th, 2008 in Uncategorized.

I’ve been a Seattle fan for as long as I knew what sports were. The Seahawks, the Mariners, and the Sonics were also sources of joy, frustration, and sadness over the past two decades.

I remember the Seahawks going 2-14 and then having Rick Meier be “the answer” at quarterback.

I remember going to my first Mariners game at the Kingdome. Against the Tigers I think. I remember seeing that day-glow green Astroturf and thinking it was magical. A memory that seems absurd now when I watch the team play at Safeco.

I remember the 1995 run only to have the M’s fall short in the ALCS. I remember the magic of 2001, where somehow (and possibly steroid enhanced) the Mariners won 116 games…but still lose in the end.

I remember chanting Trent Dilfer’s name at Husky Stadium while Matt Hasselbeck botched a game against the Dolphins. I also remember Matt saying “We want the ball and we’re going to score,”

If you’ve been a Seattle sports fan over the past ten plus years, you get used to losing. Even if the local boys do well, in the end it isn’t enough. And even though it sucks at the time, even though you’re almost distraught after Super Bowl XL, even though you swear Richie Sexson is out to make you an alcoholic, in the end you can forgive those losses. Those losses make the good years that much better. You REMEMBER the bad and think abut how good winning in the postseason is.

The losses connect a fan base. Its almost like swapping war stories. “Do you remember when Kitna replaced Moon?” “Wasn’t Griffey’s return great?”

Now, when I was becoming a sports fan, I lived in Central Idaho with no cable. So, the only decent team I got to experience growing up was really the Sonics. I loved that team, and though Wally Walker had eroded some of my passion for the club, I still follow them. I still love the team, and I want to see them do good.

If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t have boycotted Starbucks since Howard Schultz stabbed the city in the back and sold the team to a bunch of Oklahomans.

I should add, that being a Sonics fan in central Idaho was hard, because one of our biggest rivals was the Utah jazz. Utah employed one John Stockton, who I think was somehow related to everyone in this town. I remember a lot of people rooting for the Jazz because of John Stockton. I stayed true to my guns though, and was rewarded with a game 7 victory of Utah in the 1996 finals.

A year or two before, my family went to the Tacoma Dome to watch the Sonics play. The Key was being renovated to being a state of the art facility, and Kemp and Payton did their think in a big win over the Kings.

The past few years, the Sonics have sucked. They’ve let anyone with history go. Nate McMillan is in Portland, Lenny Wilkens is not allowed to speak (or so it seems). The team is filled with guys that should probably be in the D-League.

These are supposed to be the times that we remember in five years when Kevin Durant and Greg Oden are reviving the I-5 rivalry and the Sonics are taking their rightful place amongst the NBA Elite once again. The mid 90s would be back!

“You remember when Robert Swift blew out his knee?”you’ll ask someone at the bar.

“Which time?” he’ll respond.

“You remember Sene?”

And we’d remember these times, we’d remember how much it sucked to watch the team, and we’d love whatever run we were on that much more. Seattle would be basked in green and gold again.

Instead, the team is getting torn from us, seemingly trying to pack the moving boxes as fast as they can. Sonics fans have been labeled as uncaring and Seattle has been morphed into a “non-basketball town” by David Stern and his amazing lack of caring. 41 years means nothing.

If Clay Bennett gets his way, this will be one loss that we’d never recover from.

If the Sonics move, I’m done with the NBA. I’ll never watch another game, I’ll never support another club. I’ll never buy a hat, a jersey, a ticket. The fact that the league can stand by and let a team with as much tradition go to a market where its doomed to fail is mind boggling.

Though I rip him constantly, Bill Simmons decided to run a mail-bag for people mad about the Sonics leaving. I didn’t expect the guy who writes about Boston teams non-stop to have this kind of stance on it, but I’m glad he did. Reading the e-mails that people sent, getting Seatle’s version of the story out there, was refreshing.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080228&sportCat=nba

Take your time, its a long read.

In the meantime…here’s some YouTube goodness from 1996.