Movie Review: SonicsGate

This is a heart-wrenching documentary about the Seattle Sonics getting relocated to Oklahoma City. I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this film. It is a bit dry and long but I don't mind those type of films. For the short attention span people, it may bore you to death. There is a lot of lawyer speak and passionate fans expressing themselves in angry and emotional ways.

It started out with a short history which I found interesting. I remembered Kemp, Payton, Schrempf, and George Karl, but learning about Lenny Wilkins, Spencer Haywood, Jack Sikma, Tom Chambers and the other old schoolers improved my overall basketball history knowledge. Where else can you learn about these guys without having seen them first-hand? We find out about the Sonics early championship, and the passion of the sports town. They tell the story behind the incompetent and dishonest ownership groups buying and selling the team.

We find out that Key Arena is not very functional for the NBA business model. With Key Arena not being able to generate revenue to make a profit, even if it were operating at max capacity every night, and the tax payers not wanting to pay for a new arena, the relocation topic becomes almost unavoidable. So the team gets sold to a group from Oklahoma City, with no investors from Seattle in the group, and the former ownership is surprised that the team may be relocated. Hmmmmmm, who would have thunk that?

But the new owner of the Sonics gets caught in a web of lies that basically show the city that he had no intentions of keeping the team in Seattle. He then tries to lie his way out of those lies, which almost never works (especially for me, personally). This leads to court case in which Seattle is trying to keep the team due to the new ownership being full of shit.

This is where one of the real losers of the film steps in. The Mayor of Seattle comes to the rescue of the city. Then he gets promptly turned into the goat (not G.O.A.T.) of the film. He championed the people until a few bucks for the city were waved in his face. Before a verdict was reached in the court case, the mayor settles the case out of court for money for the city. Some people on the documentary think that it was possible the team could have remained in Seattle after the verdict. I'm not so convinced this was the case.

The film also tends to paint David Stern as a prick. It just seems like sour grapes. Just because he wasn't behind the effort for the Seattle to keep their faulty business model, they clip together a bunch of scenes that make him look grumpy and unsympathetic.

Overall, I would recommend the film. I don't have too many other documentaries to compare it to, but I'll give it 4 of 5 stars. The length of the film (2:00) could turn some people off, but my advice is: if it looks interesting to you, give it a shot.

Here is the film in it's entirety

How Filthy? Tom Chambers Edition

How filthy is inspired to take a look at some recent players at their finest hour in the NBA. Too often I tend to remember athletes as the aged veteran or wounded star. How Filthy? will focus on the prime cut of meat from a players career. Like Larry Bird said in 1986, "All I know is people tend to forget how great the older great players were. It'll happen that way with me, too." Let's not let that happen. Let's remember just how filthy these players were.

Most people remember Tom Chambers as a dunking machine. He was also the league's first unrestricted free agent, switching from the Seattle Sonics to the Phoenix Suns. I find this interesting due to the recent circus of free agency were going through. Chambers was drafted 8th overall in 1981 by the San Diego Clippers out of Utah after averaging 18.5 points as a senior.

Chambers was a four time all-star, and even won the All-Star Game MVP in his first appearance during the 1986-87 season. Despite his reputation of being selfish (his teammates were pretty outspoken about this), he and Kevin Johnson formed a near unstoppable duo with the Suns. Check out some of their chemistry together.



Tom's best statistical season came during his second year in Phoenix during the '89-90 campaign. He scored 27.2 points per game (4th in the league) and grabbed 7 rebounds a game, while shooting over 50% from the field. Teaming with Kurt Rambis inside, the Suns had one of the more goofy looking front courts in NBA history. During the 1990 season Tom had games of 56 and 60 points. Here is footage of the 60 point game against his former team, The Sonics.



Here is a few of his huge dunks




So how filthy is Chambers? 2/5 trash cans of filth