From Starbucks to Sonics - SPORTING CHANCE by Joaquin M. Henson

SEATTLE — If only the Seattle SuperSonics played in the Eastern Conference, coach Nate McMillan wouldn’t be out of the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs this year. But under the terms of the NBA’s power structure, it’s just McMillan’s bad luck that Seattle is bracketed in the tough Pacific Division in the tougher Western Conference.

The Sonics posted a 44-38 record in the regular season and blasted the league’s No. 1 team San Antonio, 105-67, to bow out with a flourish in their farewell outing two weeks ago. Of course, the Spurs didn’t take the game seriously. David Robinson sat out the action, Tim Duncan played only 20 minutes, and Derek (X-factor) Anderson scored an inconsequential three points. Still, Seattle made it known that the Emerald City has the potential to play a cut above the rest despite a raggedy lineup.

Seattle broke into the majors in 1967 and has played in three Finals so far. The Sonics captured the championship in 1979 with the NBA’s all-time winningest coach Lenny Wilkens at the helm. The team also made it to the Last Dance in 1978 and 1996.

McMillan replaced Paul Westphal as Sonics coach last November and nearly steered Seattle to the playoffs. The Sonics wound up 10th overall in the West but would’ve finished seventh in the East. In the NBA’s postseason format, the top eight teams in both the East and West advance to the playoffs.

An encouraging note was the Sonics swept the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers in four games this season. One of the wins was a 33-point rout. Another came as Shaquille O’Neal set a dubious NBA record for futility in going 0-of-11 from the line. The previous record was Wilt Chamberlain’s 0-of-10 in 1960. The Sonics humiliated the Lakers, 103-95, at the Staples Center the night of Shaq’s collapse at the stripe last December.

* * *

With the Sonics taking an early vacation, local fans are switched on to baseball where the hometown Mariners are off to a rousing start. Sonics owner Howard Schultz, however, isn’t about to abandon the hardwood for the diamond. The Starbucks Chairman bought majority ownership of the Sonics franchise last January and is eager to keep in step with other multi-billionaire team owners like Portland’s Paul Allen and Dallas’ Mark Cuban. He’s not taking the Sonics’ playoff failure sitting down.

Schultz is a hands-on CEO who expects nothing less than 110 percent from his players. When the regular season ended, Schultz went on record to castigate Vin Baker’s poor work ethic — signaling the probable end of the overweight power forward’s Seattle tenure despite five years remaining on the $87 Million contract he signed in 1999. The word is McMillan is shopping Baker as trade bait.

A confirmed casualty in the roster revamp is Pat Ewing who averaged a career-low 9.6 points in his first Seattle season since moving from New York last year. Ewing, 38, earned about $14 Million last campaign and the Sonics’ decision to renounce their rights to the 7-1 center clears at least $6 Million under the salary cap.

There will be no sacred cows in Schultz’ order to clean house. Baker recently admitted he’s 98 percent sure of not returning in a Sonics uniform and expressed interest in playing for New York, New Jersey, and even Milwaukee where he played four years before transferring to Seattle in 1997.

Gary Payton may not be back, too. He’s the last link to the Sonics’ 1996 squad that advanced to the Finals and McMillan’s close pal. When the Sonics retired McMillan’s jersey two years ago, Payton and his wife Monique gave the coach a Rolex with the inscription "Take it easy — the Paytons."

Sonics President Wally Walker said if there’s a hard-to-refuse trade offer for Payton, he won’t hold back the Glove. Payton, 32, has two years left on his contract.

Walker said the NBA’s new rules will determine the kind of players to recruit from the draft, to trade for, and to pick up from the free agents pool. Skilled, finesse big men stand to benefit from the liberal defense policy. There are at least seven to-be free agents in the Sonics lineup, including Jelani McCoy, Shammond Williams, and Ruben Patterson, so Walker has a lot of room to maneuver.

* * *

Schultz said "the worst place to be in the NBA is mediocre," indicating that he’s in a hurry to get to the top. That’s not surprising. Schultz built an empire out of Starbucks — he’s not used to mediocrity.

Cuban, the outspoken Dallas owner, advised Schultz to apply his Starbucks formula of success to the Sonics. "There have been a lot of ideas I’ve copied from Starbucks that I’ve introduced to the Mavericks," said Cuban. "Starbucks has built a whole business around the culture. You don’t have clerks at Starbucks. You have people that are part of the Starbucks environment. Before that, people who worked at coffee shops were clerks. You don’t have fans at a game, you have customers. They continuously work to try to create new experiences for their customers. That’s no different from the NBA."

The Sonics won 13 of their last 18 games so that’s something concrete to build on. They’ve missed the playoffs in two of the last three years — a downtrend that Schultz hopes to reverse.

At the moment, Seattle fans aren’t thinking of the Sonics — they’re engrossed with their Mariners. Winning makes all the difference. As a bottom-line type of guy, Schultz knows there are no two ways about it. McMillan’s got to deliver next season or else.