May
31
DURANT DURANT!
Filed Under Loose Balls
Sonics’ Fans Hungry Like a Wolf for a Player of Durant’s Ability
With their professional basketball team struggling to get a new arena and the franchise possibly on the move after next season, Seattle fans were given something to cheer about when the Sonics landed the number two pick in the 2007 NBA Draft last week. With the Portland Trail Blazers getting the number one pick and going to take Greg Oden, that means the Sonics will select Texas freshman forward Kevin Durant, who took college basketball by the storm during the Year of the Freshman with his scoring outbursts, fluid athleticism and all-around dominance in the Big XII.
What a boom for the Sonics! For a fan base that saw the franchise provide little hope or instant gratification with the selection of the raw Mohammad Sene with the tenth pick in the 2006 draft, Seattle fans can now eagerly wait for Thursday, June 28th when NBA Commissioner David Stern walks up to the podium and blurts out:
“With the second pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, the Seattle Supersonics select (short pause)…Kevin Durant from the University of Texas.”
All of a sudden things are relatively looking up for the Sonics. There are not too many years when the NBA Draft has two legitimate, no-brain selections as this year’s deep draft does in Oden and Durant, who can hit the three, take the defender off the dribble for the quick pull-up jumper, and also get into the lane with his quickness and finish strong at the hoop.
In moving up to the number two spot, the Sonics and its fans got the break that it’s long deserved following two disappointing seasons marred by injuries and turmoil surrounding the franchise’s future in the city. It’s one thing to hear that the Memphis Grizzlies may have to relocate again as the former Vancouver team was a product of Stern wanting to expand the league for global reasons ahead of the quality of the game. It’s another thing to hear that a franchise like the Sonics, one of the top teams in the Western Conference during the nineties, may possibly be on the move to cities like Kansas City or Oklahoma City.
Seattle has been a solid franchise on the court since entering the league in 1967. The Sonics won their only championship (and the only championship among the major Seattle sports teams) in 1979 when they rebounded from the previous year’s seven-game loss in the NBA Championship Series to the Washington Bullets with a five game triumph over the defending champs. That Sonics team was led on the court by the late great Dennis Johnson and blond-headed big man and current assistant coach Jack Sikma, and on the sidelines by Head Coach and current Vice President of Basketball Operations Lenny Wilkens.
While that Sonics teams was two years before my birth, I’ve seen their games on Hardwood Classics on NBA TV and was shocked by how raucous The Kingdome was back then, especially when Seattle knocked off the Phoenix Suns in Game Seven of the 1979 Western Conference Finals. Talk about a home court advantage.
Don’t forget the Sonics surprising run to the Western Conference Finals during the 1987 Playoffs with Head Coach Bernie Bickerstaff and solid players like Tom Chambers, the X-Man Xavier McDaniel and Dale Ellis. That team eventually lost to the NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers after knocking off the defending Western Conference Champion Houston Rockets (featuring Akeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson) in six games in a very surprising second round series.
The Sonics then set up their nineties excellence by drafting Shawn Kemp in 1989 and Gary Payton the following year. Ironically, the Payton selection was the last time that Seattle had the number two selection in the NBA Draft (a good sign to say the least as Payton was the heart, soul and mouth of Seattle during his 12-year run with the team). Seattle just missed reaching the NBA Finals in 1993 when it lost to Charles Barkley and the Suns in seven games and had a great shot at the Finals in 1994 before dropping three straight to the eighth-seeded Denver Nuggets in a shocking first round series.
After being upset by the Lakers in 1995, Seattle finally broke through in 1996 when it beat Utah in seven games in the Western Conference Finals and met the 72-10 Chicago Bulls in the NBA Finals. The Sonics dug a deep hole in the series, falling behind 3-0, before rallying and winning the final two games of the series at Key Arena. The Bulls prevailed in Game Six on Father’s Day 1996, and the Sonics would never really get close to the Finals.
The Sonics traded Kemp to the Cavs after the 1997 season as the team began to drop but remained competitive for a few seasons. The franchise was facing hard times in 2003 when it traded Payton to the Milwaukee Bucks for silky smooth guard Ray Allen. The Sonics were a surprise team in 2005 when it was a three-seed in the playoffs and played the soon-to-be champion Spurs very tough in a physical six-game series.
The last two seasons have been forgettable as Allen and Lewis have been marred by injuries and point guard Luke Ridnour has struggled to match his play from 2004-2005.
Durant Selection Gives Sonics Flexibility Well Beyond His Dazzling Game!
While the likely selection of Durant may not save the Sonics’ fate in Seattle, it has at least generated some excitement. A few hours after the Draft Lottery, the team’s telephone system was hit by a mass volume of calls, with the Sonics’ Web site reporting that $70,000 of in season-ticket revenue coming in at the end of the night.
Funding for a new stadium in Seattle is a big issue concerning the teams’ future. Apparently, Seattle residents do not way to pay taxes for a new stadium (and who can blame them), and the Durant pick may not make a difference in this regard.
With that said, the Durant pick does give the Sonics the flexibility that they need. With Rashard Lewis prepared to test the free agency waters, the Sonics could sign-and-trade the veteran and bring in a power forward. While many reports have said that Lewis is unlikely to sign with the Sonics, Seattle would be a match-up nightmare for a lot of teams if he were to return. Having two six-foot-ten forwards who can put the ball on the ground and get to the hole, shoot from the outside and score inside would be fun to watch on the offensive end to say the least.
The Sonics Have Typically Been a Hip Franchise, and Maybe Durant Can Bring Them Back Up in this Regard!
My brother and I were watching NBA Fastbreak the other night when the Sonics were a subject of discussion on the program. My brother then made an interesting comment in which he said that the Sonics were once such a cool team to watch.
This was especially true of Seattle, from their cool retro uniforms in the early nineties and their new age look in the middle of that decade to their exciting brand of basketball. For a few years in that decade, Kemp dazzled the NBA with his unbelievable athleticism, dunking ability and very solid mid-range jump shot. Kemp had the Sonics always on the highlight tapes and maybe an extremely exciting player like Durant can at least help the team get back into the minds of NBA fans.
It would sure be fun to see the Sonics stay in Seattle and usher in a new era with Durant sending a sonic boom throughout the NBA, a league that is much better when teams with history stay where they belong!
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[…] No-brainer here. Durant tore it up during his freshman season at Texas and would have been the #1 pick in a lot of drafts. The Sonics (whether they’re in Seattle, OK City, Vegas or wherever else in the next couple of seasons) have cast Durant as their franchise player. Here’s my opinions on the significance of Kevin Durant going to the Sonics: Durant, Durant! […]