When I heard about the coming of Magic Johnson to LA and Larry Bird to the Celtics, I didn't think it was a conspiracy to revive interest in the league by sending two sure-fire stars to the two most cherished teams in the league. Sure, the league had let the Celtics pick Bird in the draft a YEAR before he actually left college, but I didn't really think it was a conspiracy. And exactly how the Lakers had gotten the 1st pick in the draft PLUS Spencer Haywood from the Jazz in return for an old old shooter (Ron Boone) and a young no-defense scorer who only averaged 17 points a game for the Lakers (Adrian Dantley), someone will have to explain that one to me now. But back in the day, I was too high on the Seattle SuperSonics to care about such details. The Sonics were indeed super -- they had won a championship -- and I figured, one or two guys won't make the Lakers a championship team. The Lakers could score with flair, but defense wins championships. Defense was still the Sonics' forte.

And the addition of the 3-point shot didn't worry me. After all, we had Fred Brown, the greatest outside shooter since Jerry West.

Center Tom LaGarde was healthy, and that should help, I told myself. And there were two rookies that looked alright -- James Bailey, a terrific athlete, and Vinnie Johnson, a good shooter. The team was otherwise intact. Even old sage Paul Silas was still with the team. And of course, my favorite coach was there as well, Lenny Wilkens.

Sharpshooter Fred Brown led the league in three-point percentage (44%); point guard Gus Williams scored more (11th in the league at 22 points per game), stole the ball more (4th in the league at 2.44 per) and turned the ball over less (better than 2:1 assist to turnover ratio); defensive ace Dennis Johnson averaged 19 points a game, and led the team again in blocks; power forward Lonnie Shelton shot 53% from the field and had upped his minutes and rebounding from the previous season; and third-year center Jack Sikma was 5th in the league in rebounding (11.1). The Sonics continued to feature a balanced offensive attack (6 players averaged double figures) along with an awesome defense (3rd in the league in points allowed and field goal percentage allowed.) DJ and Gus were named to the All-NBA second team, and DJ was a member of the All-Defense 1st team as well.

Finally, the Sonics had found respect.

The season ended and the 56-26 Sonics, despite having improved on last season's record by four games, were second in the Pacific to the Lakers (60-22.) In fact, two Eastern teams, Boston (61-21) and Philadelphia (59-23) had better records than the Sonics too.

But they weren't tough like the Sonics, I told myself.

The Sonics entered the playoffs against Portland (led by Calvin Natt and Kermit Washington), who had posted a measly 38-44 record. As usual, the Sonics protected their homecourt advantage and won the series without much trouble. The last game of the series was a blowout, 103-86, and I remember Gus scoring, passing, and stealing all over the court. But something seemed to be wrong with DJ and Sikma. They had missed a lot of shots. Maybe it was bad luck, or good defense on Portland's part. But DJ lost control on court more than once. He was frustrated, and had never been timid about showing his anger.

The second round against Milwaukee (led by Bob Lanier, Marques Johnson, Junior Bridgeman, and Sidney Moncrief) was tough. Every game was close. The Sonics struggled through a pair of overtime games at Seattle, splitting the series 1-1. The one-two defensive tag team of Quinn Buckner and Sidney Moncrief made life difficult for DJ, and Lanier, a master of footwork, was defending Sikma quite well. Fred Brown continued to hurl in long bombs, and Gus was hot, but it didn't stop the Bucks from getting up in the series 3-2.

When the Sonics headed back to Milwaukee for game 6, I wondered if the Sonics had lost their heart. But the Sonics put the clamps down defensively and squeaked out a win in the closing seconds, 86-85. No, they had not lost their heart. They proved it by returning to Seattle and winning another close game, 98-94, to win the series.

It was time for the conference finals. Their opponent, of course, was the Lakers, who had disposed of Phoenix in 5 games. And while the press was marvelling at the combination of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, in watching the Lakers play I realized they were much more than a 2-man team. Haywood was valuable off the bench--yes, the former superstar came off the BENCH, the team was so deep. Jamaal Wilkes and Jim Chones rounded out the front line, while Norm Nixon and Magic formed a dual point-guard tandem in the backcourt. Not to mention that rebounder Mark Landsberger came off the bench along with defensive ace Michael Cooper, who had been with the team the previous year but had not played due to injury.

Yes, the Lakers were a much different team than the year before. Coop, Magic, Kareem, Chones, and Jamaal Wilkes made a great defensive team. And Kareem, Magic, Haywood, Nixon, and Wilkes together were nearly unstoppable on the fast break.

Even so, the Sonics stole Game 1 in L.A., winning by one point. Though the Lakers won Game 2, I wasn't feeling too queasy. The next two games were in Seattle, and the Sonics were still tough to beat in the noisy old Colliseum. Game 3 went to the Lakers by 4 points; Game 4 by 5 points, and yes, Game 5 went to the Lakers by 6. The Lakers looked great -- Kareem was mobile enough to follow Sikma outside and reject his shots; DJ had trouble defending the 6'9" Magic, and now regularly pouted and shouted at every foul called against him or not called against his defender (Cooper or Magic); and Gus, though he continued to score, had trouble keeping the ball against tiny speedster Norm Nixon. Silas was too old to get many minutes too, and though Shelton rebounded well, it wasn't enough. The Lakers were simply a better team--and they would go on to beat the 76ers in 6 games in the Finals. In fact, the Lakers, with Magic, Kareem, and Coop, would go on to play in every finals series in the 1980's, except for two.

To compete with the Lakers, I realized, the Sonics would need to lure some quality free agents.