1978/79. Seattle's first and only Championship to date. Record: 52-30, first in Pacific Division Playoffs: 4-1 over Los Angeles Lakers, 4-3 over Phonix Suns Finals: 4-1 over Washington Bullets Key starters: C: Jack Sikma PF: Lonnie Shelton SF: John Johnson SG: Dennis Johnson PG: Gus Williams Key reserves: Paul Silas, Wally Walker, Fred Brown Jack Sikma: All-Star in his Sophomore year Analysis After recovering from a 5-17 start in 1977/78, the SuperSonics hired Lenny Wilkens as head coach. Seattle went 42-18 the rest of the way, knocked out the Lakers, Blazers and Nuggets before going down in the finals to Washington, in 7 epic games. The next year however was a completely different story. Under the guidance of Wilkens and the aquisition of rugged bigman Lonnie Shelton through a trade for Marvin Webster, Seattle posted it's first ever 50 win season, 52-30, and also captured it's first ever Pacific Division title. Seattle defeated the Lakers in 5 (including back to back overtime games) in the Western Conference Semi Finals, before beating Phoenix in 7 to meet the Bullets in the finals for the second straight season. Lenny Wilkens: Great player, master coach. The key to Seattle's fantastic season and first title was teamwork. The Sonics had no superstars and didn't have a twenty point scorer. Instead they had a well rounded squad who worked for eachother, roleplayers who knew exactly their duties and a fantastic coach who knew how to get the ultimate effort out of every player. Jack Sikma, Lonnie Shelton and veteran Paul Silas did the dirty work inside, Gus Williams and Dennis Johnson provided the highlights and scoring, whilst Freddie Brown earned the nickname 'downtown' for his long range shooting exploits, and later became the first ever leader of the now common three point standings. Williams was also a hawk on the perimeter defensively, whilst Wally Walker and John Johnson rounded out the rotation. After the championship win, coach Wilkens summed up the team mentality by calling out Paul Silas as the team's most important player during the run, despite only averaging 5 and 7 off the bench. Gus Williams: Defensive perimeter demon. Overall this Seattle team was not one of the greatest ever, but at the same time remains underrated. Seattle stayed near the top of the Western Conference for most of the late seventies and early eighties, and enjoyed a period of success not seen again until the mid nineties days of Kemp, Payton and Schrempf. The team epitomised toughness, heart and working for eachother, whilst establishing themselves as a defensive powerhouse of the time. Key Stats: - Seattle were the league's stingiest team, yielding 103.8 points per contest. - Six SuperSonics scored averaged double figure scoring, led by Gus Williams with 19.2 ppg. - Jack Sikma averaged 12.4 rpg, 5th in the NBA, while Williams ranked 8th in steals with 2.08. - Fred Brown ranked 3rd in freethrow accuracy at .888%. Paul Silas: Huge-hearted workhorse. Other notes: - Lenny Wilkens coached the Western All-Stars, including Dennis Johnson and Jack Sikma. - Boston drafted Larry Bird with the 6th overall pick, who elected to remain in school. - Washington led the league with 54 victories, and took out the Atlantic Division. - Kansas City won the Midwest and San Antonio took out the Central. - Team members Jack Sikma, Fred Brown and coach Lenny Wilkens all had their jerseys retired by the SuperSonics.
A very good team indeed, and beauty of it was there were no superstars, just a collection of great team players. Most know Dennis Johnson from his Celtic days too, but he made his name as a player on this team first and foremost.
Wow, "Downtown" Fred Brown. Brings back memories. Just thought I'd share that I met him at the Cheesecake Factory in Bellevue Square. And one I had courtside seats to the Sonics vs Hornets, and I got a championship sno-glo
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting starman85:</div><div class="quote_post">That was a great team. Lots of those guys are classic Sonics like Fred and Jack.</div> Yeah to bad not alot of people know about guys like them
Great breakdown Sir Des, that Sonics team is a great example of what team basketball is about. They lost to Washington in the '78 finals, then came back in '79 and dominated. There was one other common theme with all of those guys - knowledge of the game and smart play. Excellent post.
Unfortunately, we then had to watch Sikma's "natural" for the next 15 years. Sikma was actually one of the best outside shooting C's for the 70's and 80's. The Sonics stole Gus Williams from the Warriors (he sat out a year) and I never forgave the Warriors for that one.
Hey i live in seattle and i dont get why they retired gus willams number just this year i think he is what held the 79 team together. jack sikma, freddie brown from downtown, lenny wilkens they even retired nate mcmillans number before gus nate is a bad coach and not even one of are best players
jack sikma, freddie brown from downtown, lenny wilkens they even retired nate mcmillans number before gus nate is a bad coach and not even one of are best players
Though this was way before my time, it was a great read. BTW, if you have the time, you think you can do a quick rundown of my favorite Sonic year? The 95-96 season when the made it to the Finals, but lost to that bastard Michael Jordan?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting JerryLynn420:</div><div class="quote_post">Though this was way before my time, it was a great read. BTW, if you have the time, you think you can do a quick rundown of my favorite Sonic year? The 95-96 season when the made it to the Finals, but lost to that bastard Michael Jordan?</div> I've been planning a write up of that era through the mid nineties when I get the time, actually. The George Karl era.
I was born the year after the won the title. so i never got to see that live but I did get a chance to see some old game tapes of them recentley, and from wht I saw that was a great team Jack Sikma and Gus Williams were amazing. I just hope Jack Sikma can teach that robert Swift a thing or two
Johnny Johnson was the least heralded of those Sonics. A solid passer and defender, who played a lot of "point forward" before that term was commonly used. DJ and Gus were one of the best backcourts ever. Why do people think the Sonics didn't win any more? Was it more because they slipped and got older, or because the Lakers got so much better with the addition of Magic the next year? The Lakers beat the Sonics in 5 or 6 in the 1980 Western Final, and the Sonics were never as good after that - partly because DJ developed a bad attitude and got traded, and because Gus sat out the whole 81 season in a holdout.
