NBA Supersonics

Yes, there was Mount St. Helens in 1980. But there was another pretty impressive eruption in 1994.

That would be the one by Mount Mutombo.

Dikembe Mutombo's Denver Nuggets, the No. 8 seed in the West, stunned the top-seeded Seattle SuperSonics 3-2 in a first-round playoff series. Mutombo led the way by blocking 31 shots, the most ever for an NBA five-game series and his 6.2 average per game remains the highest ever for any series.

That series ended with the unforgettable image of the big center sprawled on the floor, holding the ball over his head in triumph and screaming with joy.

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Wednesday, there are 41 days remaining.

When Clay Bennett trucked his Sonics off to Oklahoma City in the summer of 2008, it was unprecedented. That an NBA team moved wasn't new -- that happens, unfortunately. But no team had ever left behind such a legacy. The Sonics left after 41 years in Seattle.

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

Former NBA All-Star Gary Payton became "The Glove" when he starred for the Seattle Suppersonics alongside Shawn 'The Rainman' Kemp and many other great players. But this coming NBA season will be the second year in a row that Seattle won't have an NBA team, leaving many fans disappointed.

In this exclusive FanHouse video, Payton tells us what he's doing to bring back an NBA team to the city he loves so much. We also ask Gary about his intensity as a player, which is rarely seen in today's NBA.

Check out the video after the jump.

Any basketball fan -- with the possible exception of those living in Oklahoma City -- can sympathize with the people in Seattle. After 41 seasons, the Sonics were unceremoniously ripped from the city, for a combination of reasons that still aren't a hundred percent clear, even more than a year after the fact.

That's where "Sonicsgate" comes in. This documentary film, set to be released online October 12, seeks to "expose the truth behind the SuperSonics' tragic exodus" from Seattle. Looks like it'll be some pretty compelling stuff, so check out the trailer after the jump.

FanHouse fixes a decade of draft-day blunders in Revisiting the NBA Draft.

Hard to believe that several NBA general managers can have regrets after two years, but it's true. The results of the 2007 NBA Draft are slowly reaping, which should teach a lesson to their 2009 brethren on Thursday about taking chances on raw college players, international prospects and even those who are allegedly "proven."

The biggest debate two years ago was whether the Portland Trail Blazers should take Greg Oden or Kevin Durant first overall. Oden was a franchise center out of Ohio State while Durant was the smooth scoring swingman from Texas. Durant had the better workout with the Blazers, apparently blowing the mind of coach Nate McMillan. Yet, the Blazers stuck with conventional thinking and took the big man.

FanHouse fixes a decade of draft-day blunders in Revisiting the NBA Draft.

It's hard to blame the Toronto Raptors for taking a 7-footer with 3-point range and the ability to play three positions. That's what Andrea Bargnani presented as the No. 1 pick. There was no clear-cut top choice. The 2006 NBA Draft was filled with unproven early entries, a couple of seasoned seniors and raw big men looking for a big payday.

So the Raptors took the player they thought had the best upside. Hey, the NBA Draft is about development these days, right? Nobody in this supposed weak draft was supposed to be an All-Star anyway, right? No one told that to Brandon Roy, who was passed up by five teams and traded by another. Finally, the Portland Trail Blazers, still ringing from a reputation of bad guys, car racers and dog fighters, had a franchise player in their hands, and he was from nearby Seattle.

While George Karl is on the verge of leading the Denver Nuggets to their biggest playoff victory since Dikembe Mutombo was seen clutching the ball on his back chanting "Yes! We win!" in leading Denver to a shocking first-round win over the Sonics in 1994, Karl's former NBA city may be without basketball for good.

When Oklahoma City Thunder chairman Clayton Bennett left Seattle without an NBA time after 41 years in July 2008, he promised to reward the city with $30 million if antiquated KeyArena was approved for refurbishing by the conclusion of 2009 and Seattle did not have a new team by 2013.

Even though the Oklahoma City Thunder just wrapped up its inaugural season, some old Sonics fans maintained hope in a return of the NBA to Seattle. If Seattle could find a way to get a new gym or refurbish KeyArena, the league has left open the potential for future expansion or relocation back to the city.

But a bill in the state legislature that would have secured a quarter of the costs for KeyArena renovation died last night. Local businessmen (led by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer) had pledged to augment the funds, which would have come from an otherwise expiring hotel/car rental tax, with enough to get Key up to snuff. The other portion of the funds, if the bill had passed, would have come from Seattle's Public Enemy No. 1: Clay Bennett.

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HEADLINER
Oklahoma City at Portland, 10PM ET

Either New York-Golden State made me cocky, or sometimes there's more than basketball that matters. Tonight, the Thunder visit Portland. And so will at least a smattering of Sonics fans. The world might be enjoying Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook all the same, but the ways things went down in Seattle cannot be replicated. I hope the Seattle contingent, paired with classy Blazers fans, can make that clear tonight.

One of the few current players vocal and active during Clay Bennett's franchisal flight to Oklahoma City was Seattle native Spencer Hawes, a youngster who grew up watching Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton. Hawes spoke out against the relocation of the Sonics, and even showed up to a major "Save Our Sonics" rally wearing a Payton jersey.

In his first pro game in Oklahoma City Sunday, Hawes let his friends back home in the Emerald City know they wouldn't be forgotten by wearing this Sonics green and gold suit, complete with a Space Needle tie.