24

With the pregame moment of silence for #24 Dennis Johnson and the halftime jersey retirement ceremony for #24 Spencer Haywood, it's almost appropriate that last night's Sonic blowout of the woeful Blazers was an afterthought. The Supes raced out to an 8-0 lead and literally never looked back. Portland is a horribly disjointed basketball team. How they have a better record than the Sonics -- or even the Grizzlies -- is testament to Nate McMillan's ability to get young players to hustle and overachieve. That is all the comment the game merits.

On to the main event: the Haywood retirement ceremony. Haywood was charmingly giddy about being honored so long after his career ended, and video clips of his playing days reminded the crowd of what a freakishly dominant player he was in his prime, which was spent with the Sonics in the early 70's (he remains the franchise's all-time leader in points per game, although Ray Allen is nipping at his heels). In 1972-1973, he averaged 29.2 points and 12.9 rebounds. Um, wow: Y'on't see those numbers too often anymore. Haywood was also a pioneering force in some pretty controversial future NBA trends: (1) going pro after only a year or two of college, (2) snorting coke to the point where it completely derails an athlete's career, and (3) marrying supermodels. (Lest you forget, Haywood rocked Iman's world before Sir David Bowie convinced her to put up a straight front for his allegedly more diverse amorous proclivities.)

And yet, Haywood only played five seasons in green and gold, which forces us to consider a couple other Sonic 24's: DJ and Tom Chambers. Johnson was MVP of the Supes' lone championship team. Chambers, like Haywood, spent five years with the Sonics, finishing with just 103 career points less than his jersey-mate, and was MVP of the 1987 All-Star Game at the Kingdome, widely considered to be the greatest of all-time. Look, I'm thrilled that the Sonics honored Haywood, but I wonder now how low the bar is for future rafter-raisings.

A strange subplot of the evening: A key legislative hearing on the Sonics' desired new arena in Renton was being held in Olympia at approximately the same time as the night's gala proceedings were occurring at the Key. Here's what Haywood had to say to the assembled throng: "Remember, don't let the Sonics leave town. We were the only thing in town. People saw us on TV and said, 'I want to come to Seattle to live.'" No word on whether these sentiments were teleconferenced to O-Town.