My obsession with sports is already a tragedy.
Because the team that I first started watching, the team that I built a connection with as a kid is now playing in Oklahoma City after abandoning Seattle and changing their mascot to an atmospheric fart.
I’ve read about how heart broken Brooklyn Dodger fans were when they left for Los Angeles, or how betrayed Cleveland felt when they lost the Browns. These were sports teams treated with as much affection as a girlfriend or relative.
And after losing the Sonics, I could see how that happens.
The thing about sports teams is that once you start following them, they’re always there. Whether it be the off season or the playoffs, they always give you something to talk about. You embrace them, let them into your life and for the most part you really can’t end that relationship.
How do you? You turn on the local news, sport casters are talking about how they’re doing. You run into people that like sports and they’ll want to let you in on their latest acquisition in the draft. While you can stop watching them, it doesn’t erase the fact that they still play the games.
Unless of course they move to a different city and no longer represent you.
I first started watching the SuperSonics when I was a little kid. My parents would take my sister and I over to our grandparents house and my grandpa, an ardent sports fan who would probably watch two-last place high school soccer teams if it was on the television, would always have the Sonics, Seahawks and Mariners on the television.
Now football and baseball are wonderful sports and I’ve grown to follow them as well, but when you’re a little kid you have the attention span of a goldfish, following the complicated system of football and baseball can be tough.
Basketball – now that’s a little easier. The ball goes in the basket and you get two points. Shoot it from behind the three-point arc and you get more. Way easier to pick up than how many yards to get before a first down, holding penalties and a little quicker paced than baseball.
So the first time I actually sat down and watched sports was the Seattle SuperSonics. And since that was in the mid-90s, I was able to watch one of the best teams in the Michael Jordan dominated NBA. We’re talking about Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton, Hersey Hawkins, Detlef Schrempf, Sam Perkins and Nate McMillan. Play a game of NBA Jam with these guys and you’ll know what I mean.
Basketball allows players and teams to have their own style, and the SuperSonics definitely had a certain metropolitan coolness to them. Again, this was when Seattle was leading the grunge movement and pretty much becoming a cultural buzz town. The SuperSonics perfectly reflected this. I can remember still thinking that there wasn’t a cooler place than Seattle, even though I grew up on the east side of Washington and secretly resented the west side for the yuppie snobbery.
The Sonics - live from the Key Arena, the Space Needle, timeout shots of Pike’s Market in Seattle, George Karl prowling the sideline as head coach, pretty much exuding brilliance from his balding head.
The Sonics were just cool, and I loved them. I remember praying for the team to take the Bulls to seven games in the NBA Finals. Not win the NBA finals, just take the series to seven and make Chicago sweat a little. While those went unanswered and Seattle could only must six, it was crazy to think that they were only two wins away from winning a professional sports championship.
And that’s gone. All gone. To Oklahoma City, which is about as un-Seattle as you can get. Oh I’ve moved on, I’ve found other teams but much like how relationships go, you really don’t forget about the first one.
And sometimes you just check up to see if they’ve gotten fat, pregnant and work at a Wendy’s.
And at 1-13 in this early season, the Thunder are about as close to that as you’re going to get in the sports world.
Because the team that I first started watching, the team that I built a connection with as a kid is now playing in Oklahoma City after abandoning Seattle and changing their mascot to an atmospheric fart.
I’ve read about how heart broken Brooklyn Dodger fans were when they left for Los Angeles, or how betrayed Cleveland felt when they lost the Browns. These were sports teams treated with as much affection as a girlfriend or relative.
And after losing the Sonics, I could see how that happens.
The thing about sports teams is that once you start following them, they’re always there. Whether it be the off season or the playoffs, they always give you something to talk about. You embrace them, let them into your life and for the most part you really can’t end that relationship.
How do you? You turn on the local news, sport casters are talking about how they’re doing. You run into people that like sports and they’ll want to let you in on their latest acquisition in the draft. While you can stop watching them, it doesn’t erase the fact that they still play the games.
Unless of course they move to a different city and no longer represent you.
I first started watching the SuperSonics when I was a little kid. My parents would take my sister and I over to our grandparents house and my grandpa, an ardent sports fan who would probably watch two-last place high school soccer teams if it was on the television, would always have the Sonics, Seahawks and Mariners on the television.
Now football and baseball are wonderful sports and I’ve grown to follow them as well, but when you’re a little kid you have the attention span of a goldfish, following the complicated system of football and baseball can be tough.
Basketball – now that’s a little easier. The ball goes in the basket and you get two points. Shoot it from behind the three-point arc and you get more. Way easier to pick up than how many yards to get before a first down, holding penalties and a little quicker paced than baseball.
So the first time I actually sat down and watched sports was the Seattle SuperSonics. And since that was in the mid-90s, I was able to watch one of the best teams in the Michael Jordan dominated NBA. We’re talking about Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton, Hersey Hawkins, Detlef Schrempf, Sam Perkins and Nate McMillan. Play a game of NBA Jam with these guys and you’ll know what I mean.
Basketball allows players and teams to have their own style, and the SuperSonics definitely had a certain metropolitan coolness to them. Again, this was when Seattle was leading the grunge movement and pretty much becoming a cultural buzz town. The SuperSonics perfectly reflected this. I can remember still thinking that there wasn’t a cooler place than Seattle, even though I grew up on the east side of Washington and secretly resented the west side for the yuppie snobbery.
The Sonics - live from the Key Arena, the Space Needle, timeout shots of Pike’s Market in Seattle, George Karl prowling the sideline as head coach, pretty much exuding brilliance from his balding head.
The Sonics were just cool, and I loved them. I remember praying for the team to take the Bulls to seven games in the NBA Finals. Not win the NBA finals, just take the series to seven and make Chicago sweat a little. While those went unanswered and Seattle could only must six, it was crazy to think that they were only two wins away from winning a professional sports championship.
And that’s gone. All gone. To Oklahoma City, which is about as un-Seattle as you can get. Oh I’ve moved on, I’ve found other teams but much like how relationships go, you really don’t forget about the first one.
And sometimes you just check up to see if they’ve gotten fat, pregnant and work at a Wendy’s.
And at 1-13 in this early season, the Thunder are about as close to that as you’re going to get in the sports world.
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