Supersonics

I am the Sonics play-by-play announcer. WOW. I have checked all the papers and this site and my name is attached to that title. I am overwhelmed and humbled. It is really the culmination of every career dream and aspiration I have ever had. On top of that, working for a franchise I trust and believe in while living in the best city in USA awes me.

I am ecstatic to bring you Sonics action in 2006-07. How fun it is going to be to see the development of Robert Swift and Johan Petro? Does anyone have the dunk-o-meter ready for Chris Wilcox?

Watching a season develop is one of the great pleasures of being a play-by-play announcer. My last two seasons with the Seattle Storm are a great example. In 2004, I watched the making of a championship and then a year later, I watched a team struggle with the expectations and perception of what championship teams are supposed to achieve all while still equaling the franchise record for wins in a season.

Next season for the Sonics will be equally interesting. Can they use the strong finish to propel themselves into a great training camp? What will Bob Hill be able to achieve with an entire training camp? What does the brilliant Ray Allen have in store next? Can Chris Wilcox take the next step toward stardom?

These are things that are going to make the 2006-07 season terrific. I can’t wait to share it with you. Embarking on this job, I have a few philosophies that I want to share. I believe the old-school radio announcer that talks with the fans on only game days is a dinosaur. I am hoping our interaction can be ongoing. Basketball 365 is the goal. We will get ready for the Draft together, we will monitor the trade deadline, we will share road trips, I will take you to shootaround and practices and we will watch the rest of the league together.

This is the information age and the true Sonics fan can never get enough. We hope to cover every angle. Through the vehicle of SUPERSONICS.COM using blogs, audio blogs, podcasts, live webcasts and more, I hope to bring the coverage of the Sonics to a brand new pinnacle. We've already introduced some of these features on storm.wnba.com for the 2006 season, including my blog and the weekly StormCast with Kevin Pelton.

Locked on Sports had a popular following on 950 KJR and I hope we can integrate some of the best features into Locked on the Sonics at SUPERSONICS.COM.

Specific to the broadcast, we are going to take a deep look into what a radio play-by-play broadcast should look like in 2006. I believe that radio play-by-play was created in the 40s and nobody has changed the mold yet. Why should we be using a 1940 engine when we have the technology of 2006? Working by myself on the air will also give me more flexibility to try new things.

I am not sure how this will manifest itself. Maybe it will be subtle; maybe it will be obvious. How can we touch all of the nightly excitement of the NBA? How do we make the broadcast more interactive? What freedom does a solo broadcast give us? Those are all questions that I will delve into as the program director of Sonics and Storm Radio. Of course, I am welcome to all suggestions on how to make the most progressive and exciting broadcast in the NBA. You can e-mail those to sonicsconnection@sonics-storm.com.

Finally, thank you. Your support over the last eight years in Seattle has allowed me to live this dream. I feel like I am on a movie set and someone is about to tap me on the shoulder and say, "Sorry you aren’t cast to be the one living a dream. Here is your script." But until then, I look forward to sharing the journey with you and bringing you all the action both on and off the floor of Sonics basketball.

Go Supes!

David Locke
May 19, 2006

From Supersonics.com -

In time for the publication of Slick Watts's Tales from the Seattle SuperSonics, SUPERSONICS.COM sat down with the authors - Sonics legend Watts and The News Tribune beat writer Frank Hughes - to chat about the book and what readers can expect.

What was the process for getting the book started?
Hughes: The publishing company contacted me a year and a half ago, and they wanted to do something that involved the history of the Sonics. I took a look at who had not only a really good history of the Sonics but had the ability to tell a lot of stories, that had a sense of popularity. There were a lot of candidates, but I think Slick was the best. At the time, I knew Slick was popular, but I didn't realize until we actually got into the book how popular he was, because I didn't grow up here and I didn't really know the level at which he was a fan favorite. Then I was doing research for the book and I came across this thing on the Internet that went back through the '70s. Somebody actually wrote, 'If this guy ever does a book, you should buy it, because there will be some great stories in there.' It turned out there's some great stories in there.

Slick, was participating a natural for you when Frank asked you?
Slick: To me, at first, I didn't think it was so natural because it's something where you have to go back deep in your mind, remember some stories you want to forget. When you witness and go through the life that I've gone through, so many things take the place of other things. What I mean by that is I have friends down south that I actually have forgotten their names, because the mind can only hold so much. When you get real popular, other places and other names take their place and push so much out of your mind. I'm not on the scale of Muhammad Ali, but I can imagine him trying to remember something that happened to him 20 years ago, but so many things keep coming at you. You try to remember the important things or the highlights, and then you find out later on you remember that you forgot some things. It's a tough situation, but it's fun. I enjoyed it. I was reading it, and it took me for a ride. I told my wife, 'I wrote this with Frank, and I'm getting into it, trying to figure out what was next.' It's fun, yet it's difficult, but I have gone through a lot of things in life, a lot of good and bad. Like Frank said, if anyone from the Sonics past or the present was chosen to do this, I think I was the best choice for that reason. I know so many people and went through so many things. Sometimes, I wish I could sit down and talk to Frank on some more things, because it all starts coming back sometimes.

