Alas, 1993-94 Sporting News NBA Executive of the Year Bob Whitsitt would not be making those moves. An acrimonious feud between Whitsitt and owner Barry Ackerley ended with Whitsitt ousted as President. Officially, Whitsitt and the Sonics agreed to “mutually release each other from their contractual obligations”. Whether he quit or was fired depends on whom you ask. Either way, the result was the same -- the Sonics’ fortunes would be in new hands. Wally Walker, a former Sonics player during the late 1970s and early 80s was hired as a consultant to help Coach George Karl run the Draft. Walker was clearly a sharp individual, as evidenced by his time working on Wall Street, and knew the Sonics after serving as a color commentator on several broadcasts. His front office credentials, however, were less certain. Nevertheless, Walker eventually was named Sonic President and General Manger.
Walker found himself stepping into an important role. Despite winning more games than any other team, the Sonics had a lottery pick thanks to an option to swap first-round picks included in the previous summer’s deal for guard Kendall Gill. Consider it Whitsitt’s going-away present. While fans viewed the 11th pick as a chance to add even more talent to an already-excellent core, management saw it as a chance to sweeten potential deals. After all, Karl wasn’t likely to play a rookie -- even a lottery pick -- anyway.
Karl entered negotiations with the Chicago Bulls on what would have been, had it been completed, one of the biggest trades in NBA history. The Sonics would have sent their first-round pick and forward Shawn Kemp to Chicago for forward Scottie Pippen (there were various incarnations of the deal). Bulls GM Jerry Krause’s motivation was obvious; Pippen had caused waves during his team’s playoff loss to the New York Knicks by refusing to enter the game for the final play when Coach Phil Jackson decided to give the final shot to forward Toni Kukoc instead of Pippen. Karl’s reasoning behind wanting to give up Kemp and the pick is still unclear.
When word of the impending deal hit Seattle’s local sports radio station, KJR -- owned, incidentally, by Ackerley at the time -- fans went nuts, bombarding the station with calls vehemently opposing the trade. Ackerley caught wind and killed a trade with Chicago. Management continued to look for a deal, with serious discussions about sending Gill and the pick to Sacramento for Mitch Richmond before the Sonics settled on sending the pick and Ricky Pierce to Golden State for guard Sarunas Marciulionis and forward Byron Houston. Marciulionis, a native of Lithuania and one of the NBA’s first Europeans, was a budding star before two knee surgeries (one kept him out the entire 1993-94 season) caused his stock to drop. Houston had been a first-round pick out of Oklahoma State but was still looking for an NBA position, a tweener forward at 6-5.
Though the deal was agreed-upon, it could not be announced until later because of the salary cap. As a result, the Sonics selected Tennessee State forward Carlos Rogers with their 11th pick. They did make a trade on Draft night, sending the rights to 54th pick Zeljko Rebraca to Minnesota for a 1996 second-round pick. In between, the Sonics made one selection for themselves, Cincinnati forward Dontonio Wingfield. Another undersized power forward at 6-8, Wingfield was considered a project after spending just one year with the Bearcats. The deep Sonics could afford to wait for the 37th pick to contribute.
Free agency was less eventful for the Sonics. They had three key free agents: forwards Detlef Schrempf and Vincent Askew and center Michael Cage. Schrempf and Askew were locks to return (and they both did, Schrempf on a five-year deal and Askew a three-year), while Cage was not really wanted back after six fine years as a Sonic. The Sonics wanted to give a bigger role to second-year center Ervin Johnson, so Cage was expendable. Still desiring a veteran presence in the middle, the team did sign Bill Cartwright away from the Bulls, for whom he had started during three championship runs.
Off the court, changes were made to the coaching staff as well. Veteran Bob Kloppenburg was gone, kicked upstairs to a scouting/personnel position. In his place were two newcomers -- Bob Weiss, an expansion member of the Sonics who had head-coach experience with San Antonio, Atlanta, and the L.A. Clippers; and Dwane Casey, a former Kentucky star who had been an assistant coach for the Wildcats before taking the fall in a recruiting scandal at the school and being exiled to Japan. Casey was given little credit for his coaching experience when he was hired, derided as a babysitter for Sonic star Shawn Kemp (he had recruited Kemp to Kentucky). Finally, assistant Tim Grgurich left the Sonics to take the coaching rains at UNLV, where he had long served as an assistant coach before coming to the NBA.
There was one final change. The game five loss to Denver was the last game ever played in the Seattle Center Coliseum. Shortly thereafter, the arena began getting a makeover which would take the entire season and force the Sonics to the south to play their home games at the Tacoma Dome.
When training camp opened, a lot of unhappiness lingered from the past April. Kemp was a brief holdout, while Gill was concerned about playing time with Marciulionis in camp and had asked Karl to guarantee him minutes, something Karl claimed he would quit before doing. After Kemp reported, camp was fairly uneventful. Forward Chris King, who played 86 minutes during the 1993-94 season, was the only cut of note.
