Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 4:44 pm  |  16 responses

Goodbye, Seattle

Part 1: 3BA, SUV and The Ghosts of the Supersonics.

by Matt Caputo

The only thing worse than traveling across the country for nine hours is sitting in gridlock on the ride to the Hotel. However, we made it to Seattle just fine.

This is now the third time I’ve made the trip up to the Pacific Northwest this summer. Our Video Chief, Matt Sheridan, and I are on the second of two 3BA related treks to this part of the country. We were in Portland when the 3BA started their tour in July and I was back in that area again for the Nike Global Challenge two weeks ago.

Believe it or not, the 3BA is catching on. I’m not just saying this because they’re an advertiser. The reality is almost every person we’ve interacted with here in Seattle knows about the 3BA Tour final tonight at the Key Arena, the former home of the Seattle Supersonics. You can’t fake street credibility.

-After claiming our bags, Sheridan and I checked in with our rental car at the Alamo counter. Through small talk we learned that the counterman, Oleg, was a huge SLAM fan and asked us if we’d heard about the 3BA game at the key arena the next night.

My SLAM-juice-card got me a free vehicle upgrade, but couldn’t get me past the extra fee for being under 25-years-old. However, as the lowly Assistant Editor, I’ll take what I can get. The Chevy Tahoe just looked a lot smoother than the roller-skate sized compact car we’d been previously scheduled for.

-The next morning in a small antique shop in Pike Place Market, the storekeeper heard Matt and I talking about finding the Key Arena and he asked us if we’d heard that there was a “pro 3-on-3 game there tonight.”

-Our saddest encounter was at the former Seattle Sonics/Seattle Strom store. The shop is nearly sold out of anything that says Sonics and what’s left is 50% off. I copped a Kevin Durant Adidas swingman jersey for about $40 and Sheridan got a good deal on some Sonics skull-caps. However, we were really picking through– literally – the last remaining scraps of the Seattle Supersonics organization as we know it. Only a few rubber basketballs and replica items can be found in the sea of Seattle Storm gear that has taken over the shop. By all early accounts, the team has vanished.

While the WNBA’s Seattle Storm franchise will continue operations, many of the relocated team’s extended staff, including those in the now “Storm Team Store,” will lose their jobs. The kid behind the counter told us the 3BA was in town that night and asked us if we’d heard about it.

It’s sad to see the Seattle community, who has a number of really good products in the NBA right now (Brandon Roy, Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson) lose what has always been one of the league’s cooler franchises. It’s wasn’t so long ago that the NBA had a trio of teams in this part of the world (Portland, Seattle, Vancover, B.C.) and now they’re down to just one.

We’re going to try and capture a bit more of the Seattle hoops culture, as well as take in the 3BA game tonight. Still, it’s sad to see the Sonics rapidly disappearing from the city’s sports landscape. Cheering for a team called the “Seahawks” just doesn’t sound half as cool.

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  • Ryne Nelson Posted: Aug.22 at 4:57 pm
    If only my SLAM-juice-card worked at the movie theater…$11 now?! :-)

  • TADOne Posted: Aug.22 at 4:58 pm
    You forgot to mention Marvin Williams. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth knowing all of those people will lose their jobs, especially in this economy.

  • Matt Caputo Posted: Aug.22 at 5:03 pm
    Did anyone get the Philip Roth reference in the title?

  • B. Long Posted: Aug.22 at 5:17 pm
    Yes, Matt. This is one of the most depressing stories I’ve ever read basketball wise. Damn.

  • Homie Posted: Aug.22 at 6:58 pm
    “lose” not “loose”. Sorry to be the grammar nazi, but that’s one of my pet peeves.

  • B. Long Posted: Aug.22 at 6:59 pm
    I am stoked about the 3BA. Where are they planning on branching out to? Or are they just gonna tour? I hope they don’t tour?

  • tenorca Posted: Aug.22 at 7:04 pm
    The Grizz experiment was a travesty. I’m glad it’s over.
    Sad times for the Sonics, obviously. I know we can get down on Seattle-ites for not supporting the team enough, but, really, were they any worse than Hawks fans these past 5 years? Sixers fans post The Real AI? Those arenas were morgues.

  • M-A-Double Posted: Aug.22 at 9:57 pm
    This is extremely sad. We had over 90% attendance for the last decade I think other than last year which was played under the cloud that was the threat of having our team moved. The real problem was the contract of the lease on the arena which would be up in 2010 anyway. Could have got a new one done then or maybe even re-negotiated now. I’m sorry. I’m just really torn up over this. I’m in my teens now and this is, scratch that, was my favorite Seattle team. I can remember going to my first game when I was 7… I won a contest at the end of the first quarter!!! Oh well, they’re gone now. And I have already loosened my stance. When the team first moved, I vowed not to watch the NBA (during the regular season only) ever again. Now I think I will and have narrowed down my new favorite team choices to Denver because I really like their roster and New Orleans because of family ties there. I’m leaning towards Denver because I don’t like being a front-runner. But I’m really torn up and sad and even though if we get a team back, it will probably be when I’m out of the state, I hope to see that day.

  • RiseKing Posted: Aug.23 at 1:34 am
    Hey Matt, if you need some spots to hit up for the Seattle hoop scene, just drop me a line…

  • Matt Caputo Posted: Aug.23 at 2:32 am
    Where you at? Where should we go?

  • Ben Collins Posted: Aug.23 at 11:56 am
    Matthias, it is a delight that you have kept us in such hearty couriered communications in your passage through the unseen Northwest. I dutifully propose to the Father a swift and healthy return in my prayers. Do not eat what the natives call “maize” — it tastes of the rotten brittle that Samuel Adams tried to feed us when one of his brewing experiences went awry and left dried, metastasized plaster chips on the surface of his mixing tub. He has, strangely — and with some startling success — decided to sell these to the locals as a concoction known as “Cooler Ranch Doritos.” (His fall ale is no better.) Continue blazing trails throughout the vast unknown and let us know of your steady progress through your march of time and will. Please do your best to avoid contracting the fatal dysentary and cop me a Detlef Schrempf jersey MUTHAF**KA. With love & squalor,
    Sir Benjamin Tiberius Collins XIV
    P.S. If you do not keep writing, I will alert the colonists of your air bathing rituals.

  • Deno Posted: Aug.24 at 12:31 am
    This is still odd to me even coming from new york, if I ever loss my dismal Knicks to another state I would cry. I feel your pain Seattle, the Sonics will rise again!

  • SLAM ONLINE | » Last Goodbye, Seattle Posted: Aug.25 at 12:21 pm
    [...] Previous Seattle Journals: Goodbye, Seattle | Here Comes The Reign Again [...]

  • k money Posted: Aug.25 at 1:10 pm
    The 3BA is the next big sport to hit the country. Finally we have something that will get rid of all the overpaid babies and whining owners. The sport (NBA) has lost its connection to the community. It looks like the 3BA will bring that back…we should all support them.

  • ciolkstar Posted: Aug.26 at 11:09 am
    k money is optimistic

  • DaveSchaefer Posted: Sep.1 at 1:58 pm
    I turned on the tv yesterday and the Seattle and Portlandd game was on. I watched the game and enjoyed it.
    I like 3BA better than nba

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