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Seattle SuperSonics: 9 stars you forgot played for the Sonics

By Luke Duffy

Seattle SuperSonics' Patrick Ewing (L) battles with former teammate Larry Johnson (R) for a rebound in the first quarter at Madison Square Garden in New York 27 February 2001. Ewing, who was traded from the Knicks to Seattle in the off-season, was making his first visit to New York since the trade. AFP PHOTO Henny Ray ABRAMS (Photo by HENNY RAY ABRAMS / AFP) (Photo credit should read HENNY RAY ABRAMS/AFP via Getty Images)
Seattle SuperSonics' Patrick Ewing (L) battles with former teammate Larry Johnson (R) for a rebound in the first quarter at Madison Square Garden in New York 27 February 2001. Ewing, who was traded from the Knicks to Seattle in the off-season, was making his first visit to New York since the trade. AFP PHOTO Henny Ray ABRAMS (Photo by HENNY RAY ABRAMS / AFP) (Photo credit should read HENNY RAY ABRAMS/AFP via Getty Images) /
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(Photo credit should read DAN LEVINE/AFP via Getty Images) /

2. Patrick Ewing

How was it that a Knicks icon wound up playing for the SuperSonics after 15 years in New York? Patrick Ewing would spend only one season in Seattle, before an even worse stint with the Orlando Magic that brought a curtain down on his career. It isn’t very nice to point out when a player’s body has broken down and they are hanging on in the league, but that was Ewing at this point.

Despite this, he still managed 26.9 minutes per contest in the 2000-01 season, and incredibly started all 79 of the games that he did play. Unfortunately, the numbers, 9.6 points and 7.4 rebounds, were worlds away from the kinds of numbers that had made him an 11-time All-Star prior to this.

This was the definition of a funky roster, with Ewing playing alongside Baker, Lewis, Payton, Barry and Shammond Williams. To Ewing’s credit, however, the team did go 41-41, and although they didn’t make the playoffs there were more competitive than they probably should have been. Having a 38-year-old center on his last legs didn’t help the cause.

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It is curious why Ewing didn’t try and extend his range as he got older, if only because he had shown earlier in his career that he was at least capable of making the odd long-range effort. The league wasn’t there yet of course, and Ewing did love banging in the paint (which was likely to his detriment at the end of his career).

But centers weren’t taking 3-pointers in the early 90s either, and Ewing would take 122 while with the Knicks. Despite this, he was a veteran presence on a team that was coming down from the highs of their own finals run five years earlier, that was in need of direction. For one strange season, Ewing helped to provide a lot of that.