Uninterrupted - The Real Stories of Basketball Episode 1
Uninterrupted - The Real Stories of Basketball Episode 1
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TVTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 The 1996 NBA season marked the pinnacle
00:09 of a pair of the most dominant teammates in NBA history.
00:13 They were a cultural phenomenon.
00:16 From a standpoint of how basketball was being played,
00:19 at that time, at that moment, we were definitely
00:22 a championship basketball team.
00:24 The Peyton and Kemp dynamic, that was just--
00:28 you couldn't top that.
00:29 Led by the Rain Man and the Glove.
00:32 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:34 I throw it this way, I throw it this way, and he'll go get it.
00:37 To Gary.
00:38 Oh!
00:39 Oh, the Tomahawk there from the Rain Man.
00:42 Me and Gary realized that we wanted to win so bad.
00:45 I thought he was messing up, I'd get on him.
00:47 When he thought I was messing up, he would be in my face.
00:51 And it just started the chemistry,
00:53 and then we started being that dynamic duo.
00:57 You're on this high, you achieved everything
01:00 that you want to achieve.
01:02 You're going to the championship.
01:04 Gary Peyton and Sean Kemp.
01:07 Don't get dunked on by Sean Kemp,
01:10 and don't listen to Gary Peyton talk noisy.
01:12 [INAUDIBLE]
01:14 I can only imagine what they would have been in today's game
01:17 with social media.
01:19 That is a brilliant basketball player.
01:21 That is professional basketball at its best.
01:24 When you think of the Sonics, you think of Gary Peyton
01:25 and Sean Kemp for sure.
01:27 This is the story of how Hall of Famer Gary Peyton
01:30 and six-time all-star Sean Kemp created a lasting brotherhood
01:34 in the Pacific Northwest and became
01:36 one of the most popular dynamic duos of the '90s.
01:39 Sean Kemp, Gary Peyton, tag team champions of the world.
01:44 Full on.
01:45 In my eyes, nobody could compete with that duo.
01:48 Legendary players, iconic teams, and epic moments
01:55 in hoop's history that changed the culture forever.
01:59 Journey into the heart and soul of the game,
02:01 both on and off the court.
02:03 This is Uninterrupted, the real stories of basketball.
02:08 In 1989, the NBA broadcast its draft for the very first time.
02:13 And many Seattle fans watching at home
02:15 are stunned when their beloved Supersonics
02:18 use their first round pick to select
02:20 a 19-year-old community college freshman named Sean Kemp.
02:25 When I heard about Sean Kemp coming to the Sonics,
02:27 my first reaction was, who?
02:30 And I'm thinking, man, I don't know.
02:33 Is this guy, like, going to pan out?
02:36 Once I got drafted, I realized I had to go to work pretty fast.
02:39 I'm Sean Kemp.
02:44 Got drafted 17th pick 1989.
02:47 Coming from high school and then you go into the NBA,
02:50 it's a pretty big deal.
02:51 No one had done that in a number of years
02:53 since Moses Malone, I believe.
02:56 Here's Kemp.
02:57 Kemp is joining a Supersonics team whose glory
03:01 years are in the distant past.
03:04 First joining the NBA as a franchise team in 1967.
03:09 The Sonics were the first pro team to come to Seattle.
03:13 And therefore, it was like, we're getting to the big time.
03:17 Slowly but surely, we're getting to the big time.
03:20 I'm Steve Kelly.
03:21 I'm a sports journalist.
03:23 And I covered the Sonics up here.
03:26 After a slow start, the team eventually
03:29 wins their first NBA championship in 1979
03:32 under coach Lenny Wilkins and the guard duo of Dennis
03:35 Johnson and Gus Williams.
03:37 The Supersonics spend the next decade
03:41 trying to reclaim their glory.
03:43 In the early '80s and then onward for quite a while,
03:47 the Sonics were in a downturn.
03:49 Now, the pressure was on a 6'10" teenager
03:52 who never played a minute of college basketball
03:54 to turn it all around.
03:56 Kemp comes off the bench as a rookie,
03:58 averaging almost 14 minutes a game in 1989.
04:02 You got to realize you're facing these guys at 27, 30 years old.
04:06 These guys are not really ready to give up
04:08 these contracts and these jobs.
04:10 It's not that easy.
04:11 But fans and players can already see his future
04:15 as both a starter and a huge impact player
04:18 for the Supersonics.
04:19 Once he got on the court, he just took over.
04:23 First time I saw the man dunk, I was sold.
04:28 Each and every game, he was going to put on a show.
04:31 My name is Isaiah Thomas, born and raised
04:34 from Tacoma, Washington.
04:36 11-year NBA vet, two-time NBA All-Star.
04:40 He was going to have the charisma, the energy,
04:43 the stuff that I guess coaches and people in the basketball
04:45 world say don't do after you.
04:48 You know, make a big play.
04:49 He was always celebrating, putting a little swag
04:53 on anything that he's done.
04:56 So I seen a lot of the ability of Sean.
04:59 And I said, he's just a freak of nature.
05:02 And I wanted to play with him.
05:04 And when the Sonics ask Sean to check out a talkative guard
05:08 playing for the Oregon State Beavers named Gary Payton,
05:11 the desire to play together becomes mutual.
05:15 Sean watches as Gary cuts up the opposing team,
05:18 scoring at will with a cocky attitude
05:20 that invigorates the crowd.