Hughes: You should have called me!

Did you remember things that maybe weren't something you had thought about in a long time?
Slick: Sometimes when you're talking to (Frank) and that day, a lot of things come up, and sometimes when you're driving around, more things come up. I think I should have had a tape recorder for when those things came. It's like when you have a speaking engagement. I would talk to myself like I planned to talk to the people. Once I got there, I didn't want to talk about what I had thought about, because I thought I was being repetitious. I forgot, didn't nobody hear me talk about it but myself. It's real tricky when you've got a whole lot of things on your mind. People were in and out of my life and events in and out of my life, so you try to pick the things that meant a lot to you.

Hughes: We did a series of interviews up at the Starbucks on Queen Anne Hill a bunch of mornings in the summer and into the season. Maybe the seventh or eighth time we'd met, he told me that he had played over in Italy and had some great stories from there. I said, 'Slick, why are you waiting for the seventh or eighth interview to tell me this?' He said, 'I forgot until this very moment.'

Slick: So many things happen to a person that didn't go to UCLA, didn't get the life that some of these kids get, but yet it happened and it happened so fast. I went from leading the league in steals and assists to Seafair Grand Marshall twice, Sports Star of the Year three times, all these things that some of the guys who played 15, 16 years didn't taste that type of glory. It was an accident, but it was a fun accident. That's what I always say.

Frank, what was the process like for you?
Hughes: I thought it was really good both because it was an experience I always wanted to do - I've always wanted to write a book - but also, I started covering the Sonics in 1997, so you kind of know the Sonics history from GP and the early '90s on. But you don't really get a sense of how the organization was instituted in 67-68 and everybody who was a part of the organization up to 1990.

I grew up in D.C., so I don't know the sporting history as well in Seattle, but just covering the team, it gave me a really good sense of how the organization came along and how it developed. It's not just a book about Slick and his playing days with the Sonics, it's about Slick and his relationship with Wilt Chamberlain, Slick and his relationship with Bill Russell, Bob Lanier, Reggie Jackson, Jesse Jackson, Muhammad Ali, and there's all these people Slick interacted with. The ones that I was able to interview, just in crossing paths with them and covering the league, I got some stories from them about Slick and got a better idea. Not only was it a great experience writing it, it was a great experience talking to them and learning everything that had happened leading up to when I started covering the team in '97.

Do you guys have a favorite section or story from the book?
Hughes: I like the stories about Wilt.

Slick: It wasn't too much fun, but the one people would probably never know is that some coaches, especially Russell, had this way of when we'd go to other cities and he wouldn't play you because he knew you had your family in the stands. Me and Leonard (Gray) were talking about that last week on the phone. Leonard said, 'Yeah, I remember that. I wanted to kill him, man.' I told that story in my book, and I'm still puzzled by that. That was Russ' game. When you had all the tickets, you were prepared to sit.

Hughes: There's a story in there where Jim McDaniels gets hit by a taxicab in New York City.

Slick: He was calling me country and dumb. 'Come on rookie, you're so dumb, you don't know how to walk the street, follow me.' As soon as he stepped out there, boom! I thought he was hurt. I ran to him and said, 'Jim, Jim.' He said, 'Rook, if you tell somebody, I'm going to kill you.'

Hughes: The good thing about the book is it's in anecdotal form, so it goes from one story to the next as opposed to getting bogged down in this happened and then this happened. It's just highlights from Slick's career and sometimes random thoughts about what Slick thought of Russell or what Slick thought of what Russell was doing as coach or what he thought of when Lenny came in. You can pick it up, read it, read one page and set it back down, come back a week later and feel like you don't have to catch up again because it's a story after story after story.

It's fun sitting here having a conversation with you, Slick. Does that carry over to the book?
Hughes: My wife was reading it the other day, and she said, 'You know what's great? I can actually hear Slick's voice reading the book.' I think that's great, because I was interviewing Clifford Ray, and he said, 'You know what's great about Slick? Just the way he uses the language and the way he tells a story.' It's great because Slick has, I think, a unique way of speaking and a unique way of telling a story, and I think that comes through in the book.

Speaking of that, your proceeds from the book are going to hurricane relief, right Slick?
Slick: My proceeds from the book I'm going to donate to the victims down south. I just thought it was a good idea that I use my proceeds from the book to help the people in New Orleans and Mississippi.

Did your family end up okay?
Slick: Everybody ended up pretty good. Scared. My mama said the wind was 125, 150 miles an hour for 16 straight hours, so that can be pretty frightening, wondering when it's going to get stronger and when the top of your house is going to blow off. They live in Richland, Miss. now. For four days they heard the wind and no lights, a lot of prayer, but everybody was alright.

Any other thoughts?
Slick: Basically, I hope people buy the book and enjoy the ride and put themselves in my position, because I'm a fan too.