Steal city

Sporting News, The, Nov 22, 1993 by Mike Kahn

Maybe it's because they're tucked away in the corner of the country. Or perhaps they are so slick about it, the impact is just beginning to sink in. But any way you look at it, the Seattle SuperSonics have become the vogue choice to usurp the Bulls as NBA champions.

The Sonics may also change the way the game is played. They are unique in the way they play defense. If they succeed at it - if they win the NBA title - others will surely copy it.

"I'd hate to play against us," Sonics Coach George Karl says. "It's tough to prepare for all of our weapons offensively, and our defense just annoys everybody."

They are the "Men of Steals." Last year, while leading the NBA in steals (944), forced turnovers (1,517) and point differential (7.1), the Sonics became the sixth team in NBA history to have five players with at least 100 steals. Based on assistant coach Bob Kloppenburg's theory of trapping and switching, they want to break the NBA record of 1,059 steals set by the 1977-78 Phoenix Suns.

They are also the "Men of Steals" in acquiring talent. President Bob Whitsitt, who has rebuilt this team twice since taking the job in 1986, has since February stolen Sam Perkins, Kendall Gill and Detlef Schrempf, giving up only one starter, Derrick McKey.

Perkins played the final 30 games of last season, then led the Sonics to Game 7 of the Western Conference finals against Phoenix. Gill and Schrempf, acquired since the end of last season, fit into the starting lineup with Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton and allow Ricky Pierce to return to sixth man. Pierce, now 34 years old, was named the NBA's best sixth man in 1987 and 1990.

"You never hear a peep out of Whitsitt," Sacramento Kings General Manager Jerry Reynolds says. "Then all of a sudden, he storms in and makes these deals nobody else does. The big thing is, he's not afraid to pull the trigger."

"Any time you consider making a trade, the easy thing is to do nothing and say the team will automatically be better," Whitsitt says. "Or, you can do nothing and say you aren't able to do anything because of the salary cap."

It has been said the Schrempf trade was one too many, that it could disrupt an already successful team. "We came within one game of the Finals last year and made two major trades ... I don't understand," Kemp says.

Whitsitt was aware how close McKey and his teammates were. Yet he still made the deal. "When we make a trade, the one thing we are conscious of is our chemistry," he says. "When I say chemistry, I'm talking about cohesiveness of the unit and camaraderie on the court. But we were as concerned with the chemistry mix as well as the talent, and that's why we're so confident everything will work."

Whitsitt's first makeover of the Sonics followed the 1985-86 season, in which the team was 31-51. He built the team around Xavier McDaniel and Tom Chambers and traded Al Wood to Dallas for Dale Ellis, giving the team three 20-point scorers for the next two seasons. Whitsitt traded Jack Sikma to the Bucks for Alton Lister and two first-round draft choices and added big men Clemon Johnson and Maurice Lucas. That team went to the Western Conference finals in 1987, but after being upset in the first round in 1988, Chambers left as an unrestricted free agent, McDaniel broke down after twice having knee surgery and Ellis had off-court problems, including a fight with McDaniel in the street in front of the Sonics' administrative offices.

The current mix started working with the hiring of Karl. Fired as head coach by the Cavs and Warriors, he had been languishing in the Continental Basketball Association and Spain since 1988. Underachieving as a .500 team over 118 games, Whitsitt bounced coach K.C. Jones, and whisked Karl and his young family from Real Madrid on January 23, 1992.

Seattle finished his first year 27-15, then upset Golden State in the playoffs before losing to Utah in five games. Last season, the Sonics improved to 55-27, the second-best mark in franchise history, and utilized homecourt advantage to defeat Utah and Houston before buckling to Phoenix.

Karl's first change to the team was a return to the full-court, trapping style of Kloppenburg and Bernie Bickerstaff that Jones shunned for the traditional halfcourt offense and straight-up defense he utilized in Boston. In his first month, Karl hired Tim Grgurich from UNLV, then under the NCAA probe, to get into the trenches with the players before, during and after practices.

"I've said all along that Whitsitt putting us together was brilliant," Karl says. "I don't know if he knew how well this would all fit. Nobody could. I came to a team with great athletes that already knew Kloppy's system. There's some George Karl tricks here, too. I just think it's a combination of the coaching staff, the team's athleticism and the defensive intensity that makes

it all fit."

Ah, the players. The only player left from the first makeover, co-captain and seventh man Nate McMillan, has seen almost 40 players come and go. Kloppenburg had arrived a year earlier.