Seattle Supersonics (Fake) Vintage Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day, Sonics fans! Here are some authentic fake Seattle Supersonics valentines to print out and give to your sweetheart. Or, you know, your dog or whatever. (Click below to see all of them)

New Seattle Supersonics Arena (circa 1990)

After spending a day rummaging through the Supersonicsoul video archives (my spider-ridden garage), I found this gem from 1990. It's from a Seattle Supersonics infomercial called "Sonics Slam Dunk Saturday" that featured clips from the 1989-90 Sonics and a preview of the upcoming 90-91 season, including pieces on new coach K.C. Jones (who would be fired the following season) and an exciting new rookie named Gary Payton.

The most interesting part of the show, however, was an in-depth look at the new Seattle Arena that was to be built next to the Kingdome. Who wants to call that number and reserve some luxury boxes?

The show, hosted by a mustached Kevin Calabro and sportscaster turned Sonics salesman Gary Spinell, was about two hours and the source material (a well-worn VHS tape that's probably full of spiders or baby rats) is not great, but I'll be posting the best parts to our new YouTube Channel, SupersonicsoulTV, so be sure to subscribe to get updates. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to take about a thousand showers. SPIDERS!

Creation of a Champion

Classic Sonic Playoffs

It’s funny how certain parts of a team’s history fall through the cracks, forgotten by most fans and remembered only by die-hards.

Close to 30 years ago last night, April 20, 1980, the Seattle SuperSonics and Milwaukee Bucks were matched up in Game 7 of the Western Conference Semifinals, in a series so close it could have gone 70 games.

It is a forgotten parcel of Sonic history, but shouldn't be.

It was a clash of two superb teams, including names like Williams, Johnson (4 of them! John, Marques, Vinnie and Dennis), Sikma, Silas, Brown, Lanier, Bridgeman, and Moncrief. True, it wasn’t a Boston-LA epic involving dozens of Hall of Famers, but it could possibly be the greatest almost Hall of Fame Game ever.

The two head coaches involved – Lenny Wilkens and Don Nelson – now stand first and second in wins all-time, and are both members of the Hall.

Game 5, in Seattle, had an announced attendance of 40,172, the largest in 41 years of Seattle basketball.

In seven games, the two teams combined to score 1,424 points; 716 for Milwaukee, 708 for Seattle. Of the seven games, two went to overtime and six (!) were decided by five points or fewer.

Milwaukee had won the Midwest Division that season, while the Sonics were second to the Lakers in the Pacific. Fresh off a title the year before, the Sonics drew 890,713 folks to their games that season, which ranked first in the league.

By a lot.

The next closest team – Boston – saw 596,349 attend their games, nearly 300,000 fewer than the Sonics.

Neither team was loaded with popular stars, and neither team had a league leader in any NBA category. True, Dennis and Marques Johnson earned spots on the All-NBA second team, Jack Sikma, DJ and MJ made the All-Star team, and Dennis Johnson (first) and Quinn Buckner (second) both played their way onto the All-Defensive Team, but this wasn’t Kareem, Magic, Bird, and Dr. J. Not by a longshot.

What this was, though, was a classic series. The Sonics, buoyed by Gus Williams’ 30 points, beat Milwaukee in overtime in Game 1 – by one point. The Bucks matched them in Game 2 with another overtime win – by two points.

The Bucks would go on to win two of the next three games, meaning the Sonics, down 3 to 2, faced a must-win contest at Milwaukee in Game 6.

And win they did, earning a nail-biting 86-85 win before 10,938 at MECCA Arena. With the series now deadlocked at three apiece, it was back to Seattle for Game 7. With Mike Parrott dueling Pete Redfern at the Kingdome, the Sonics returned to the Colisseum, meaning they would not have the benefit of 40,000 green and gold-clad fans to cheer them on.

With the Lakers waiting in Los Angeles for the victor, the Sonics finally put an end to the series with a 98-94 win, as Gus Williams poured in 33 points and Lonnie Shelton grabbed 15 rebounds.

And, that, essentially, was the last glory day for the late 1970s Seattle SuperSonics. The team which earned consecutive trips to the Finals would never again advance to the Conference Finals, not until the roster had been completely purged, the coach let go, and all remnants of the Brown/Sikma/Williams/Johnson/Wilkens era completely dissolved.

For one night in April 1980, though, they were still a talented team, one capable of returning to the promised land one more time. A Game 1 win over the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals proved to be an illusion, however, as the Sonics dropped four straight and watched the championship series on their television sets.