05:22 See, Gary scored 50 points.
05:24 And I see this guy, he's out there
05:26 yelling at the whole crowd.
05:27 He talked crap to every member on their team, the coaching
05:30 staff, and everything.
05:33 We played against each other a few times.
05:36 I am Detlef Schrempf.
05:37 I played for the Sonics '93 through '99.
05:41 Gary Payton was all over the court.
05:43 I handled the ball a lot, so he came over and always talked.
05:46 So we had our exchanges.
05:49 You go in there talking a lot of trash, a lot of smack talk,
05:53 you would have to back it up.
05:54 And that's what I had to do.
05:56 I had to fight my way out of playing basketball.
05:58 And when I did that, people gained respect from me.
06:01 Well, my name is Gary Payton.
06:06 I played for the Seattle Supersonics for 13 years.
06:10 I really fell in love with his game, his attitude,
06:12 and everything.
06:13 But I didn't know if we were going to really
06:14 have a shot to draft him.
06:15 So when things fell in place, when they finally called me
06:18 and said, we got the number two pick, I was ecstatic.
06:21 With the second pick in the 1990 NBA draft,
06:25 the Seattle Supersonics select Gary Payton from Argonne State.
06:29 There is Gary Payton.
06:33 He is 6'4".
06:34 He is an excellent guard.
06:37 First thing I made was a call to John.
06:40 I said, look here.
06:41 We can be two great basketball players.
06:44 We can make each other better.
06:45 He said, as soon as you get here, we're going to do it.
06:49 Once Gary joined the ranks, it was--
06:52 I mean, teams didn't know what to do.
06:56 Their chemistry was so good.
06:57 You could tell they didn't rehearse anything.
06:59 Like, Gary would just throw the ball up.
07:01 And Sean would come out of thin air
07:03 and bring it home with a thunder.
07:04 My name is Jamal Crawford.
07:08 I was born in Seattle, Washington.
07:10 I played 20 years as a point guard.
07:14 We're at the South Center Mall in Seattle.
07:16 Myself, Dave, and my friend Will Conroy.
07:20 And Gary's with all his friends.
07:22 And us three, we walk up to him.
07:23 I'm like, wow, that's Gary Payton.
07:25 And he goes down the line of us three.
07:27 And he tells Dave, I already beat you at my camp.
07:32 He moves him to the side.
07:33 He goes to Will.
07:34 You're trash.
07:35 I already beat you at my camp.
07:37 Then I'm last, of course.
07:39 And he looks at me and he lights me up.
07:41 He said, and you, you come see me.
07:44 Because I'm hearing about all these moves.
07:46 You're doing all these tricks you're doing.
07:47 You can do this and that.
07:49 We're going to play one on one.
07:51 And if you beat me, I'll give you a million dollars.
07:54 But if I beat you, you got to walk around your neighborhood
07:57 naked, and I'm going to drive around in one of my trucks.
08:01 And that was my introduction to GP.
08:03 And then him being a big brother and being respectful,
08:07 he actually came and saw me play a high school game.
08:10 Gary was establishing himself as one of the toughest
08:13 guards in the league.
08:15 I learned the hard way when I talked a little trash to him
08:20 when Dallas was playing Seattle.
08:23 I told him to get that out of here.
08:24 I blocked his shot, and he looked back.
08:27 And I thought, oh, man, I woke up the monster.
08:29 And he proceeds to go on like a 15-0 run.
08:32 And I apologized to my teammates after the game
08:35 that we lost that game because I said something to Gary.
08:38 When you wake up the monster, man, it's no stopping him.
08:42 Every guard that grew up here wanted to emulate Gary Payne,
08:46 wanted to emulate the trash talking,
08:48 wanted to emulate just his presence
08:51 overall on the basketball floor.
08:52 He didn't back down from anybody, and especially me.
08:55 My whole thing growing up, I'm not
08:57 going to back down from anybody.
08:58 I'm the smallest guy on the floor.
08:59 I'm going to talk the most junk.
09:01 It was like I wanted to be Gary Payne knowing I wouldn't be 6'
09:04 4", but knowing I can play with the energy and effort he
09:07 played with.
09:08 And most importantly, I got my trash talking game
09:10 from Gary Payne.
09:12 Hey, I can do anything I want out of here, boy.
09:16 Anything, boy.
09:17 Gary Payne was a good teammate.
09:18 We had a lot of interesting discussions.
09:22 Gary didn't really want to practice that much.
09:24 So every practice was a heated discussion about him
09:28 stepping on the court to join practice
09:31 because he was sitting on the sideline commentating
09:34 and talking trash.
09:35 We usually got him out about halfway through
09:37 when he ended up practicing.
09:38 But it was literally every day.
09:40 And thinking back, it was kind of crazy.
09:42 But it was a lot of fun.
09:45 You had these two guys that were just so in sync.
09:48 I think they were the best tandem throughout that era.
09:51 I told him, look, every time you know
09:54 that I'm going after the ball, sprint.
09:57 Just take off.
09:58 Don't wait for nothing.
09:59 Don't look.
10:00 You know I'm going to get you the ball.
10:03 Man, it was peanut butter and jelly time every time.
10:06 I mean, it's just poetry in motion.
