Sonics Unbeatable In Japan Again In 2003

Quotes and research came from the archives of the Seattle Times and Seattle P-I.

When the Seattle Sonics returned to Japan to play a pair of games in 2003, Nate McMillan displayed the laser-focus sports coaches are famous for.

During a morning Sonics practice between games, Tokyo was hit by a magnitude 6.8 earthquake. Asked about it, McMillan replied, “Really? An earthquake?”

Nate had been a Sonics guard when Seattle opened the 1992-93 season in Japan with two victories over the Houston Rockets (a story we told here.). He saw benefits in a Far East encore as coach, based on how the team had bonded on their first visit overseas.

McMillan’s focus at practice apparently didn’t extend to his visit to the tony Ginza shopping district. The coach prepared to purchase some gems for $200, until told the conversion from Yen made the actual price closer to $20,000. “I told him I was going to come back, that I had to look around,” McMillan said. “I hope he’s still not waiting.”

On the court, the Sonics converted enough open looks to sweep two games from the Los Angeles Clippers. Stories from those victories are good – and after the recaps below, we detail the off-court stories, which are even better.

Game 1, Oct. 30, 2003: Sonics 109, Clippers 100

The Times’ Les Carpenter wrote before the season that “It would probably take a miracle” for the Sonics to make the playoffs in 2003-04. (Seattle finished 37-45, 5th in the Pacific Division, short of a miracle playoff berth.) It didn’t help that Seattle’s best player, Ray Allen, was back in the States undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his ankle.

What the Sonics did have was second-year guard Roland Murray. He’d come to Seattle in the previous season’s multi-player trade for Allen that sent Gary Payton to Milwaukee. It would be the first of four times the nomadic Murray got traded during a season. He played for eight teams in an eight-year career.

On this night, L.A. didn’t take Murray as a serious threat. He made them pay with 24 points, 10-17 from the floor. The Clippers’ Olden Polynice caught up with Murray at the teams’ hotel after the game.

“I had to tell the young fella that we didn’t really know about him before, but we do now,” Polynice said. Was Polynice offering sincere props? Hardly! More like practicing psychology. “MJ (Michael Jordan) used to do the same thing. You butter up the rooks after big games to get into their heads. Let’s see if he can do it again.”

Off topic, Olden himself was once a rookie Sonic, starting his NBA career in Seattle from 1987-91. He returned to play 48 games for the Sonics in 1999. Seattle P-I columnist Art Thiel was definitely sincere, but definitely not offering props, when he wrote Polynice had the “worst set of hands in recent Seattle pro sports history. Polynice, the two-time Sonics center, handled the basketball as if it were a barrel cactus.”

Game 2, Oct. 31, 2003: Sonics 124, Clippers 105

In the opening win, Rashard Lewis finished with a game-high 25 points. But he was visibly upset about being called for three fouls in his first eight minutes. Lewis made sure that for the rematch, all the upset would be felt on the L.A. bench.

Lewis became just the 4th Sonic to score 50 or more points in a game when he torched the Clippers for an even half-hundred, on 18-25 shooting. Only Fred Brown (58 in 1974), Dale Ellis (53 in 1989), and Spencer Haywood (51 in 1973) had ever scored more. Rashard added eight rebounds and four assists. Oh, and he was whistled for just one foul in 37 minutes.

“I (asked) the staff, ‘Should we let him try and get a 50-point game?'” McMillan said. “They were waiting on me to say that. Everybody nodded yes. ‘Give him a 50-point game.’ And it wasn’t to try and embarrass the Clippers, but I knew he never had a 50-point game with us. He does things so easy that you look up at the stats and you say, `God, where did it come from?'”

“Nate told us to keep running,” said Lewis. “So we wanted to keep running.”

Adventures In Japan

• Seattle came bearing gifts: 1,000 Sonics lapel pins, 250 T-shirts and hundreds of hats.
• The team flew commercial, so players could have family and friends join them, like Rashard Lewis’ mother and stepfather, and Ansu Sesay’s fiancée.
• Sightseeing included the Meiji Jingu Shinto Shrine, the Imperial Palace and the Asakusa Kannon Temple.
• It’s safe to label Vladimir Radmanović and Luke Ridnour “excitement junkies.” They rode a roller coaster called “Thunder Dolphin” that dropped more than 200 feet and reached 80 mph.
• Sonics owner and Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz ordered a double-shot, non-fat latte at one of his Tokyo stores, but the register rejected his Starbucks card.

Fan-Tastic

• Ticket prices at Saitama Super Arena ranged from $50-$500 US (roughly $87-$869 today). Fans made a racket with their “crackling balloon sticks.”
• While twin brother Rashard Lewis watched and laughed, sister Kristen participated in a fan “dance-off” during a stoppage in play.
• Bumped out of bounds, Brent Barry fell onto three courtside spectators. While one woman was getting helped up, Barry walked away with the woman’s purse. (He returned it.)

Barry Funny

In what would be his fifth and final season with the Sonics, Brent kept things light off the court, too. For instance, explaining his mindset in a way Yogi Berra would appreciate. “When in Rome, act like the Japanese.” So he did, touring Tokyo on his own wearing a #51 Ichiro jersey.

Asked by Japanese media if, at 6-foot-6, he was the tallest guard in the NBA, Barry answered, “No, but I am probably the slowest.” A punchline that would have drawn laughs from domestic reporters. But something was lost in translation, because all Barry got for his witticism was a room full of silence.

Famous Last Words

• See if you can guess the enthusiasm level of Clippers point guard Kenyon Dooling. “This is a long way to go to play a couple of games. I’m ready to play these games and go home. I like my fish fried, died and laid to the side.”
• At the Foreign Correspondents Club in Japan, NBA commissioner David Stern predicted, “There is a reasonable chance that we’ll see an NBA team or teams in Europe by the end of the decade.” I guess he didn’t specify which decade.
• Reserve Richie Frahm wasn’t drafted out of Gonzaga. In Tokyo he got to pretend he was, pulling in commissioner Stern for a handshake at a press event while wearing a Sonics hat. Cameras clicked as Frahm recreated the experience of a 1st round pick on draft day. “He was a good sport about it,” Frahm said of Stern.

No Place Like Home

• Because of the 17-hour time difference, the Sonics’ flight home left Tokyo at 3 pm on Sunday, landing in Seattle at 7 am on Sunday.
• Rashard Lewis admitted the next day, “I know it’s Monday, but I have no idea what the date is.”