In Concessions this week, I wrote about Sonicsgate, a new documentary about how the Seattle Supersonics became the Oklahoma City Thunder. It is good!
As a second generation (or third or whatever) native Seattleite, I have some innate sentimental feelings about the Sonics: I remember my butt hurting, high up in KeyArena; I remember drinking cans of “Vin Baker Sprite” and finding the arbitrariness of that endorsement hilarious (I was still honing my hilariousness detection skills at that point); I very much enjoyed Sam Perkins’s hair; I will never, ever forget the shrieks that filled the Washington Middle School gym, circa 1995, when Shawn Kemp showed up and impregnated us all with inspiration. The Sonics should not be gone. That is bullshit, and it’s sad, and Sonicsgate‘s thorough play-by-play of just how that hoodwinker went down—featuring interviews with Gary Payton, George Karl, Art Thiel, and (most interestingly) Sonics counsel Brad Keller—is a useful document for sure.
Sonicsgate plays at SIFF Cinema all week. Read my whole review HERE.
