by Julia Eaton
The Seattle SuperSonics screwed up their chances of going to the NBA Playoffs this year. There was hope. There was that one pivotal point in the last minute of the game where the miracle basket was made that was needed to drag the game into overtime. It seemed at that point that by all laws of nature and physics, the Sonics had to win. Or at least there was hope they would.As it went, they lost. And my personal opinion was that we could all see it coming in those last three games. During the last game it seemed so obvious that they weren't going to make any of their baskets that, despite all respectable attempts at a defense, anytime Denver got the ball they were almost guaranteed to wrack up more points. The object of the game seemed to become to get fouled as many times as you could and don't let Denver have the ball for very long. Kind of a weak objective to an otherwise honorable sport, I would say.
Which brings us to the much asked question - why did the Sonics choke so hard on us? I've heard many conspiracy theories so far and, gosh, they really do have a resounding ring of truth to them. Perhaps the Sonics were paid off to lose the first two of the last three games and then choked in the pressure of their final game. Perhaps the Sonics were paid off to lose altogether so that Denver could make a name for themselves - "a bunch of rookies beat the Sonics! Wow! There's the team to watch!" Maybe the Sonics were paid off by city officials who have had just about enough of the attention of the nation being paid to Seattle. It's not enough that the town was infected by grunge a couple years ago, that a slew of movie production companies have shown up here, that the town was voted most livable in the nation, or that everyone seems hyper-interested in the unfortunate suicide of a very lonely and sad local musician. Oh no! We can't have our basketball team go to the national finals! That's just too much!
My personal theory is that the Sonics were reacting to a much deeper level of rebellion. I don't think it had anything to do with huge corporate roaches attempting to buy human will. I believe that they must have been hit by something we all experience at some point in the name of competition. What is winning anyway? What is the point? What is the joy? It has been ingrained in the human psyche that winning is to gain immortality. But to what degree must you sacrifice to achieve that immortality? In ancient Mayan cultures, they would have basketball tournaments similar to ours, where the winners were killed and their heads mounted on a wall as a sign of their immortality and greatness. It was considered a great honor. Now, in our day, the winners become Charles Barkley - an inhuman character used to buy and sell products. An image that is plastered throughout the world with nothing deeper than the paper or screen it's displayed upon. Or they become Shaquille O'Neil, Bill Clinton, Eddy Vedder - nothing more than a name and image of immortality that eradicates the human underneath. Or they become Kurt Cobain, who's death must have been painfully silent underneath the din of the publicity.
Maybe the Sonics knew what they were doing.
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Contents on this page were published in the June/July, 1994 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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