I remember listening to the NBA basketball championships the two years back-to-back where the Washington Bullets played my Seattle Supersonics. I listened to the games on shortwave radio with my dad in our home in the Aleutians. In the 1977-78 series, the Sonics lost to the equally surprising Bullets in a close but strange series where each won on the other's court, and had the Sonics being forced to only one game at home to start the series due to scheduling conflicts. Later in the series, the Sonics played a game in the Kingdome because their home arena was being used for a convention. Even though they had over twice the number of fans on-hand, playing in the enormous Kingdome did not offer the same home court advantage and they went on to lose the pivotal game four match-up. I remember complaining about how unfair it was that the series had a strange 1(s)-2(w)-2(s)-1(w)-1(s) format and the Kingdome move, which probably had an impact on the series outcome not benefitting Seattle. Even though the Sonics were going to be home for game 7, I for some reason did not feel good about the Sonics' chances. It was during this play-off run that Dick Motta made popular at least in sporting circles the phase "the opera isn't over until the fat lady sings." I remember being heartbroken after the Sonics' game 7 loss.
The following year both teams I think were favored to win their conferences or at least contend for the title unlike the year before when both were surprise teams. I think the Sonics had some close calls in their conference series (especially against the Suns with Paul Westphal and Alvan Adams), but they made it to the finals to find the Bullets waiting for them once again. This time the Sonics dominated the series and won in 5 games. To this day, this championship is the only one that the city of Seattle has had in one of the three major professional sports. There's even a web page devoted to the 1978-79 Sonics.
I remember pretending to be Downtown Freddie Brown in make believe games with my brother and other friends in our porch where we used a 5-gallon bucket as the basket. We would play games of horse and even play 3-on-3 games in this 8-foot by 8-foot area porch with bodies crashing into walls and cabinets. Other players that I remember from these Sonics teams include JJ (Johnny Johnson, whose son is now a guard for Stanford), Jack Sikma, Lonnie Shelton, Marvin "The Human Eraser" Webster who was actually traded for Lonnie, Gus Williams, DJ (Dennis Johnson), Paul Silas, Wally Walker and their coach Lenny Wilkens. I even remember the players from the Bullets: Wes Unseld, Elvin Hayes, Bobby Dandridge, Kevin Grevey, Mitch Kupchak and Greg Ballard come to mind. I don't think that I would've remembered this if it weren't for our listening on the radio. Compare this to this day and age, where usually by the next year most people cannot even name the two teams that were in the previous years' finals.
So as a tribute to those long lost days of sports on the radio I found the following video clip. Enjoy.
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