I have two favorite memories of the Seattle Sonics. When they were playing at the King Dome, they offered a Seattle Sonics Cable Channel. My wife Peggy and I had traveled to Seattle by chartered bus with a keg and friends before, but thought it might be easier to simply sign up for the Sonic Channel and watch the games from home. We chose a good opponent and invited friends to come over for a home game.
We had a full house and then half-time came. As part of the half-time entertainment they selected a ticket holder at the game to try a half-court shot for a fantastic monetary prize . . . and they mentioned that a cable channel subscriber would win the same thing if the shooter made the basket. They called out the name of the possible winner: Donald Doman from Tacoma, Washington. All heads turned towards me. The guy missed, but our friends refused to believe that I had not planned the whole thing and knew all about the selection. I just laughed. I got a kick out of the expressions on their faces. My daughter Andrea had recently won a brand new pick-up truck months before in a fund-raising event (Kick the Can for Cancer) with Lenny Wilkins as the celebrity chairman. So, our friends knew anything was possible.
The second favorite memory is from when the Sonics played a few games in the Tacoma Dome. I had been shooting video for Blue Diamond Superstar Doug McArthur in and around the Tacoma Dome for some time and so he asked if I would like to attend a Sonic game in Tacoma. I said, yes, of course. Peggy couldn’t make the game, so I invited my buddy Jim Whitacre to join me. We went to the security entrance, but there were no tickets. The guard called the main entrance: no tickets. So, recognizing me, he just waved us in. We stepped inside the arena and I asked Jim, “Where do you want to sit?” I didn’t really get an answer, so I chose half-court, third-row up (best seats in the house). I had a great time. I don’t think Jim saw the game at all, he kept looking over his shoulder and all around expecting to find irate ticket holders or security guards ready to drag us away. I laughed at him.
Former Seattle Supersonic, Kevin Durant recently returned to Seattle’s Key Arena for a pre-season game with the Golden State Warriors. There is great hope that a newly remodeled Key Arena might draw an NBA team to Seattle, which means they certainly might visit Tacoma, again in the remodeled Tacoma Dome . . . anything’s possible in the NBA – The Time is Now!