10:09 Seattle fans are witnessing an exciting evolution
10:11 of pro basketball, a frenetic style where players
10:14 fly towards the basket and attack the ball,
10:17 especially against players like three-time All-Star Kevin
10:20 Johnson, earning Payne the nickname "The Glove."
10:25 And I said, why are they calling me "The Glove?"
10:27 They say, because you got Kevin Johnson.
10:29 You smothering him just like a glove.
10:32 And next you know, I got one of the best nicknames
10:34 ever in basketball.
10:36 And the athleticism of Kemp's dunks
10:38 has fans calling him--
10:40 The Rain Man.
10:43 Well, The Rain Man came on.
10:44 We were doing a poster.
10:47 And a guy just came out there and said,
10:50 we're going to call you The Rain Man.
10:52 Yes, because you rain out of the sky with dunks.
10:54 So all you do is dunk it.
11:00 And at first I was like, no, I really didn't like it.
11:03 But I was actually-- I fell asleep that night.
11:05 And I woke up like in the middle of the night.
11:06 And I was like, you know, Rain Man, Rain Man.
11:09 And then it really hit me.
11:11 And I said, you know what?
11:12 I'm going to take it on.
11:14 And he was like, man, I like that.
11:17 Sean Kemp, The Rain Man.
11:19 The game that we played in was so physical.
11:23 Me and Gary had the force, the power.
11:26 He would know if I'm pressuring somebody
11:29 and I'm making him put the ball up and they're going to throw it,
11:31 he can get a steal.
11:33 And that's how it started to become
11:35 a chemistry between us two.
11:38 They were so much fun to watch.
11:39 He and Gary Payton brought this team back.
11:43 Those '90s years were--
11:45 it was a blast.
11:48 Fans just kept coming.
11:50 In 1991, the Sonics had the fans.
11:54 They had The Rain Man and The Glove.
11:56 They were yet to achieve success.
11:59 So the owners gave the duo an open door,
12:01 and Kemp and Payton walked through.
12:03 The owner decided to pull me and Sean in
12:07 and ask us what did we want.
12:09 Never happened with young players like that.
12:12 But in 1992, it did.
12:15 The coach that we had at the time at KC Jones
12:18 was not our type of coach.
12:19 So we needed a change.
12:25 At the start of the 1991-92 season,
12:28 fans in Seattle believe their newly revamped Supersonics
12:31 will take them to basketball nirvana.
12:34 But after a mediocre '18 and '18 start,
12:37 the team looks for new coaching leadership.
12:40 My name is George Matthew Carl.
12:44 I played two years in the NBA with the San Antonio Spurs.
12:48 The pesky George Carl.
12:49 And I've coached now 1,999 games in the NBA.
12:56 George Carl's journey has brought him to Spain,
12:58 where he is coaching Real Madrid
13:00 and the La Liga ACB Spanish Basketball League.
13:04 Get a phone call from my agent, Warren LeGarry.
13:08 And he says, "Seattle wants you to come back
13:12 and be an assistant coach for KC Jones."
13:17 And he's told me the money.
13:19 And would I be interested?
13:21 Well, the money was one half of what I was making in Madrid.
13:25 And the Madrid money was tax-free.
13:27 And so I had to take a major pay cut.
13:29 But my family and I talked about it.
13:31 And I said, "I will do it if KC Jones will call me
13:35 and say he wants me."
13:38 KC Jones didn't want me.
13:40 I don't hold that against KC.
13:42 I don't know KC very well.
13:45 And I thought, "It was OK.
13:46 That's just the destiny of basketball."
13:50 They were losing a lot.
13:52 They go on to fire KC.
13:55 And about a week later, they call,
13:58 "Would you want to be their coach?"
14:01 And they offered me the job.
14:04 I still was taking a pay cut to come back as their coach.
14:07 For Carl, it's a homecoming, back to the USA and the NBA.
14:12 I leave Spain with my family.
14:15 I'm going back to Seattle.
14:17 I'm thinking I'm going to have to sign a contract.
14:19 I don't know when I'm going to coach.
14:21 My flight gets delayed in Dallas.
14:24 I get into Seattle like midnight.
14:28 And Woodson leaves me a message that, "Hey,
14:30 we'll meet for breakfast at 7 o'clock next morning."
14:33 I go to breakfast.
14:35 We sit and talk.
14:37 And he said, "Well, are you ready to go to practice?"
14:40 And I said, "I'm coaching tonight?"
14:45 He said, "Yep.
14:46 We got a shooter on here in about a half hour."
14:49 I didn't even think that was a possibility, to be honest with you.
14:52 I thought, well, I'll take a day or two to figure this all out.
14:56 Well, you know, when I'm in Spain,
15:00 I was yelling things from the bench in Spanish a lot.
15:06 Well, in these games, I'm going, "Row, row, row," which is red,
15:10 which is the defense that we were in.
15:12 Or, "Combio, combio."
15:13 So I'm using Spanish throughout my words.
15:17 And I'm going, "Oh, God, these guys must think I'm [BLEEP] crazy."
15:21 But, you know, very quickly, I realized that they were underachieving.
15:26 They weren't playing as well as they should have played.
15:29 George Carl was a blessing to Seattle.
15:32 He brought this team together, put the pieces in place,
15:36 and it was so much fun to watch.
15:41 Just a great guy, a competitor, and will say anything to light you up
15:45 during the course of battle.
