Former Seattle SuperSonics HOF’er, Spencer Haywood says Seattle ‘desperately needs a team’

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Spencer Haywood

Spencer Haywood checks in with Scoop B Radio’s Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson and discusses Seattle Sonics. Press Play Below To Listen!

Unless you’ve lived under a rock, the Oklahoma City Thunder were once the Seattle SuperSonics.

Winners of the 1979 NBA Finals, the Sonics, have had some memorable squads and memorable players.

You do know that Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were once members of the Sonics right?

Add names like Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Detlef Schrempf, Lenny Wilkens, Ray Allen, Xavier McDaniel, Slick Watts and Jack Sikma to the list and you’ve got yourself a notable alumni of former Seattle SuperSonics.

Despite the rich history of the Sonics, which includes their ‘79 NBA Championship, three Western Conference titles and six divisional titles, they bolted and relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008 and became the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Seattle hasn’t had a professional hoops team to call their own for ten years!

NBA Hall of Famer, Spencer Haywood played for the Sonics from 1970-1975. He’d like to see Seattle get a new team. “We desperately need a team there,” Spencer Haywood told me on Scoop B Radio.

“I was there from the beginning when Seattle was very new and everything started in 1967 and I got there in 1970 and what happened was people in Seattle because they are the highest educated group there in Seattle they became very analytical instead of thinking with emotion they keep messing up on getting a new arena. They have the money to do it and the NBA wants to put a team back there and we keep scrumming around over little things and we got to pull the strings and make it happen.”

Haywood notably brought down the NBA’s rule banning the drafting or signing of a player before his college class graduated. Haywood also challenged the NBA’s four-year rule, eventually winning a U.S. Supreme Court decision 7-2 in March 1971.

Post career, Haywood has been vocal about the city of Seattle getting a new team.”The people don’t know their history,” he said.

“Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp and all the guys some of whom live in Seattle all agree that we desperately need a new team.”

Added Haywood:

“We didn’t protect our turf and allowed them to come in and steal our team and they don’t have nothing to do with us. They can’t say my name or Gary Payton’s name or anything in Oklahoma they want to create this idea that they created that franchise but there was some thievery involved.”

So what would it take for Seattle to get a team?

“We thought we had Sacramento because we bid $30 Million more for the franchise,” said Haywood.

“But they kept it in Sacramento and Kevin Johnson got a new arena built there and there are several teams trying to weasel their way into Seattle.”

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