This day in Seattle Supersonics history . . .

On this day back in 1979, Les Habegger did the Habegger hop and the Seattle Supersonics won their only championship.

I was seven years old at the time and preparing to move with my family from San Diego to a mysterious place called the Great Northwest, which I was pretty sure was full of Bigfoots.

We were at a friend's house and got to stay up late because the grown-ups were drinking and forgot about us (1970s!). My big brother and his friend were watching a basketball game on TV. I couldn't believe people played sports this late at night. I would later find out that the game was tape-delayed. THE NBA CHAMPIONSHIP WAS TAPE DELAYED!

With Bird and Magic on the way, this turned out to be the last year no one cared about the NBA. Tough luck for the Sonics, but bad timing turned out to be a regular occurrence for the franchise (asking for a stadium right after the city paid for two other ones, drafting possibly the best player in franchise history the year before they move, Patrick Ewing).

On this June night in 1979, however, none of that was on the radar. There was joy and excitement and champagne on the TV. And Seattle looked like a pretty cool place to live.