Remember When?

-Column by AJ

Let’s take it wayyy back to April 1994. The Supersonics were riding the high of a 60-win season and the coveted #1 seed into a best-of-five with the Nuggets. Led by the young tandem of Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton and supported by a deep cast of role-players, they were eyeing this series as little more than a tune-up for upcoming battles against Western powerhouses San Antonio and most likely after that, Houston. After all, eighth seeds were little more than formalities; doormats for the best team in each conference to sweep aside. They said Denver would never win. They also said Darko was the next Dirk. Five games later, Seattle’s season was a thing of the past and Mutombo was keeled over, rolling around the Key Arena hardwood, overcome by a reality that couldn’t have been real. There was no way that the disparity between the top and bottom of the playoff picture could be disparaged like that, no way the best team in the league could be silenced this early. But this was a fluke, surely there was no way a #8 could do this again, let alone make a deep run into the playoffs. There was talk of a uniform series length, a seven-game first round; that would make it even harder on the lower seed, pretty much guarantee we’d never witness such humiliation again. God only knew what would come next, if one day we’d see a league where seeds meant nothing; one so competitive that this type of thing was happening all around us, a real fight for supremacy where playoff victories were far from guaranteed. It was too good to be true; equal parts enticing and improbable…

Fast-forward 14 years, witness the ’99 Knicks win their conference, the ’07 Warriors upend a 67-win team and consider the situation out West. The race for playoff spots is perhaps as tight as it’s ever been with perennial contenders Phoenix and Dallas holding down the six and seven spots and getting mixed results since their recent blockbusters. If ever there was a season for playoff upsets and Cinderella stories, this has to be it. The postseason’s taken on a whole new meaning in the Bestern Conference; it’s about to be a complete dogfight full of the most intense and competitive basketball most of us will have seen, almost enough of an apology for that other conference. Times’ve sure changed since the Sonics suffered that historic loss, and now as the playoff stretch run begins, all we have to do is enjoy the show. [Who got next? -Ed.]