SEATTLE — The home team wasn’t the SuperSonics, and at times the play by both squads was well short of NBA excellence.
But for thousands of fans who showed up at KeyArena on Saturday afternoon, none of that mattered.
This was an opportunity to see NBA players in Seattle for the first time since the Sonics departed to Oklahoma City in 2008, and an estimated crowd of 5,000 — many of them clad in green and gold Sonics jerseys, t-shirts and hats — seemed to savor every moment.
Yes, there was a game between players from the Puget Sound area, designated the “Seattle” team, and a “League” team of pros from elsewhere in the country. But more important was the chance for the region’s basketball fans to reconnect with both the game and the team they loved and lost.
“This was great for the city,” said Brandon Roy, who played at Seattle’s Garfield High School and the University of Washington before moving on to the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers, where he is a three-time All-Star and the league’s 2007 Rookie of the Year.
Roy didn’t play on Saturday, which was probably the day’s biggest disappointment. He is trying to recover fully from arthroscopic surgery on both knees last January, and the Portland team doctor “advised me not to play. … I was disappointed, but I had to make the smart decision.”
Still, Roy showed up and spent the game on the Seattle team’s bench.
“It was fun sitting down there and hearing the fans yelling and screaming,” he said. Roy played two NBA seasons before the Sonics relocated, “and it was always really loud in here. I miss the Sonics and I know the fans do, too. We all want to see a team back here.”
For the record, the Seattle team won Saturday’s game 140-122. Former Seattle Prep and UW player Spencer Hawes, now the starting center for the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, led all scorers with 27 points, including a 15-foot hook shot — a la Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — from the right baseline in the waning seconds.
Hawes seemed to enjoy the day as much as anyone. He had a shaving in the hair on the back of his head, and on close inspection it turned out to be the Space Needle with Mount Rainier in the background.
After the game, Hawes took a microphone to center court and thanked the fans for coming. “We want to bring the Sonics home,” he said before leading the crowd in a chant of, “Come home, Sonics.”
Terrence Williams, who played at Seattle’s Rainier Beach High School and is today with the NBA’s Houston Rockets, added 25 points for the Seattle team and was named the game’s most valuable player.
“The town needed something like this,” Williams said. “A game played in KeyArena (by NBA players). … This city needs a team again. You could tell that (the fans) love their city and they love basketball.”
Two Sonics legends helped kindle memories of the team’s heyday. Jack Sikma, who was part of the 1979 NBA championship team, and Shawn Kemp, who led the Sonics in scoring when they reached the NBA Finals in 1996, coached the Seattle team.
During player introductions, the biggest cheers went to the game’s smallest player — 5-foot-9 Isaiah Thomas, who played at Tacoma’s Curtis High School and later the UW before declaring for the 2011 NBA Draft. He was a second-round pick by the Sacramento Kings.
Thomas remembers attending his first NBA game at KeyArena in 1999, when he was in the fourth grade.
“The atmosphere they had here was unbelievable,” he said. “I remember watching Gary Payton, and it’s crazy because I work out with Gary Payton now. He’s like a mentor to me.”
Having an NBA team back in Seattle “would be great,” Thomas added. “Even if I didn’t play for that team, it’d be great just coming back here two or three times a year.
“When I was going through the NBA draft process and talking to management (of prospective teams), everyone always said, ‘Man, I hope there’s a team back in Seattle.’ Because there’s nothing like Seattle. It’s a beautiful city and I just love the people, the fans, everything.”
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