15:48 You have to be willing to accept these things to make yourself better
15:52 and allow yourself to be coached by him.
15:55 Made me a better person and absolutely a better player.
15:59 Sean Kemp, I remember benching him very early in my time there.
16:02 Didn't like coming on time.
16:05 And Sean and I had a lot of good conversations about that later on.
16:09 He was one of the more special athletes of all time.
16:13 Of all my guys I've ever coached, Sean is the most athletic guy.
16:18 He's fast as hell, and he can jump out of the building.
16:21 Gary was a little different, rebellious, rough, and rude at times.
16:31 There was a lot of anger between Gary and I that my coaching staff
16:35 was worried about.
16:38 I remember sitting in a meeting, yelling and screaming about,
16:41 "I can't stand what Gary is doing.
16:44 Why can't we get him to do this or that?"
16:48 And one of my assistants mumbles, "You know, he's a lot like you, coach."
16:54 I said, "What?"
16:56 And I realized if you think about it deep down inside, he was right.
17:01 What makes us go is very similar.
17:05 But they didn't have a lot of offensive flow, a lot of offensive rhythm to them.
17:10 And I think that's probably what had helped them with me as much as anything,
17:14 allowing them more freedom to be who they want to be.
17:20 They didn't really come together until we made the two trays
17:23 that turned us around.
17:25 George Cole brought in Sam Perkins, Deadless Shrimp.
17:30 And when that happened, we start playing like the Seattle
17:33 Supersonics that we needed to.
17:36 Well, when I got traded to Seattle, it was a surprise.
17:40 It was quite shocking.
17:41 I got there a day before the season started in '93.
17:46 And they had some success the year before.
17:49 I lost in the playoffs, I think, fairly early.
17:52 And they wanted some veteran leadership.
17:54 So I came into a fairly young team, started the next day,
17:58 didn't know most of the plays, and had a great season with some turmoil.
18:03 But we had a pretty different approach to how we played than most of the league.
18:09 The attitude that we played with was very entertaining for people to see.
18:13 We were a very physical team.
18:16 We practiced extremely hard.
18:18 Sometimes our practices were harder than the games.
18:21 Fans, always the sixth man in Seattle, began packing into the center coliseum.
18:27 And Kemp and Payton's jerseys become two of the league's best sellers.
18:32 It's a new and improved brand of Supersonics basketball.
18:37 We did a lot of switching and fronting the post,
18:41 and double teaming and rotating.
18:43 Got in the way with the walk.
18:44 Yes, he did.
18:44 Look at that block by Kemp.
18:46 You know, at that time, it was such a physical league.
18:48 We was definitely one of those teams that will fight you.
18:51 I mean, big time volleyball right there.
18:53 Chaos.
18:55 We created chaos, mismatches.
18:57 We scrambled a lot and scared people.
18:59 We sometimes were up 20 points in the first quarter on teams,
19:03 and it was just a cakewalk.
19:05 We won a lot of games.
19:07 I think we're very aggressive, and we always go at them
19:10 and try to cause problems.
19:12 Because we didn't want other teams to get comfortable,
19:15 and we didn't want the best players to have control over the ball.
19:19 Other coaches would say that we fouled them a lot,
19:21 but I thought we played some pretty good defense.
19:26 After Carl takes over, the Sonics finish out the season 27 and 15,
19:31 then losing this semifinals to a team that
19:33 will become their perennial rival, the Utah Jazz,
19:37 led by Carl "The Mailman" Malone and John Stockton.
19:40 At this time, you got to remember, there was a lot of rivals,
19:49 but it was only one king rival.
19:51 We wasn't fearful of much, but we always
19:54 knew the day Utah team was going to be a tough one to beat.
19:58 For me, personally, I just knew that going through Carl Malone,
20:01 it was going to be a tough challenge for me.
20:03 It was so much things I had to work on.
20:06 We owe Carl Malone and John Stockton a lot.
20:08 They took us to school.
20:10 John Stockton, he's their glue.
20:13 Like, I was our glue.
20:14 I looked up to him and changed my whole game to him.
20:18 He doesn't do nothing flashy.
20:20 He doesn't go through his legs.
20:22 He doesn't do all of that.
20:23 He knows the smart play.
20:25 When he sees somebody turn their head,
20:27 he'll go and make a steal.
20:28 634 to go, third quarter, Stockton, two men.
20:30 Carl Malone rushes inside.
20:33 Tons of pick and rolls, tons of screens,
20:35 tons of cross screens, back screens.
20:39 Very disciplined team on offense and defense.
20:41 They schooled us for so many years, broke us down,
20:47 made us go into the gym, and then really look at ourselves
20:51 physically and get stronger, mentally tougher.
20:54 I hired a strength and conditioning coach
21:00 because I thought we got beat up.
21:02 And I don't want to get beat up.
21:03 I want to be the aggressor.
21:04 People don't know this, but one of the years coming up,
21:07 George actually made us go in the summer and stay in Utah.
21:10 Just to play in the summer league,
21:15 just to embrace playing against these guys.
21:18 That's when I grew.
21:20 I grew to be Gary Payton.
21:22 And Gary Payton was the one I had to be, not the glove,
21:28 not the trash talker.
21:29 Because I couldn't beat him because he always
21:31 would outsmart me.
21:33 He would take charges, get me out the game,
21:35 let me only have 14 points, only play like 20 minutes
21:39 because I was in foul trouble.
