1978-79 NBA World CHAMPS Seattle SUPERSONICS...coached by HOF Player and COACH Lenny WILKENS and led by one of the BEST TRIO of GUARDS in NBA HSITORY.

It's only fitting that I have been talking about the HAPPENINGS in the GREATER NORTHWEST the last few posts......I MISS the SEATTLE SUPERSONICS......the SONICS cool looking COURTS...the JERSEYS......and all that HISTORY is not to go to WASTE.....at least not with the BLUEDUDE.

One of my All-Time Great NBA TEAMS which took on the personality of their coach Hall of Fame PLAYER and Coach Lenny WILKENS.....ST. LOUIS HAWKS with him and HOF PF Bob PETTITE Jr. and successful Coaching stints at SEATTLE, Cleveland, ATLANTA, Toronto, and New York.

The SONICS were led by 3 Guards and a Bruising Blue-COLLAR CENTER. The Guards were as smooth as the other side of the PUGET SOUND and all 3 of them took different parts of their game to mesh into COACH WILKINS' Simple System of MOTION INSIDE then Out.

the Guards:

Gus WILLIAMS 6'3" 180: from famed Mt VERNON NY HS (which also produced the McCRAY Brothers...Rodney and Scooter who went onto play with the LOUISVILLE CARDINALS and Denny CRUM) who played with Younger Brother RAY WILLIAMS, who also played in the NBA, was a TERROR at the Point of ATTACK. He was silky-smooth off the DRIBBLE and could get to the rim with the best of them. Also a really good defender and he was 1 of 2 SONICS Guards that made it tough on opposing teams OFFENSES.

Dennis JOHNSON 6'4" 185: from the LA AREA and PEPPERDINE WAVE Alum....the LATE Great D.J. as they call him was one of the best defenders in the LEAGUE at the TIME and he fed off of that. He made his DEFENSE his Offense on most nights and he and GUS were in those PASSING LANES instantaneously. I remember D.J. from wearing those Knee Pads when he played and that's why I wore them when I was playing LIL DRIBBLERS LEAGUE.

DOWNTOWN Fred BROWN 6'3": from the the WINNINGEST JUNIOR COLLEGE in the LAND Southeastern CC in West Burlington IOWA by way of the UNIVERSITY of IOWA......You had to guard FRED from no where else but.....DOWNTOWN. A SNIPER if you ever saw one QUICK-RELEASE, off the Bounce, Off-Balance, straight up and down...however you wanted it ...DOWNTOWN could make and create the shot.....reminded of Mid to Late 80's SONICS PLAYER Dale ELLIS with the range. An with GUS and D.J. doing most of the ball-handling......BROWN would just spot up.

the MAN in the FRONT COURT:

The Muscles of the OPERATION were led by none other than Center Jack SIKMA. From Illinois WESLYAN and as unorthodox as one player may seem......it worked. And JACK played off of the other bruising SONICS PLAYERS like Lonnie SHELTON and Paul SILAS.

The SONICS finished first in PACIFIC Division in the '78-'79 NBA Season and Beat the LAKERS in round 1 led by Abdul-JABBAR, Norm NIXON, Jamaal WILKES, and Michael COOPER.

In the 2nd round thy finished off the Phoenix SUNS with their crew of Alvan ADMAS, Paul WESTPHAL, Truck ROBINSON, Gr HEARD, and Walter DAVIS.

And in the FINALS the SONICS were too much for the Washington BULLETS led by Wes UNSELD, BIG E Elvin HAYES, Kevin GREVEY, Greg BALLARD, and Phil CHENIER.

The BACKCOURT Play of the SONICS along with the PHYSICAL Style upfront with SIKMA, SHELTON, and SILAS provbed to be too much for the BULLETS and they had more trouble with the LAKERS, before SHOWTIME as MAGIC was the #1 in 1979, and the SUNS as their team mirrored the SONICS as both of those series went 4-3.

The only team that comes close to Comparison with these SONICS were the 1995-96 SONICS led by the GLOVE, REIGN MAN, DETLEF, the BIG SMOOTH, Nate McMILLAN, and Hersey HAWKINS. They finished atop the WESTERN CONFERENCE that season ran through the WEST only to succumb to the 72-10 Regular SEASON BULLS.

But hats off to the '78-'79 WORLD CHAMPIONS in the NORTHWEST.......your the reason why SONIC BASKETBALL might creep back into SEATTLE.......and it SHOULD.