Sonics win possible Key finale
SEATTLE – For one, perhaps final, night, optimism trumped doom in Seattle.
If this really was the last time the SuperSonics played in this city, nobody convinced the more than 15,000 fans who showed up to watch their beloved team rally to beat the Dallas Mavericks 99-95 on Sunday night.
They chanted “Save our Sonics!” and had a far less gracious chant for Sonics owner Clay Bennett. They roared “GP!” when Gary Payton, the star point guard during Seattle’s last heyday in the mid-1990s, took a seat near the Dallas Mavericks’ bench early in the second quarter.
They carried signs. One read, “E-mail Clay: C.U. in court!” Another called Bennett, who intends to move the team to Oklahoma City, “a liar” and “a thief.”
And they just kept roaring.
“I almost cried, to be honest with you,” Sonics rookie star Kevin Durant said. “It was phenomenal.
“The whole arena was into it. The ushers were clapping.”
When the public address announcer introduced Payton during the next time out, it was like 1996 again. Every one – fans, police officers, equipment men, ushers, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban – stood and delivered the loudest, most sustained joy KeyArena has heard in years. Bennett has said the place isn’t viable, but at that moment, it was rocking.
“It will be a disaster if they move them after 41 years,” Payton said before halftime. “I don’t think these fans deserve that.
“But anything is possible. Everybody just needs to keep their hopes up and it will work out.”
Unless a Seattle judge rules in June that the Sonics must occupy the arena for the final two seasons of their lease, Bennett will take them to his hometown of Oklahoma City for the 2008-09 season.
But nobody’s convinced Sonics forward Nick Collison this was the end, either.
“I’m still optimistic something will happen to keep us here,” Collison said an hour before the game.
Collison just bought a house up the hill from KeyArena. The former star at Kansas is married and wants the family he is just starting to grow up in Seattle.
“It will be a sad, sad day if that happens,” Collison said of moving to Oklahoma. “It would be a tough thing for a city that has been so good to the NBA.
“There’s not a lot of positive things we can say as players about this situation. But I’m still optimistic.”
Durant scored twice in the final 45 seconds, and the Sonics rallied from a six-point deficit in the final 3 minutes to beat the Mavericks.
Earl Watson led Seattle with 21 points and 10 assists, while Collison had 18 points and 11 rebounds as Seattle scored the final 10 points and handed Dallas a second straight loss.
Dirk Nowitzki led Dallas with 32 points and Seattle native Jason Terry added 25.
Watson’s first memory of the Sonics is sitting high atop KeyArena with the rest of his UCLA Bruins, who were in town for the Final Four, watching Payton.
“A lot of people don’t realize, it’s not about the NBA player, the professional career. You pretty much expect one player won’t stay with one team anymore,” Watson said. “When I came into this arena today, my main thing was I looked at the young kids that won’t understand if you explain it to them. And for me, it was the ushers that have been here forever. What do they do?
“There are situations like that where you show their appreciation for them.”