21:40 People don't get this.
21:42 They never give him his due.
21:44 I idolize him to the day.
21:46 People know I let him introduce me in the Hall of Fame,
21:50 all of that.
21:53 People don't understand.
21:54 He didn't have a lot of points.
21:56 He had probably about 14,000, 15,000 points.
21:59 But he only averaged 12, 12 and became a Hall of Famer.
22:05 That's a basketball player to me.
22:08 They told us the true definition of the NBA game,
22:12 which is that you have to be mentally prepared just as well
22:14 as you are physically prepared.
22:16 I mean, a lot of years were him and John just
22:19 beat me and Gary up.
22:21 Sgt. Malone, to us, was the king of the NBA
22:24 playing the two-man game.
22:25 And that's what we wanted to become.
22:27 This physical, sometimes ragged, always dangerous
22:31 Supersonics team has been maturing and grabbing
22:34 attention of basketball fans across the country, who now
22:37 know Seattle is a basketball town.
22:40 We started a dynasty.
22:42 A lot of us started making an all-star team.
22:44 We started winning 50 games.
22:46 But the team continues to struggle in the playoffs.
22:49 In 1994, they entered the postseason
22:51 as the best in the West, with a great opportunity
22:54 to win it all.
22:55 But the Sonics become the first number one seed in NBA history
22:58 to lose in the first round.
23:00 We were up 3-0.
23:02 Got a little bit relaxed.
23:03 Didn't share the basketball as much as we should.
23:06 And once you start doing one or two of those main things that
23:09 got you there, it's really easy to lose.
23:12 All my memories at that point was just Tomo
23:15 laying on the ground celebrating.
23:18 The Sonics endured their second straight first round
23:20 playoff exit in 1995, when they lost to the Lakers.
23:24 Oh, that's the one.
23:25 Let him shoot.
23:26 Let him shoot.
23:27 Let him shoot.
23:28 It's over.
23:29 The Lakers win, ladies and gentlemen.
23:31 Panamonium at the Great Western Forum.
23:34 Listen.
23:34 I thought I was going to get fired.
23:37 I mean, I thought my career was over in Seattle.
23:41 And I was shocked when Wally Walker kept me.
23:45 And over that summer, I think we got angry.
23:51 We realized that we've thrown away our opportunity.
23:55 We knew that we were up there with the top of the teams.
23:58 You can prove it in that regular season.
24:00 But when the pressure time comes,
24:02 you really got to be able to perform.
24:04 But early in that training camp, I
24:06 realized there was a different attitude,
24:09 a more serious attitude.
24:11 We started to be who we supposed to be.
24:14 And then that's when Seattle took off on fire.
24:19 The team reaches exit velocity in the 1995-96 season,
24:23 burning through the regular season with a 64-18 record
24:27 and is the number one seed in the Western Conference.
24:30 Fans are convinced it's finally their time.
24:34 '95-'96 season has the same feeling
24:38 in the hearts of Seattle fans than the championships did.
24:42 It was a younger crowd, people with their first taste
24:44 of basketball success in this city.
24:48 We made it through the playoffs, struggled a bit
24:52 early on in Sacramento, but then swept Houston for nothing
24:56 and ended up playing Utah in the Western Conference finals.
24:59 We're always having problems with the Utah Jazz.
25:03 We could never get past them.
25:05 So look what happens.
25:08 We get to play them in the Western Conference finals
25:11 to go see who plays the Chicago Bulls.
25:12 With the best record in the NBA, the Bulls
25:18 sweep through the Eastern Conference finals
25:20 and sit waiting for the winner of another Sonic Jazz battle
25:23 to decide who will play for the NBA championship.
25:27 Played really well.
25:28 First four games, I think we were up 3-1.
25:31 And Utah did what Utah does.
25:33 They got into a slugfest.
25:35 [MUSIC PLAYING]
25:38 We're battling.
25:39 Everybody's hurt.
25:41 I'm hurt.
25:43 The Sonics lead the series early, 3-1.
25:46 But the Jazz fight back, winning the next two straight
25:49 with the series reaching a decisive game
25:51 seven at home in Seattle.
25:52 [MUSIC PLAYING]
25:57 1996 playoffs, the Western Conference championship game,
26:01 game seven against the Utah Jazz.
26:05 Oh boy, the rivalry.
26:07 The arena's at Seattle Center, and the fountains are going,
26:10 and it's warm.
26:12 Oh man, it was special.
26:14 It was big for us.
26:16 The key arena was smaller than most arenas,
26:18 but it was just so intimate.
26:20 It was so loud.
26:21 [CROWD CHEERING]
26:25 We had to step up to do it, get to the end of the game.
26:29 It's only about two minutes left, and it's tick for tack.
26:34 Tick for tack.
26:35 Going back and forth, people doing it.
26:38 Next thing you know, we get a break.
26:39 [CROWD CHEERING]
26:43 It's a battle between two competitive rivals coming down
26:46 to late in the fourth quarter with Kemp hitting four
26:48 straight free throws, keeping the Sonics' small lead alive.
26:51 [CROWD CHEERING]
26:54 With 8.2 seconds left, Malone makes his way
26:57 to the free throw line.
26:59 His first free throw misses off the back rim.
27:02 We'd count 1, 2, 3, all the way up to 10, 9, 8.
