The End of Wally World

It's been a tough week for Sonics fans.

On Tuesday, the sale of the team to Oklahoma mogul Clay Bennett became official, clearing the way for a potential move to Okie-ville. The next day, starting center Robert Swift went down with a season-ending knee injury. This morning, it was annonced that team president Wally Walker was stepping down.

Well, I guess it wasn't all bad news.

A lot of Sonics fans have given Wally Walker the shaft over the years, blaming him for the decline of the team. To be fair, I thought we'd take a look at what Wal-Walk has accomplished during his tenure as Player, GM and CEO of the Seattle Supersonics:

1979 - Waves towel on bench as the Seattle Supersonics win the NBA Championship. Hooray!

1982 - The Sonics trade Walker to the Houston Rockets for a second round pick. Hooray!

1994 - Walker rejoins the Sonics, replacing "Trader" Bob Whitsitt as General Manager despite having zero front office experience.

1996 - The Sonics make the NBA Finals! Walker cracks open the champagne as Bob Whitsitt, who hired the coach, drafted Kemp and Payton, and traded for Detlef and Sam Perkins, sits alone and cries.

1997 - Walker signs Jim Macllvaine to to a seven-year, $33.6 million contract. The Reign Man is pissed.

1998 - Walker trades Shawn Kemp for Vin Baker, instantly killing both players' careers. Oops.

1998 - Despite leading the team to the playoffs every season (including the '96 Finals) and winning 61 games in '98, Walker refuses to re-sign coach George Karl and instead replaces him with golf buddy Paul Westphal. Westphal would last less than two seasons.

1999-2001 - Team officially sucks.

2001 - Walker convinces Starbucks CEO Howie Shultz to buy the team. Also convinces Shultz to appoint him team President. Walker quickly hires Rick Sund as GM, but still claims to be "responsible for everything".

2004 - Nate McMillan leads a rag-tag team (put together by Rick Sund) back into the playoffs! Hooray!

2005 - Walker, er, Sund refuses to re-sign McMillan and several key players from 2004 Cinderella squad. Team officially sucks again.

2006 - Walker arranges for Clay "Big Boy" Bennett to purchase team, forgetting that Bennett is hell-bent on bringing an NBA team to Oklahoma City. Whoops.

Today - Having finally accomplished his dream of completely gutting a proud sports team and selling it down the river, Walker resigns from the SuperSonics.

You see? He did accomplish something! Farewll, sweet Wally--may your replacement be as ridicule worthy as you.

Read Nussbaum's in-depth look at the Wally Years here.

Goodbye, Wally

Thursday, a troubled chapter in Sonics history ended as Wally Walker announced he was stepping down from the team’s front office. With Walker’s departure in mind, I thought we should offer a post-mortem on Walker’s career in Seattle. Too often, emotion got in the way of evaluating Walker’s performance and with time as our ally, maybe we can more objectively judge whether his time in Seattle was positive or negative.

Okay, fine, I hated the guy for ending the glory days of the Sonics, for accepting credit for Bob Whitsitt’s work, and for trading away Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton, and firing George Karl (and, yes, I know Sund traded Gary because Walker was the CEO, and the trade worked out great for the Sonics, but Walker’s fingerprints were definitely there and Gary was, well, Gary). Regardless, here’s a quick and dirty on Walker’s career:

5 BEST MOVES
1. 2001 Draft. I’m not sure if Walker gets credit for this, given the sale of the team in March of ’01, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. The Sonics – in one draft – selected Vladimir Radmanovic, Earl Watson, and Bobby Simmons, a fantastic haul, considering the highest pick (Radman) was the 12th overall.
2. 1998 Draft. Finding Rashard Lewis in the 2nd round is probably the greatest draft move in Sonics’ history.
3. Trading Kendall Gill for Hersey Hawkins and David Wingate. I’m not as big on this move as others, but it was a solid move that enabled the Sonics to get rid of a problem (Gill) and acquire two players who would help them challenge Chicago for the title.
4. Trading Hersey Hawkins for Brent Barry. Hawkins was done as a starter, and Barry contributed to the Sonics for quite a few years.
5. 1997 Draft. Walker found Bobby Jackson with a low first round pick, and while Jackson never got a chance in Seattle, he’s been a strong player in the league.

5 WORST MOVES
1. Jim McIlvaine. 7 years. ‘Nuff said.
2. 1996 Draft. Seattle picks Joseph Blair, Joe Vogel, Ron Riley, and Drew Barry. I know they were all 2nd round picks, but still.
3. Trading Shawn Kemp for Vin Baker. Of course, there was no way Walker could have known that Baker was going to spiral into oblivion, but anytime you trade the most exciting player in team history, you ought to get something better than a guy like Baker, right? Bonus points for creating the scenario that caused Kemp to have to be traded (See McIlvaine, Jim).
4. August 1999. Walker signed Vernon Maxwell and Ruben Patterson to 3-year deals, signed Jelani McCoy to a 2-year deal, signed Greg Foster for 3, and Vin Baker for 7. Wow.
5. Fired George Karl and replaced him with ... Paul Westphal.
BONUS!
6. Just because it’s such a lousy move, signing Calvin Booth.

Sonics Edge GS in OT

Plenty of good news yesterday ... and one big piece of bad news. It appears that [Now confirmed on the Sonics' website; Swift is out for the year] Robert Swift may be out for the year, pending analysis of an MRI. That would be a blow to the Sonics, and a huge blow to Swift himself, who was hoping this year would be his opportunity to demonstrate his abilities to a greater extent.

Regardless of Swift's condition, the Sonics played quite well last night, especially the non-Allen and -Lewis part of the team, which has been frustrating to say the least in October. Among the highlights:

• Chris Wilcox gets 11 / 6 in 19 minutes, with only 1 turnover.
• Johan Petro hits 16 points, best of the exhibition season for him.
• Luke Ridnour posts another solid outing.
• Nick Collison again looked great, scoring 19 points to go with 12 boards.
• The Omen grabbed 7 rebounds and scored 18 points.
• The Warriors only hit 2 of 11 3-pointers, the best defensive performance of the exhibition season for Seattle.

I'm feeling a little better about the Sonics' chances today than I was a few days ago, which isn't saying much considering I expected them win about 37 games this season. We'll be back with our Predictions for the 2006-07 season in the next few days, so feel free to clip 'n save and throw those picks in our faces this spring.