That summer, Paul Silas retired, Gus Williams held out for the entire season, and Dennis Johnson's continuing problems with Lenny Wilkens proved to be too much for the Coach/GM to handle, prompting a trade to Phoenix for Paul Westphal.

That season, with their defensive stalwart now long gone, their spark plug point guard holding out, and their conscience in retirement, the Sonics failed to qualify for the playoffs, and the glory days of the greatest professional sports team in Seattle's history were over.

Vintage Sonics Video of the Week

If I could turn back time . . . sigh.

It's (almost) Official: Sonics name Presti new GM

It looks like the Sonics will introduce their new GM at a press conference tomorrow morning. To the surprise of no one, it will be Sam Presti:

SEATTLE - Three newspapers report that the Seattle SuperSonics have decided to hire 30-year-old Sam Presti as the team's new general manager.

KING 5 News has confirmed Presti flew into Seattle Wednesday afternoon.

The Sonics have scheduled a news conference at their business offices tomorrow at noon to introduce their new GM.

The Seattle Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the News Tribune are reporting on their Web sites that Presti is the choice of the Sonics to replace Rick Sund, who was stripped of his GM's duties and made into a consultant five days after the 2006-2007 season ended.

Presti is the San Antonio Spurs' assistant general manager.

(from Associated Press and KING 5)

The only thing left to do is to come up with a suitable Supersonicsoul nickname for young Presti. Master P? Press Pass? Sam "Never Resty" Presti?" Dress to ImPress-ti? Whitsitt Junior? (wanders off mumbling to himself)

Tale of Many Cities

The Sonics released yet another press release today (Team Motto: "Why talk when you can e-mail?") regarding the potential location(s) of the team in the future.

Not much in the way of news to be gleaned from the release. It concludes with this paragraph:

"At this time no one knows the confluence of events that could occur to land the teams in Oklahoma City. At this moment, everything is way too premature. While it looks bleak in Seattle, we are not ready to throw in the towel."

Wonder how the folks in OKC are going to enjoy being played against Kansas City and Las Vegas. Welcome to the show, Oklahoma, welcome to the show.

UPDATE! The Sonics have issued another press release!
This time, it's to state that yes, Lenny Wilkens is the official, fer-shure, no-foolin' President of Basketball Operations. Clay Bennett will remain President of Moving Operations. Nothing like making an announcement at quarter to 3 on a Friday to ensure that your team gets minimum exposure in the newspaper. Way to go, folks!

Glory Days

I'm guessing the rest of you are, like myself, going through Sonics playoff withdrawals.

With that in mind, here's a blast from the past, 1978 to be specific. Ah, Brent Musberger, you're such a cunning linguist.

Seattle Sonics: Team of Mystery

70 plus games should tell you everything you need to know about a team, but after another lose one, win one, lose one weekend, we are left with more questions than answers about our beloved SuperSonics.

For starters . . .

After securing a site in Renton, are the Sonics serious about staying in the Northwest?

With Earl Watson probably out for the rest of the season, will Luke Ridnour Mike Wilks step up and show Sonics management that this is his team?

How the hell did Rashard pass Shawn Kemp on the all-time Sonics scoring list?

Sonics, I feel like I don't even know you any more.

Sonics New Owners: Jerks and Bigots

I really want to write some good news about the Sonics.

I'm a life-long fan. I've been with them through the ups and downs. I considered naming my first-born Xavier. Every day I wake up hoping there will be something positive to write about the team and the new owners. Instead, I have to read this:

Two members of the new Sonics ownership group are heavyweight financiers of a national political group dedicated to banning gay marriage.

Together, co-owners Tom Ward and Aubrey McClendon donated more than $1.1 million to Americans United to Preserve Marriage, a conservative Christian group that opposes gay marriage.

The group is led by Gary Bauer, an outspoken leader of conservative groups including the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family.

According to the group, gay couples "flout marriage by using it for their own political agenda (and) cheapen the institution."

Read the rest in today's Seattle P.I.
(originally reported in The Stranger)

Yes, we wouldn't want to "cheapen" an institution that has a 50% rate of failure!

As much as I hate bigoted right-wingers like McClendon and Co., the one we should be aiming our pitchforks at is former owner Howard Shultz. He pissed and moaned about how much money he was losing on the team (while living it up on millions of dollars of shareholder-funded perks), then knowingly sold the team to a group he knew had no chance (and probably no desire) to keep the team in town. Why? Because the city dared say no to his demand to build more luxury boxes for his rich friends.

The new owners, of course, claim they have every desire to "make things work" in Seattle, but if they can't win over a basketball slut like me, what hope do they have?

In other crappy news, Rashard has turned down a contract extension. At least the Sonics beat Portland last night--take that Nate!