Why we’re fans of the Seattle Supersonics

Welcome to the refreshed SonicsRising! To celebrate the new look and feel of our sports communities, we’re sharing stories of how and why we became fans of our favorite teams. If you’d like to share your story, head over to the FanPosts [link here] to write your own post. Each FanPost will be entered into a drawing to win a $500 Fanatics gift card [contest rules]. We’re collecting all of the stories here [https://www.sbnation.com/why-we-are-fans] and featuring the best ones across our network as well. Come Fan With Us!

Mike Baker

Why am I am Sonics fan?

Initially, I became interested because it was here in Seattle. The Sonics franchise was announced before Christmas, December 20, 1966. Five days later I was disappointed to receive a Rams jacket and not a Supersonics jacket for Christmas. I was two.

Why I like the game and the temporary community of fans at the games.

The game's attributes that result in success wins my attention and appreciation at all levels; sharing, teamwork, athleticism, theater, necessary selfishness, and selflessness. We all get to see players and people perform at their best, sharing ideas of good and bad, right and wrong, fairness, that we call fair play, without regard to how we identify ourselves outside of the event.

Miles DeCaro

The reason I'm a fan is I love basketball and I'm from Seattle. I fell hard for basketball early in my life and the Sonics represented the best basketball players/team from my city. I showed aptitude from a young age, my father was a coach, and my mom was from Indiana. Also, I grew up around the time the Sonics were starting to get really good in the late 80s and early 90s. The flair that the Payton/Kemp Sonics played with combined with the cool jerseys and culture really hooked me.

I remain a fan despite not having a team to cheer for because I think the passion for basketball in the city of Seattle have has not been extinguished. Despite setbacks from business, government, labor and capital, people still want to be represented at the highest level of basketball. Even though a lot of people feel that was taken from us under less than honest conditions, it's still important to be represented. I still love basketball and I still live in Seattle, so I want to be able to see the best players in the world, especially the ones from here, play in our great city. I want kids, parents, and families to have the opportunity to have the same experiences that I had growing up and feeling pride in your city when your power forward catches and alley-oop and swings his legs like a helicopter while the crowd goes crazy.

We deserve it, we can support it and we have a lot to offer.

Speedcat

Why am I a Sonics fan? Pure habit, I guess. The political process here is so pathetic and dispiriting, I cannot but fight it until the end of my days to make this right. I will never accept that the naive and racist "Citizens for Better Things," the oligarchic Seattle Times, or the utterly corrupt Port of Seattle get to win this battle. I'm locked and loaded. I no longer have control of my Sonics fandom. It's merely a part of me that will always fight for what I know to be right.
Meanwhile: The Glove. Reignman. Detlef. Big Smooth. Hersey. Mac 10. We were blessed with some truly incredible Supersonic scenes in the 90s. I will never forget.

Taylor Bartle

The reason I'm a fan is my dad. My dad is a big basketball fan and grew up watching Bill Walton and the Portland Trail Blazers. We would watch games on TV and go into the backyard and shoot hoops and play one-on-one. We would usually get tickets to a Sonics game or two each season and when our neighbor, who was a season ticket holder, found out my dad was a Blazers fan, he started giving us his tickets to those classic I5 rivalry games. Luckily, I went on the side of good and rooted for the Sonics in those match-ups against my dad.

I wasn't born for the championship era, but I remember the 1996 season vividly. After we lost the first three games, I hung a sign in our living room window that said "SONICS IN 7!" It stayed there as they won the next two but then when they finally lost in game 6, I changed it to "SONICS IN 97!" It faded in the sun until my mom finally made me take it down.

Matt Tucker

It's a family thing. My dad's native Washingtonian and was career U.S. Navy. The Sonics first took the court his senior year of high school. My brother and I were both born in Scotland. We first came back to the states in 1979 and lived in Washington when the Sonics won the championship.

We moved around the country growing up, but the Sonics were always my NBA team and something to share with dad. We came back to Washington in the early '90s, the second prime period of the team. The Karl-Payton-Kemp era, perennial playoff team, the '96 Finals. The only team to beat the "greatest team of all time" 3 times in the regular season and playoffs that year. The Sonics were the first major pro team in Seattle, woven into the fabric of the city. That's what we're fighting to get back.

Chris Meirose

I was a 4th grader growing up in Sioux Falls, SD. I went to a YMCA basketball camp, and they divided us into teams and gave our teams NBA team names. I was on the Sonics. I had never heard of the Sonics. Didn't know they - or Seattle - existed. That spurred me to learn more, and from that grew a love for the Sonics. This was just a few years after the Sonics had won the NBA championship, so to my young eyes, they looked like as good a team as any to follow. Well, they and the Magic led Lakers. Hey, I was a kid, so give me some grace.

Chris wrote a whole post on this on February 27, 2013. Read the whole piece here.

Paul Rogers

Why am I a Sonics fan? I was a ten-year-old kid living in a Seattle suburb when Gus Williams threw the basketball a thousand feet into the air as time expired and the Green and Gold won the NBA title in 1979. I'm not exaggerating. A thousand feet into the air. He could have thrown it over them mountains. That makes a lifelong impression on a kid.

Freddy Brown, Jack Sikma, Dennis Johnson, John Johnson, Paul Silas, and Lonnie Shelton. What other reason does a kid need to be a lifelong fan? Bob Blackburn's voice had a lot to do with it too.

Kevin Nesgoda

The Sonics were the team that opened me up to basketball. It’s what brought my step-dad and me together in my mind. He taught me about basketball, shared his love of the sport with me. It’s grown on me so much now that it’s a regular part of my life. A potential marriage ending obsession. Okay, maybe not that far. I want to one day soon be able to take my future daughter or son to a Sonics game with my dad. Have three full generations of Nesgoda’s there. I have a love that is so deep for the our former/future team that’s it’s part of my DNA now. I can’t wait to soon bring you all nine articles a day on the team. Your Facebook and Twitter feeds will be littered with our words and posts. That’s why I’m still here, that’s why I want the Sonics back SoDo, KeyArena, Bellevue, Auburn, Everett, wherever! I want my Sonics back.

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