Sonics Live A Nice Life After Kemp Seattle’s Often-Troubled Team Thrives In Quieter Atmosphere

Few players can match the circuslike acrobatics of All-Star forward Shawn Kemp.

But where there’s a circus, there’s usually a sideshow, and that is what Kemp became to the Seattle SuperSonics before they traded him to Cleveland in a three-team swap.

Now, it’s quiet in Seattle. The Sonics go to work. They practice. They play games. And they win.

About the only distracting noise you’ll hear out of the Seattle camp these days is from the Harley-Davidson that Karl’s wife bought him for Christmas.

“This team is professional,” Karl said. “It likes the game. It likes to be coached. It likes the gym.”

And it’s good. The Sonics bring a 22-6 record into tonight’s game against the Suns at America West Arena. Only the Los Angeles Lakers can match Seattle’s record this season.

Vin Baker, the former Milwaukee Bucks star whom the Sonics got in the three-team deal, gives the Sonics a lot of the positives that Kemp had to offer with none of the negatives - both on and off the court.

“I think, subconsciously, we all wanted to move on,” Karl said of the blockbuster trade. “A lot of the success I’ve had belongs to Shawn Kemp. It’s hard for me to say it, but we were tired of that negative situation, the lack of commitment to the team in off-day situations.”

That’s a nice way of saying the Sonics were fed up with Kemp’s selfishness and missed practices and team flights.

Kemp forced Seattle to make a move, and Karl has said he still does not know why Kemp was so unhappy. Charles Barkley did the same thing to the Suns. Latrell Sprewell was trying to force Golden State to trade him. Scottie Pippen is turning the screws in Chicago.

“I think the only thing you can do is give the coach a five-year, guaranteed contract,” Karl said, straight-faced. “In this system, blackmail is effective. The player knows it will work. So does the agent, the coach, the organization knows it, the media know it.

“Great players really have that card to play, even though it’s an ugly card and it creates a lot of hell for a lot of people. And I think there are agents who like to play it. They enjoy trying to manipulate and control the system.”

Karl, for one, was ready to move on to another hand.

“With Vin, everybody has kind of gotten a fresh start,” he said. “We’re re-energized.

“I think Vin stepped into a position and played it with a lot of similarities to how Shawn played it. He’s played it with less flair - and less turnovers - and that has made everybody more comfortable.”

Including Karl, who is in the final year of his contract with the Sonics. Ironically, in a summer when an attractive crop of free agent players will be available, a pretty good coach will be a free agent, too.

And Karl’s value is only going up this season. With Kemp gone and most attention focused on the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference, the Sonics have quietly flourished.

“There are people here I’ll be friends with for the rest of my life,” Karl said. “But I’ve also got guys I’ve coached for 700 games. They’re tired of my stories, tired of my anger. Adding some new faces this season has been refreshing for everybody. It’s refreshing for this coach.”

Karl probably deserves it.

He has managed to hold the Sonics together through a couple of devastating first-round playoff losses, including the infamous collapse against the eighth-seeded Denver Nuggets in 1994, when Seattle had the league’s best record. Then the club began to crumble internally because of Kemp.

“The situation wasn’t pleasant last year, but I’ve never thought that this team has gotten the credit it deserves for its mental toughness,” Karl said. “In my time, I can’t remember a team that has gone through so much turmoil, so many pressure situations and almost been burned in effigy by fans, and overcome all that.

“It’s strengthened us in a lot of ways.”

Karl offers Seattle’s 122-115 overtime victory over the Suns in Game 4 of a Western Conference first-round series last season as evidence. Rex Chapman hit a miracle 3-point runner with 1.9 seconds to go in regulation to send the game into overtime. The Sonics still won.

“When Chapman hit that shot, we could very easily have given that game away,” he said. “You’re going to hit some hurdles along the road. I don’t think you can have success without going through some adversity.”

The Sonics have moved on from theirs.