Sonics Might Not Be Super This Time--Just Survivors

It’s waking up at 6 o’clock and looking at the sun come up and saying, ‘Why?’

Was it because of coaching? Was it because of attitude? Was it because of Denver? Was it because of refereeing? Was it because of luck? The karma of life?

Denver beat us. We’re going to have to live with that for 12 months. Not five months, not the beginning of the season. --Seattle Coach George Karl, after last spring’s first-round loss *

OK, 12 months are up.

This is not the transcript of a call to 911 but an interview with Coach George Karl after his Seattle SuperSonics, last season’s best team (63-19) and fastest closers (17-3), were so rudely dumped.

It’s nice to report that Karl and the Sonics survived to win another 57 games, although they’re only No. 4 in the West this season, which makes them the Lakers’ problem, starting Thursday at the Tacoma Dome.

It’s surprising too that the Sonics won so many games, given their turmoil upstairs, downstairs and everywhere else. But here they are.

“We’ve done a good job this year and. . . . we’re back!” Karl said last week, like a kid looking forward to Christmas. “The exhibition season is almost over!”

That was some exhibition season.

Since last spring’s fall, General Manager Bob Whitsitt, Karl’s protector, picked an argument with carping owner Barry Ackerley, was locked out of his office, subsequently was fired and went to the Portland Trail Blazers; assistant coach Tim Grgurich, Karl’s liaison with fiery guard Gary Payton, left to take the UNLV job; Shawn Kemp was almost traded for Scottie Pippen, but Ackerley pulled the plug when Seattle fans complained, and Karl feuded with Kendall Gill until Gill left with “symptoms of depression.”

Gill is back, trying to prove, with the rest of the Sonics, that anything that doesn’t kill them makes them stronger. If it’s true, watch out for them this spring.

“I like the way everybody’s doing us now, just writing us off.” the talky Payton said.

“That’s good. Keep writing us off. You (sportswriters) don’t think about us. Keep thinking about your San Antonios and your Orlandos and your Chicagos and just let us play basketball. And that’s good. Last year, you were thinking about us, and we lost. So let’s see how your predictions do this year.”

*

The first question Karl had to answer about this season was whether he would survive to see it.

The modern coach never admits fear (it’s “concern”) or anguish (it doesn’t exist), and if it does slip out one day, it is to be denied the next (the press “took it out of context” or “overplayed it” or just plain made it up). But Karl has always been beyond masquerade, from his days at gentlemanly North Carolina, where his kamikaze sorties united the Atlantic Coast Conference in hatred and fans threw hot dogs at him.

Yes, Karl wondered how he was going to start all over with the Sonics.

“Yeah, I’m sure there were days,” he said, grinning. “Last summer was an interesting summer for me.

“There was a point where. . . . I think we all take this game too serious. At times, we think it’s life and death. We think it’s the end of the world.”

It looked, at least, like the end of the franchise.

Whitsitt, whose bold moves raised the Sonics from mediocrity--capped by hiring Karl out of exile in Spain--presented Ackerley with plans for a reorganization, including reassignment of the owner’s sons.

Not surprisingly, Ackerley didn’t go for it.

The impasse heated up. Whitsitt was finally freed to go to Portland, where owner Paul Allen, the software magnate, was waiting with a big-money offer, amid suspicion Whitsitt set the whole thing up to escape Ackerley’s late-night fits of pique.

Coincidentally or not, Karl had been looking around the league, too. There was even a post-season flirtation with the Clippers, who were invited to a clandestine meeting. With Whitsitt gone, Karl refused to assume player personnel duties or attend the Chicago pre-draft camp. Ackerley had to hire ex-Sonic Wally Walker, a stockbroker, to take over.

On draft day, Ackerley backed out of the Kemp-Pippen deal, meaning Karl hadn’t acquired the star he wanted and had angered the star he had.

Summing up the mood of the franchise, Ackerley fired Squatch, the mascot.

A summer passed and another season came, and the Sonics won their 57 games, although a review makes you wonder how they crammed so much basketball between incidents.

Training camp--Kemp holds out, expressing disappointment at almost having been traded, and demanding a balloon-payment extension, which he gets, $14.6-million worth.

Nov. 7--Ten Sonic ticket salesmen are fired. Six say they’ll sue, claiming it was because they put in for overtime.

Nov. 15--Kemp is assessed a technical foul for one of his post-dunk primal-scream numbers in a victory at the Sports Arena.

Says Karl: “He should have gotten thrown out. I just don’t understand that stuff. Call me an old dork, but this is supposed to be about team.”

Dec. 25--On Christmas, the Sonics revisit a ghost of their own, losing their fifth in a row at Denver. Dikembe Mutombo continues to terrorize Kemp despite Sonic pleas to the referees to get the Denver center out of the lane.

“Yes, my name is still on their minds,” says Mutombo, impressed by his new fame. “I hope it stays there.”

Feb. 4--After an upset at home by the Charlotte Hornets, Karl says referee Ted Bernhardt “should be shot” and is subsequently fined $10,000 by the NBA.

Says a mollified Karl: “Who takes anything I say literally?”

Feb. 15--Trailing the Lakers by four points late in the fourth quarter, Payton tries to bank a pass off the backboard for Kemp to dunk on a three-on-none fast break. Kemp fumbles the ball away. The Sonics lose.

A downcast Karl grits his teeth but refrains from blasting anyone.

Feb. 25--The trading deadline passes without Walker, thought to be a figurehead for Ackerley, making any deals Karl wants, including Gill for Clyde Drexler.

“Don’t ask me anything,” Karl says. “It’s not my responsibility anymore.”

Karl has been yo-yoing Gill all season and feuding publicly with his agent, Arn Tellem, who, Karl says, “can go to hell.”

March 27--Gill, who hasn’t complained all season, goes scoreless in a victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves and storms into Karl’s office for a screaming match. Afterward, Nate McMillan, a respected elder statesman, meets with Karl and urges him to put an end to this thing.

Players have supported Gill all along. Karl agrees to cool it, but Gill, shaken, leaves the team a few days later. Karl, embarrassed, telephones Gill several times during his absence and says later the incident pulled the team together.

April 6--The Sonics win at Denver. It’s their eighth of nine overall, sending them into first place in the Pacific Division.

April 11--They lose at home to the Phoenix Suns, who control the season series, and ultimately win the Pacific.

April 18--The Sonics, down, 4-0, to the Lakers in the season series, end another hex, running up a 73-37 third-quarter lead at the Forum.

So here are the Sonics, battle-scarred but experienced enough to know that as far as this season goes, nothing has happened yet.

Karl said last week: “I think the Kendall situation (helped), having the courage to come forward, his attitude coming back, the explosion after the Minnesota game with Gary and Shawn being part of the team leadership, coming forward, saying, ‘Hey, we can’t let this break apart.’ There’s been a lot of good leadership stuff in our locker room.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I wouldn’t want to be in Vegas, trying to make money on this playoff.”

It’s not the happiest family in the world. There are still “reports” hinting at Karl’s desire to leave, conspiracy theories that Ackerley has set him up to fail and will fire him in the event of another early exit.

For Karl and the Sonics, it promises to be an interesting spring.