"We took a lot of abuse for it" - Detlef Schrempf on the Sonics getting bounced by the eight-seeded Nuggets in 1994
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The Seattle SuperSonics entered the 1993-94 NBA season with plenty to look forward to. The Sonics were coming off an appearance in the Western Conference Finals, where they lost to Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns in a thrilling series that went the full seven-game route. During the offseason, the team acquired Detlef Schrempf from the Indiana Pacers and Kendall Gill from the Charlotte Hornets.
With a lot of things going for them, they raced to a 26-3 start after winning their first 10 regular season games. They lost only twice in their last 19 games en route to a franchise-best 63-19 season and the top seed in the entire NBA playoffs.
But unknown to many who only saw the wins they piled up on the basketball court, that team had plenty of turmoil going on internally. That was their downfall.
“We had a lot of problems on that team,” said Schrempf in an interview with SLAM. “But we won a lot of games. Then the playoffs come around, and everything kind of explodes on us. It was tough. We took a lot of abuse for it, especially after it happened again the next year.”
Sonic Boom during the 90s
The Sonics were a rising team during the 1990s after drafting Shawn Kemp straight out of high school in 1989 and Gary Payton 2nd overall in 1990. With a point guard to throw lob passes to the high-flying Kemp, Seattle had one of the most exciting teams in the league.
During Payton’s first three years in the league, the Sonics won 41, 47, and 55 games, respectively. They also progressed in the playoffs from first, second, to the third round during those seasons. Then came that big 1994.
With their young duo starting to come into their own, adding Schrempf and Gill and veteran scorer Ricky Pierce, the Sonics looked like a championship team heading to the playoffs. But because money and egos clashed all year long, they were stunned by the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs, becoming the first-ever No. 1 seed to lose to an 8th seed in the history of the NBA playoffs.
Seattle had another first-round exit in 1995
Seattle got rid of Pierce, whose Game 2 confrontation with Gary Payton was believed to be the turning point of the Denver series. The Sonics also got new uniforms and a new logo to coincide with the reopening of the Key Arena. Meanwhile, Payton, Kemp, and Schrempf remained as the key players on the team.
The Sonics won 55 games but were just the 4th seed in the Western Conference behind San Antonio, Utah, and Phoenix. But the Sonics were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the No. 5 ranked Los Angeles Lakers. The second straight early exit was just as tough as the first one.
With the teams finally over their internal problems, they returned to the top of the Western Conference in 1996 with a 64-win season, which topped the team record for most wins in a season set in 1994. But it was also Michael Jordan’s first full season back from retirement, and the Bulls won a then-NBA record 72 regular-season games. The Sonics faced the Bulls in the 2016 NBA Finals and lost 4-2 in the group’s only Finals appearance.