Ask not what your franchise can do for you…
Sports fans are inherently irrational. If you think about it, a cabal of multimillionaire owners manipulate our passions for our favorite teams to maximize their profits and pad their bank accounts. Players are constantly repeating the refrain that “This is a business”, usually as they are about to leave one beloved team for another franchise.
And yet, hardcore fans are always able to find something transcendent in the mercenary world of professional sports.
That said, this article on ESPN.com shows that one fan, who happens to be a sports writer, has definitely gleaned some positives from his team during his lifetime. Sad but true, he’ll be losing his team when the Supersonics relocate from Seattle to Oklahoma City.
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I just keep thinking of all the Sonics gave me through the years:
•The Sonics taught me basic English. It was pretty simple, really. I just listened to how my dad and uncle talked about Denver’s Dan Issel during the ‘78 playoffs. If the word in front of Issel’s name ended in “ing,” it was a profane adjective. If it didn’t, it was a profane noun.
•They taught me how to deal with pain. When this happened in May 1994, I was in the midst of a painful divorce. My soon-to-be ex-wife called me the next day to make sure I was OK after the worst loss in Sonics’ history. She didn’t call to make sure I was OK when she left me, but she worried Dikembe Mutombo might push me over the edge.
•They taught me that sometimes being a bit rebellious can be very good. I still remember the spring night in 1992 when the Supes came out wearing black socks and all-black shoes for a playoff game at Golden State. That was the symbolic beginning of the in-your-face era of Payton and Kemp. Combine that with the height of the grunge music scene, and there was never a cooler time to live in the Great Northwest.
•The Sonics taught me that sometimes life is fixed against you, sometimes you catch a lucky break and very often good things come to those who wait.
•They taught me that loyalty is much more important than currency — no matter what Mr. Coffee would tell you.
•And they taught me that joy knows no limits. I won’t forget the Wizard, DJ, JJ, Downtown Freddie, Sikma, X Man, 3-D, the Reign Man, Det or the Glove. And I’ll always remember Eddie’s half-courter vs. the Rockets, Shawn slamming the door on the Warriors (No. 8 here), Big Smooth’s triple in Phoenix and Gus throwing the ball skyward at the Cap Center.
I’ll remember all the time I invested with my family and friends in “our team.” Maybe the basketball was just a backdrop — but I can’t imagine another backdrop that would bring us together more. My wife, Melanie, and I had our first date at a Sonics game (considering it was a game against the pre-LeBron Cavaliers, it’s amazing I got a second date). One of my fondest memories was watching the championship parade with my grandpa and having him buy me this T-shirt, which I then wore for 113 consecutive days.
Nothing — no saber-rattling commissioner, no sinister owner, no greedy coffee magnate, no misguided city council, no cowardly state legislature — can take any of that away from me.
At the end of Sunday’s game, as “Celebration” blared from the loud speakers, my daughter turned to me and asked, “Do we get to keep the Sonics now that they won?”
The more I think about it, there’s no price on any of it — the good times or the Mutombo times. In fact, the more I think about it, the only real question is what would I pay to have them stay.
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