Former Sonic Rashard Lewis four wins from first NBA title

You might say Rashard Lewis drove Lenny Wilkens away from the Sonics.

It's stretching the truth a bit, but mostly it's accurate.

Two years ago, Wilkens held the title of Sonics vice chairman, which was essentially the lead adviser to majority owner Clay Bennett. Wilkens urged Bennett against dismantling an injury-riddled team that limped to a disappointing 31-51 finish.

Against counsel, Bennett dealt the team's all-stars. The Sonics shipped Ray Allen to Boston on draft day and days later agreed to a $118 million, sign-and-trade deal with Orlando for Lewis. Wilkens resigned soon after, citing a difference of opinion with ownership.

"It's unfortunate Seattle lost Rashard, but he turned out to be a heck of a player for the Magic," Wilkens said. "I thought Seattle should have kept him. It was a major cause of concern and after [the Lewis trade] I knew they were going in a different direction than what I planned."

Allen helped Boston to an NBA title last year, and Lewis has helped carry Orlando to this year's Finals.

"Well, that just shows what type of talent we had here," Wilkens said.

At 6 feet 10, Lewis is indeed a rare talent.

He can post up on the left block where he likes to shoot a soft baby hook or sweep across the lane for a teardrop floater. He can dribble drive from the perimeter or make the proper pass when double teamed.

He's an adequate rebounder and a willing defender, but it's on the offensive end where he's a matchup nightmare for opponents because he can play either forward position and he's one of the best three-point shooters in the NBA.

Lewis led the NBA this season with 220 made treys, and his knack for knocking down timely jumpers makes him the X-factor in Orlando's pursuit of its first NBA title.

As much as the Finals, which begin tonight, are a testament to Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant's iron will and a coming-out party for Orlando's Dwight Howard, the championship series gives Lewis a chance to once and for all silence his critics.

He turns 30 in August, but for many Sonics fans he'll always be the teary-eyed 18-year-old who was invited to the 1998 draft and cried in the bathroom after falling out of the first round and stumbling to Seattle with the 32nd overall pick.

"I remember the first day and the first meeting I had with him and his mom and his stepfather after he came from Vancouver and the draft," said Dwane Casey, a former Sonics assistant who coaches in Dallas. "And he still had tears in his eyes and you felt for him because he thought he was going in the top 10.

"He had a lot to prove. From that day forward, he had a chip the size of a two-by-four on his shoulder that he wanted to prove to the league that they made a mistake."

The Sonics couldn't work out with Lewis immediately after the draft because the NBA locked out players before the 1998-99 season. The following years, however, Casey traveled to Lewis' hometown of Houston for weeks of offseason workouts.

In those summer sessions, Lewis perfected a smooth, deliberate and accurate three-point shot that carried him to stardom.

As a rookie he attempted just six three-pointers and made one. The next season, he converted 40 of 120 and by his third season, Lewis was a starter and bona fide three-point threat. He ranks 12th all-time in the NBA in three-pointers and has a career .391 shooting percentage behind the arc.

No matter how proficient Lewis became as a shooter, the burden of carrying a team had always been too heavy for him to bear by himself. His soft-spoken personality is better suited to being a member of an ensemble than the main star, and in many ways, the Sonics of 2003-07 deployed a similar three-point bombing blueprint as Orlando.

Seattle spaced the floor with shooters Allen, Lewis and Vladimir Radmanovic. That trio, however, had Vitaly Potapenko, Jerome James, Johan Petro or Robert Swift at center, and those Sonics won just one playoff series.

With the Magic, Lewis' scoring (17.7 points per game) and rebounding (5.7) are down from his Seattle days, but he's once again surrounded by shooters in Hedo Turkoglu, Courtney Lee and Mickael Pietrus. This time, he's four wins away from claiming the Larry O'Brien championship trophy.

The difference is Howard, the NBA's most dominant big man.

"This is what I always wanted in Seattle," Lewis said two years ago in his only game in Seattle with Orlando. "We had shooters, but we never had a big man. We could be doing this. We could have done this, but we never had a big man, and to win in this league you need a big man."

Percy Allen: 206-464-2278 or pallen@seattletimes.com