27:08 And Carmelon's flipping the ball and looking around.
27:10 I never understood why we did that,
27:14 but it always messed with his head.
27:15 All of a sudden, he started rushing some free throws.
27:18 The place would go crazy.
27:20 [CROWD CHEERING]
27:23 He missed them both.
27:24 It was one of those white noise type games.
27:27 You couldn't talk to the guy next to you,
27:29 and I just kind of sat back and took it all in.
27:34 You know, nut house time.
27:37 That building was loud for two and a half hours.
27:40 My ears were ringing and hurting because the noise was so loud.
27:46 The crowd was not going to let us lose that game.
27:50 When the smoke clears, it's the Supersonics still standing.
27:55 We beat them.
27:56 We go crazy.
27:58 We finally get over the hump.
28:01 We get over Carmelon.
28:04 I get over John Stockton.
28:06 And Seattle is heading back to the finals
28:08 for the first time since 1979.
28:12 You're going to the championship, but then you look,
28:15 and you realize who you got to go against.
28:18 [LAUGHS]
28:22 So that celebration is halted a little bit, man,
28:24 because you don't want to get too excited,
28:26 because you know that you've really got a tall order of work
28:30 ahead of you playing against the Bulls.
28:32 When I got in my locker room, and we
28:34 had the Western Conference Championship trophy,
28:37 and I just had to shed a tear, because I finally did it.
28:44 And I cried for a long time.
28:47 And me and Sean sat in the shower
28:49 for a long period of time.
28:51 We drank probably almost a case of beer.
28:55 And I just sat there, and I said, look, I done it.
28:58 I'm finally moved on to some other level.
29:02 For three years, we've been trying to get to the finals.
29:05 I think Chicago was sitting at home
29:07 after having swept somebody.
29:08 And we were bloody and a little worn out.
29:12 We had to get on the plane the next morning, fly to Chicago,
29:15 and play a day after.
29:16 That's how it was back then.
29:18 You didn't have three, four days off to recover and get
29:20 ready for the next series.
29:21 The NBA finals start in Chicago.
29:30 The Sonics drop the first two games to a reinvigorated Bulls.
29:33 We went to Chicago for the first two games,
29:39 and neither team played that well.
29:42 I think we played tired.
29:43 They played rusty.
29:45 Ended up being a four or five point game
29:47 until literally both games, the last few seconds,
29:50 the last minute where they ended up winning by 10.
29:53 Maybe it was a little bit of a hangover
29:55 coming off the Utah series.
29:58 They head home to Seattle, facing a must-win game three.
30:02 Awaiting Peyton and his teammates in Seattle
30:05 is their sixth man, the fans, including
30:08 the biggest one of them all.
30:10 Had this big, giant, stuffed red bull.
30:14 So I wrote big, white letters on it, "beat the Bulls."
30:18 My name is Lauren "Big Low" Sandretsky.
30:21 I've never really known how to answer the question,
30:24 why are you Seattle's biggest sports fan?
30:26 But 6 foot 8 and 300 plus pounds,
30:29 I guess that's part of the reason.
30:32 We were pretty excited.
30:34 Our fans were excited.
30:35 And we literally get destroyed.
30:36 We were playing not to lose, but not to win.
30:45 Back in those days, we had three games at home,
30:47 which is hard to win three games at home.
30:49 Time has run out.
30:51 The Bulls winning game three.
30:54 After losing game three in front of the home crowd,
30:57 the stage is set for one of the greatest
30:59 matchups in NBA history.
31:01 We're going to show these dudes what we were supposed to.
31:03 We beat them in a regular season.
31:05 That was one of the 10 losses that they had.
31:07 So we do like this.
31:08 I said, look here, man.
31:11 We just going to have to play.
31:14 Gary Peyton gets the green light to go after the Bulls
31:17 as the Sonics and their rabid fans
31:19 drive into game four of the series.
31:21 And them fans let Chicago Bulls know
31:23 that it ain't going to be easy in here.
31:25 We let them down in game three.
31:27 But we came back in game four and five and blew them out.
31:31 Came out and won the next two games convincingly.
31:35 Had a chance down 3-2 going back to Chicago.
31:45 But the championship series started
31:47 to take its toll on Seattle's beloved Supersonics.
31:50 I think Nate McMillan was hurt.
31:52 I think Gary had some health issues.
31:54 But you know, you really can't complain
31:55 in a championship series.
31:58 I was so tired in the inside.
32:00 I was hurt.
32:01 I had a torn calf muscle that I didn't know about.
32:04 But I was playing through it, through adrenaline
32:07 and emotions.
32:08 Of their second run.
32:11 I thought they had a chance going in for sure.
32:14 And they had all the momentum, I thought.
32:16 But Chicago was really good.
32:19 They played a brand of basketball
32:26 that was very difficult to beat.
32:30 We couldn't run.
32:31 We were out of gas.
32:32 Chicago had our number.
32:35 And we just couldn't score enough points.
32:38 You really just got to be there to perform.
32:39 And I think we were close.
32:41 But not close enough.
32:44 Losing in game six in the finals felt really bad.
32:48 Because you're there.
32:50 You're this close.
32:52 --earlier in the game.
32:53 And this is what the Seattle Batsmen
32:55 were planning to run.
32:56 But when we got back in the morning, what
33:00 made it feel better is we had thousands of fans waiting
33:03 for us at the airport.
