Vote Your Sonics Top Five

USA Today has a neat little promotion running where, throughout the season, they'll isolate a team for week and have fans vote for the top five players in franchise history.

This is somewhat similar to last year's Sonics 40th Anniversary Team, which was picked right here on SUPERSONICS.COM. This one, however, is a little more selective.

After some deliberation, I went with guards Gary Payton and Lenny Wilkens, forwards Spencer Haywood and Shawn Kemp and center Jack Sikma (the instructions say voting is without regard to position; I happened to pick a reasonable lineup, though with two point guards and two power forwards).

Who gets your vote?

40 Years Ago

Today is the 40th anniversary of the first Sonics game, a 144-116 loss to the San Francisco Warriors.

David Andriesen of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a thorough and excellent look back at that game, the first by a major pro sports team from Seattle. Included is a look at where several of those Sonics are now.

Along with the story, P-I columnist Jim Moore shares his memories of that expansion team and being a Sonics fan growing up in Seattle.

I went to several games, but I listened to all of them and looked forward to all of the broadcasts. Bob Blackburn was Kevin Calabro back then, and to me he is still the voice of the Sonics, the original voice, the man who was in my bedroom night after rainy night.

I sat at my desk and kept score on sheets of legal paper. I would write down each player, put a bunch of 2s next to his name and circle each 2 every time the player made a shot. A lot of circled 2s followed Walt Hazzard's and (Bob) Rule's names. They didn't have 3-pointers then.

Great work by the P-I. Make sure to go give it a look.

Sonics on ESPN Classic

ESPN Classic allowed Bill Simmons, aka the Sports Guy, to choose an NBA matchup a week to televise. Tonight's Simmons pick is Game 5 of the 1993 Western Conference Finals between the Suns and Sonics.

Explains Simmons:

"You can't go wrong with any game involving the '93 Suns, but this one features
two superb matchups (Barkley in his prime vs. a young Shawn Kemp, KJ in his
prime vs. a young GP) and Dan Majerle going nuts with a then-record eight 3s. Up
until this point, the series sucked ... then Game 5 turned out to be a classic."

I disagree slightly with Simmons. Three of the first four games were pretty lopsided, yes, but Game 2 had an outstanding finish - especially for Sonics fans. Sam Perkins made a key three-pointer as the Sonics stole a game in Phoenix.

Now as far as Game 5, I'm not sure you'd want to watch it as a Sonics fan. As Simmons explains, Thunder Dan owned the evening from downtown, though the Sonics made a valiant effort. Man, it seemed like Majerle was always open back then, didn't it?

What I'd love to see is Game 6 of that series, a 118-102 victory at a rocking Seattle Center Coliseum that remains one of my favorite games I've attended (possibly with the long-defunct "standing room only" tickets).

As for Game 7 ... we don't talk about that one.