Statistically, Gary Payton came into his own during the 1994-95 season. He led the Sonics in scoring for the first time with 20.6 points per game while shooting a remarkable 50.9% from the field. He was an All-Star, second-team All-NBA, and first-time All-Defense. However, the critics began to surface during the season as well, wanting Payton to play a greater leadership role and set up his teammates more.
Kendall Gill enjoyed a topsy-turvy second season in Seattle. The flaws in his game, along with his distant and often surly attitude, began to wear on Sonics fans. Gill shot better with the shortened three-point line, but his 45.7% shooting was still one of the worst marks amongst the regulars. Karl kept Gill on a short lease to the point where Gill claimed late in the season that he was clinically depressed and left the team. Later, Gill admitted he had made up the “illness”.
No player got more benefit from the new three-point line than Detlef Schrempf, who canned threes at a remarkable 51.4% clip during the season. To illustrate how much easier threes had become, that mark was a Sonics record but did not lead the league. Schrempf had the best season of his career in 1994-95, averaging 19.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. He was an All-Star and also made third-team All-NBA.
With Payton and Schrempf stepping up their offensive efforts, Shawn Kemp got left in the shadows at times. He averaged 18.7 points and 10.7 rebounds per game while shooting 54.7%. Kemp started the All-Star game for the second straight year and joined Payton as second-team All-NBA.
Karl started three different players regularly at center during the season, eventually settling on second-year big man Ervin Johnson. Johnson proved a fine draft pick, showing that he could rebound and block shots, all the Sonics needed him to do in 15 minutes per game.
Though he played in 80 games, Nate McMillan’s play was hampered by injuries. He was no longer quite the disruptive force he had been off the bench the previous season, though he remained one of the league’s better backup points. He finished sixth in the NBA in steals with 2.1 per game and was named second-team All-Defense for the second straight season.
Sam Perkins started just 37 games at center, but still played the fourth-highest minutes total on the team. Perkins shot just 46.6%, but because he took so many threes, he was still as efficient as almost any other Sonic. He helped keep opponents from double-teaming Kemp.
By his third season in Seattle, Vincent Askew had changed his game. No longer the scrappy overachiever, Askew started to fall in love with his jumper and had a tiff with Karl -- his biggest fan -- over minutes. Karl favored Askew over Sarunas Marciulionis, who didn’t get the minutes he expected and frequently feuded with Karl (who must have hated the shooting guard position in general). Bill Cartwright started the season in the rotation at center, but quickly showed his age and fell out of favor. Byron Houston, Steve Scheffler, and Dontonio Wingfield rotated garbage minutes, while Rich King played just six minutes in the final year of his four-year rookie contract.
The Sonics christened the Tacoma Dome with four straight home games to start the season. They opened the stretch with a win over the always-tough Utah Jazz, 110-103, before dropping their first game in Tacoma to the Sacramento Kings. They headed to the East Coast at 3-1 and encountered their first turbulence of the season, losing the first three games of the trip, two of them to poor Boston and New Jersey squads. The Sonics were 3-4 at the point, but rebounded with six wins in seven games to finish the month at 9-5.
December was slightly kinder, with the team ripping off a six-game winning streak and running its record to 18-9. 1994 -- a year the team would be happy to see go -- didn’t end on a particularly high note, however. The Sonics lost a nationally-televised rematch with Denver on Christmas Day and lost to the L.A. Lakers 96-95 on December 29. The game was memorable because Payton attempted an alley-oop off the backboard to Kemp in the fourth quarter that failed on an uncontested fast break. The critics took the opportunity to lambaste both players, accusing them of caring more about looking good than winning.
The naysayers were quickly silenced. Payton and Kemp, showing they cared very much about winning, went out and did it 10 straight times to open 1995, which was quickly shaping up as a far better year. During the streak, Payton set a club record by making all 14 of his shots in a 116-85 blowout of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Utah and the Lakers brought the Sonics back down with a pair of defeats -- in the T-Dome, no less -- but the Sonics rebounded by winning five of six to go into the All-Star break with a solid 33-12 record. They finished their first half by dismissing Pippen and the Bulls in overtime by a 126-118 final, with Kemp scoring 30 to show why Sonics fans were strongly against the deal.
The rest of February was not so kind to Seattle, as it limped toward the end of the month with a 4-4 record, including two more losses to the Lakers -- then 4-0 against the Sonics on the season. By the time the calendar turned to April, however, the Sonics had found their stride again, winning 12 of 13 games over the stretch. After a 105-83 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on April 2, the team sat at 51-20 and had a reasonable chance of repeating in the Pacific Division. The Phoenix Suns, Seattle’s main competition, cooled after a tremendous start when forward Danny Manning was lost for the season with a knee injury.
Despite losing twice at home in April, including a critical April 11 battle with the Suns, the Sonics still had a chance to win the Pacific on April 21 when they started a season-ending two-game road trip. But they lost to Sacramento by a 105-97 final, giving the Suns the division and making the season-ender in Phoenix meaningless. The Sonics lost to finish 57-25. While the record was still the second best in team history, it was a downer after the 1993-94 season. As well, in the crowded West, it was only good enough to give the Sonics the fourth seed.