33:05 As soon as we landed and walked off,
33:07 it was like we won a championship.
33:10 And that was the best feeling.
33:12 They took the Mighty Bulls in six games.
33:14 And for us, that was a win.
33:17 It felt like we won.
33:19 But what the fans and players don't know,
33:22 there's a lot more on the line in the 1996 NBA
33:24 finals than just a trophy, rings, and a banner.
33:29 In professional sports, it's about winning.
33:31 Winning is what sets everything up for you.
33:34 When I look back on that '95-'96 season,
33:39 it was the first time that Sean Kemp was in the spotlight.
33:43 And all of the good and all of the bad that comes from that.
33:48 Seattle management, hoping to elevate the good
33:51 by getting Kemp some help underneath,
33:53 ends up fueling the bad when they
33:54 sign a 7'1" center named Jim McIlvain to a $35 million
33:58 contract.
34:00 It reminds me of a line, "Sonics needed a center
34:02 in the worst case, and Jim McIlvain was
34:05 the center in the worst case."
34:07 It was terrible.
34:09 And he got more money than Sean.
34:12 And that affected Sean greatly.
34:16 I remember Sean was to be a free agent,
34:18 and he was not making the big money yet.
34:23 The new backup center, who averages
34:24 two points and three rebounds per game in '96,
34:27 will earn approximately $2 million
34:29 more than the four-time All-Star who just led the Sonics
34:32 in scoring and rebounding.
34:34 Kemp does his best to shrug it off.
34:36 If you're an All-Star, you want to be
34:39 compensated as an All-Star.
34:41 And you want to play beside All-Stars.
34:43 I had told him, we need to wait.
34:46 Just wait.
34:47 It's just right now, we can't do it in a budget.
34:50 But we can't break this up.
34:52 If we're going to try to make a dynasty
34:56 and do what the Chicago Bulls are doing and give us a chance,
35:00 we have to keep our pieces together.
35:03 Any time that you have a guy that
35:04 takes a team to a championship, and then you
35:07 start bringing guys in where you pay them more,
35:10 the team is sending a message.
35:13 And so Kemp sends a message of his own.
35:16 Sean missed a few days of training camp.
35:19 Did not hold out, but make a point.
35:23 Well, yeah, the wheels came off in 1997
35:26 when a key player gets unhappy.
35:30 And we start fighting with the upper management.
35:35 It's never a good thing.
35:38 And Sean wasn't happy.
35:40 Sean's not a combative guy.
35:42 He's a human being that wanted to be treated
35:44 with more appreciation.
35:46 All season long, there was always
35:47 an article about why did we sign this guy for this amount,
35:50 and why is Sean Kemp not getting paid?
35:54 I can't hate on the guy for getting his money.
35:58 But I can hate on the organization
36:02 for not respecting a person who did so much for you
36:06 for the last seven years.
36:08 I think bringing Jim McElbane in really
36:11 started the downward spiral.
36:13 Including reports in the press that Kemp
36:15 is abusing drugs and alcohol.
36:18 This week, Sean Kemp publicly addressed
36:20 the issue of his chronic lateness and irresponsibility.
36:23 He denied speculation that he had a drinking problem.
36:26 He said instead that he has been merely
36:28 frustrated by his own play.
36:31 I don't think drinking and substance abuse was a problem.
36:34 I believe that what was the problem
36:37 was that I was a bigger star than what I realized.
36:40 And I think that that's something
36:43 that I had to identify with.
36:45 He put on weight.
36:46 He didn't work out.
36:48 And then he just was late for everything.
36:51 I think I actually called him the late Sean Kemp one time.
36:54 You hated to see it because you knew what was there.
36:58 People ask me this question, man,
36:59 because it's important for people to know, man.
37:02 I came into the league at such a young age.
37:04 I know a lot of guys maybe struggle in some of those areas.
37:07 But I think for a person who really wanted to make
37:10 some changes with myself, obviously, I've
37:12 went in and got some help with some certain things.
37:15 Make the right changes.
37:16 I think that's what you do in life.
37:18 For the end of the '97 season, Kemp asked to be traded.
37:23 So our doom day came when they traded him,
37:27 because we gave away a piece to our dynasty, which
37:32 was the glove and the rain man.
37:35 Sean Kemp, who carried the hopes and dreams of the Seattle
37:38 Supersonic faithful on his 6'10" frame,
37:41 is traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers
37:43 in a $100 million deal.
37:46 Did I stand up for him?
37:48 Of course I did.
37:49 He wanted to be paid what he was worth.
37:52 And at that time, that's where the salaries
37:54 were growing, going big time.
37:56 And he just felt he wasn't being appreciated.
38:01 My heart was took away when that happened.
38:05 We went and got Vin Baker, heck of a basketball player.
38:09 But he wasn't like the rain man.
38:11 It was sad.
38:12 We had a core group.
38:13 We all got along well, played hard.
38:15 And we won a lot of games.
38:16 And that was no more.
38:18 Leaving the city definitely hurt myself.
38:21 It definitely hurt the team also.
38:23 But you want people to realize kind of what they lost.
38:26 And then I think that's what I was able to do.
38:30 When we lost Sean, it was just like, that was, to me,
38:32 that was the beginning of the end.
38:34 The Peyton and Kemp dynamic, that was just--
38:37 you couldn't top that.
