These are my three favorite Sonics memories:

1. In 2002, during a home game, Gary Payton twisted his knee at an obscene angle. As he, screaming in pain, was carried back to the locker room, I wept, thinking that his career might be over. But a moment later, miraculously healed, Payton came running back onto the court. The home crowd exalted. We genuflected. We spoke in tongues.

2. In 2005, in the last seconds of the sixth game of a surprisingly competitive playoff series with the San Antonio Spurs, Ray Allen launched a jumper from the corner that could have won the game and sent the series back to Texas for a seventh and deciding game. As that shot hung in the air, suspended between the corporeal and mystic, I believed that my beloved Sonics were going to vanquish the evil Spurs. Allen missed the shot, but I will always carry with me the gorgeous hope of that moment.

3. In 2000, when my late father was still healthy enough to travel, I flew him over for a game against the Lakers. As my father sat beside me in row 14, he smiled and said, "These are great seats." In Alexie-speak, that meant, "I love you, Son."