Sonics fans should celebrate the team's history

Is this it? Are they really going? How could this be happening? Why can't they be saved?

Oklahoma City?

For the past two years, while the team on the floor turned losing into an art form, NBA fans in this town were tortured by questions that didn't have answers.

All of the Everymen and Everywomen who have cheered the Sonics for the past four decades have run some tortured emotional gantlet, careening between hope and hate, joy and anger. Dreading disaster, while looking for a miracle.

But tonight, as this vague facsimile of the Sonics plays the season's final home game against Dallas, let's forget this season, which shouldn't be too hard.

Let's forget about the pack of lies that Sonics ownership has told, forget about the record-shattering 62 losses.

As this season mercifully fades to black, let's think about everything that has been good about having the Sonics in Seattle.

And, while remembering the past, don't give up hope for the future.

Despite Friday's inevitable vote against the city by the NBA's Board of Governors, the immediate fate of the franchise will be decided in federal court this summer. Remember that.

But this day in Sonics history should be about the past 41 years of Sonics history.

Remember the man who brought the expansion team to town in 1967? Sam Schulman understood entertainment and the value of a good show.

In an age long before cable, he found ways to bring attention to this franchise situated on the far left corner of the United States.

He raided the American Basketball Association and brought Spencer Haywood and Jim McDaniels to town. He hired an NBA legend, Bill Russell, to coach.

For the first time, Schulman's Sonics gave Seattle the feel of big-league sports.

He was the catalyst and, for 40 years, this city saw the best players in the world.

Consider this list: Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem-Abdul Jabbar and Bill Walton. John Havlicek, Walt Frazier and Rick Barry. Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Julius Erving, Michael Jordan and LeBron James.

Most of the great teams in the league's history came through Seattle: Magic's Lakers, Bird's Celtics, Jordan's Bulls. The 1970 Knicks, the '72 Lakers, the '83 Sixers.

Seattle has hosted two All-Star Games and three NBA Finals. The Sonics set attendance records when they moved into the Kingdome in the late 1970s.

From Haywood to Shawn Kemp, Gus Williams to Gary Payton, Lenny Wilkens to George Karl, this franchise felt as if it belonged here. For almost four decades, they truly were the Seattle Sonics.

For the final time this season, the retired uniform numbers of Williams, Nate McMillan, Wilkens, Haywood, Fred Brown and Jack Sikma, and Bob Blackburn's microphone will hang from the Key's rafters.

If the OKC cartel cared, it could have honored Gary Payton, or Dennis Johnson, or Kemp, or Karl or Kevin Calabro.

But real fans — and there are several hundred thousand of them in this region — don't only remember the stars. They remember all of the guys who did the dirty work. Players like Vincent Askew, Leonard Gray, Frank Brickowski, Ervin Johnson, Tommy Kron, Clemon Johnson and Paul Silas.

They remember moments.

The come-from-behind win in the sixth game of the 1979 Western Conference Finals in Phoenix and the three sweet days of anticipation before Game 7 in the Dome. On the way to their only NBA championship, the Sonics beat Phoenix in that Game 7 in front of more than 40,000 people.

The seventh game of the Western Conference finals against Utah in 1996, the first year of KeyArena. On that sweaty Saturday afternoon, the Key felt like the perfect place for that game.

The building was loud and intimate, and nobody was concerned about leases or restaurant space or parking. Sonics fans counted the seconds as Karl Malone took forever to shoot his free throws. And Kemp dominated Malone in a game won by the Sonics, 90-86.

That was only 12 years ago, and the thought of this franchise moving anywhere, let alone Oklahoma City, was preposterous.

Tonight is for remembering the cast of hundreds — J.J., Rashard Lewis, Dale Ellis, Tom Chambers, Bernie Bickerstaff, Ricky Pierce, Xavier McDaniel, Ray Allen, Detlef Schrempf.

This might — might — be the final home game in Seattle Sonics history. But instead of fretting over the present, let's celebrate the past.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com. Catch his weekly vodcast at www.seattletimes.com/sports