38:40 With the departure of Sean Kemp, the unwinding of the dynasty
38:43 has begun.
38:44 And in 1997, after a conference semifinal loss to Houston,
38:49 coach George Karl is showing the door.
38:51 I was a part of building the team.
38:54 And it just seemed like the coaches were getting
38:57 the shorthand of the stick.
38:58 And I think they just got tired of me being an ass.
39:04 I'm proud that I went seven years in Seattle.
39:07 And I went six in Milwaukee.
39:09 And then eight and a half here in Denver.
39:12 I don't know if any coach has ever
39:14 done more than six years in three different spots.
39:17 I'm a tough guy, but you can get along with me
39:21 if you like winning.
39:24 In 1999, Detlef Schrepp found himself
39:27 released from the Sonics and immediately
39:29 signed to play with the Portland Trailblazers.
39:32 I was very surprised because I thought I was going
39:35 to finish my career in Seattle.
39:38 My kids had entered school, didn't
39:40 want to move somewhere else.
39:43 So I decided to go down to Portland, which I thought
39:45 I can go back and forth more often and see the family.
39:49 So I went to Portland for the next season.
39:53 The Sonics continued to unwind until 2003,
39:57 when the team does not make a new deal with Gary Payton,
40:00 the last connection to the 1996 Sonics Dream Team.
40:03 When you take me somewhere, say, yo, I'm going to pay you,
40:07 I'm going to do all of that, and then lie and say, no,
40:09 I ain't giving you nothing, yeah, I'm going to be mad.
40:12 Eventually, the salary negotiation grinds to a halt,
40:16 and the future Hall of Famer decides to leave Seattle.
40:19 So what am I supposed to do, just be loyal to you
40:22 and say, OK?
40:24 That don't make sense to me.
40:26 Whatever.
40:27 I can hold out for my money.
40:29 I deserve it.
40:29 The team could not come up with the capital
40:35 to meet Gary Payton's salary demands.
40:37 And on February 20 of 2003, he's traded away
40:41 from the Supersonics.
40:43 Our city's team was not the same group of guys.
40:46 Gary was gone.
40:47 Gary went to Milwaukee.
40:49 That was like the uppercut after the big old blow
40:51 to the face with Sean Kim.
40:54 All our components of the '90s team were heading out of town.
41:00 And so without the Sean and Gary show,
41:02 just didn't seem like a show anymore.
41:05 So a lot of fans, you know, they just jumped off.
41:08 When I left Seattle, I was in Cleveland.
41:11 You know, me and Gary was really still talking on the telephone,
41:15 like we do normally now.
41:16 It was the worst decision that me and him ever made
41:18 in our lives.
41:19 Because like a year and a half later, now he's with Milwaukee
41:22 and I'm in Cleveland.
41:23 All of a sudden, you was in a situation
41:25 where you were winning 80% of these games,
41:28 and now you rolled the dice.
41:29 And now you're winning 30% of these games.
41:32 And you realize that everybody involved
41:37 made the wrong decisions.
41:38 The afterglow and continued cultural force
41:43 of the iconic 1996 team inspired a talented crop
41:47 of future Pacific Northwest players
41:49 who would go on to play in the NBA.
41:52 Native sons like Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson, and Isaiah Thomas
41:57 have carried the torch into the new millennium
41:59 and created a new hotbed for future stars.
42:02 We have a great youth basketball program.
42:05 We see all the guys in the NBA that are from here.
42:08 Jamal Crawford's program would bring NBA superstars
42:11 to the city.
42:12 That was super huge for the city.
42:15 The current crossover league exists
42:17 because of the ripple effect of Gary Payne's mentorship.
42:20 What I learned from Gary was how that moment of giving
42:26 to the next generation can change a life,
42:28 because it changed mine.
42:30 And today, Seattle native and former NBA player Jamal
42:32 Crawford supersized his usual pro-am,
42:35 netting some of the biggest names in the sport.
42:37 LeBron shut down the city and literally shut down
42:41 the whole city.
42:42 The roar of the crowd for the crossover pro-am
42:45 wasn't coming from the bleacher Saturday.
42:47 Instead, it was coming from outside,
42:48 where more than 1,000 lined up for hours trying
42:51 to get in to see the game.
42:53 Current NBA ballers like DeJounte Murray and Paulo
42:55 Banchero are making Washingtonians proud.
42:58 This next generation of Hoopers are
42:59 proof that the legacy of the Supersonics' 1996 dream team
43:03 lives on.
43:05 Those guys in Seattle, to this day,
43:08 you would think they just played last year.
43:10 That's how popular Payton and Kemp are in Seattle.
43:13 We were good, man.
43:17 Not just an exciting team, but consistently,
43:19 we're able to win 50, 60 games every year that we played.
43:22 And that's tough to do in the NBA.
43:24 From 1990 to '97, '98, every time we stepped on the floor,
43:31 a Seattle Supersonics team came at you, and you couldn't win.
43:36 You couldn't beat us.
43:37 My feeling is it's a team that should have won a championship.
43:41 And I say that honestly to the fans of Seattle.
43:43 I wish we had gotten one.
43:45 But it will go down to be one of the best teams
43:49 never to win a championship.
43:52 We were definitely a championship basketball team.
43:57 [CHEERING]
44:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
44:04 [BLANK_AUDIO]