In the first round of the playoffs, with the previous season’s collapse still hanging overhead, the Sonics got a difficult draw. They would square off with the Lakers. While the Sonics had finally managed to beat L.A. on April 18, the Lakers had still dominated the season series by a 4-1 margin.
During the summer of 1994, legendary Laker GM Jerry West had rebuilt the Lakers after they missed the playoffs for the first time since before “Showtime” the previous season. The key acquisitions were shooting guard Eddie Jones, selected with the 10th pick -- one ahead of the Sonics’ 11th pick -- and forward Cedric Ceballos, stolen from Phoenix for a second-round pick. Out of the shadow of Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson, Ceballos blossomed into a star with the Lakers, averaging 21.7 points and 8.0 rebounds.
The Lakers had some players already to put around the newcomers. Point guard Nick Van Exel, in his second season, ignited the offense with 16.9 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Veteran center Vlade Divac held down the middle, while enigmatic Elden Campbell paired with him in the frontcourt. A strong Los Angeles bench was led by former Sonic Sedale Threatt. Magic Johnson’s replacement averaged 9.5 points off the bench. Veteran Sam Bowie, best known for being the player Portland took over Michael Jordan, complemented Divac, while youngsters Anthony Peeler and George Lynch rounded out the rotation.
Before he could focus on the Lakers, Karl had some issues of his own to deal with. McMillan was chosen to start at shooting guard in the playoffs, while Karl compromised with Gill (who had returned from his “treatment”) by making him the backup. That left Marciulionis out of the rotation, a move that confounded him and fans alike. Without Marciulionis, the Sonics’ rotation was down to eight players. And while Johnson started two games, he barely played, meaning the Sonics relied heavily on a seven-man core.
If the Sonics were to go down in the first round of the playoffs again, it wouldn’t be a major upset. But that didn’t stop Sonics fans from thinking the series was theirs.
After one game, that line of thinking seemed to make sense. Behind a balanced scoring effort and some of their best defense of the season, the Sonics cruised to a 96-71 victory and were one-third of the way to getting the playoff monkey off their backs. Game two was played on a Saturday afternoon, and the Lakers came out revitalized and ready to even the series. They led most of the way before things went dark in the fourth quarter -- literally, not figuratively. The lights at the Tacoma Dome went out, leading to a half-hour stoppage that killed any momentum the game had prior. Los Angeles came back and took care of business, holding down during the closing moments for an 84-82 victory that gave them home-court advantage.
The Sonics were teetering on the brink of disaster again. On Monday night, Kemp’s 30-point, 11-rebound effort was not enough. The Lakers won again as the came went down to the wire, a 105-101 victory putting them one win away from giving the Sonics another unwanted early summer vacation. Seattle came out playing hard for pride in game four, but they were starting to run out of gas. They were certainly never out of the game, but the Lakers won their third straight close game, 114-110. And just like that, the Sonics were finished again.
Losing to the Lakers might have been worse than the Sonics’ upset by Denver, because nobody could say it was a fluke. While Seattle easily outscored L.A. for the series, the fact was that the Lakers were the better team when they matched up, dominating the Sonics in regular-season and post-season play.
The same trinity that had received the majority of the credit when the Sonics ascended to the Western Conference elite -- Karl, Payton, and Kemp -- now became anti-heroes. Karl couldn’t control his team or get the job done in the playoffs, while Payton and Kemp were too immature to be champions. Karl was quite possibly gone, Gill, Cartwright, and Marciulionis had surely played their last games as Sonics, and nobody quite knew what to think about the rest of the roster. Changes would certainly be made.
1994-95 roster
| # | Name | Position | College |
| 10 | Nate McMillan | Guard/Forward | North Carolina State |
| 11 | Detlef Schrempf | Small Forward | Washington |
| 13 | Kendall Gill | Shooting Guard | Illinois |
| 14 | Sam Perkins | Center/Forward | North Carolina |
| 17 | Vincent Askew | Forward/Guard | Memphis State |
| 20 | Gary Payton | Point Guard | Oregon State |
| 21 | Byron Houston | Forward | Oklahoma State |
| 24 | Bill Cartwright | Center | San Francisco |
| 30 | Sarunas Marciulionis | Shooting Guard | None (Lithuania) |
| 34 | Dontonio Wingfield | Power Forward | Cincinnati |
| 40 | Shawn Kemp | Power Forward | Trinity Valley JC |
| 45 | Rich King | Center | Nebraska |
| 50 | Ervin Johnson | Center | New Orleans |
| 55 | Steve Scheffler | Power Forward | Purdue |
coaches/front office
| Head Coach: George Karl | |
| Assistant Coaches: Dwane Casey | |
| Terry Stotts | |
| Bob Weiss | |
| President/GM: | Wally Walker |
