Monday, March 27, 2000

By DAN RALEY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

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Basketballs came bouncing into the Kingdome for the first time in 1978. It was a Tuesday night in May, an NBA Finals playoff game. It was a moment of need.

The Sonics were without a place to play.

Holding a 2-1 series lead, they were expected to host Game 4 against the Washington Bullets -- and their regular home, the Coliseum, was booked.

Without a test run, Seattleites turned to the baseball- and football-friendly Kingdome as a less-than-cozy alternative.

Hoops were set up in areas normally reserved for home plate or the end zone, and 39,457 fans turned out. The crowd set an NBA attendance record at the time.

To call this a success story depends on the time frame.

The Sonics were beaten, 120-116, and eventually lost the '78 series to the Bullets. Some felt the Sonics had erred greatly and given up their home court advantage. But this was the first of 614 basketball games held in the Dome, and championships weren't far behind.

The next season, the Sonics played a full schedule there, including six playoff games. They earned their elusive NBA title while playing at the Kingdome.

In 1984, 1989 and 1995, NCAA champions were spotlighted at Final Fours held in the Kingdome. And 10 high school teams, girls and boys, won state titles there, too.

"I think the Kingdome served a purpose for us," said Fred Brown, a former Sonics guard.

The Sonics spent seven years as a full-time tenant, cashing in early on their growing popularity with huge crowds.

For the 1979-80 season, they averaged 21,725 fans per game -- which would have filled a Coliseum and a half.

They exited once their nightly crowd count had dropped to an average of 7,399 -- or half a Coliseum.

The team wasn't as good then and the Dome wasn't as much fun.

"I do remember the non-playoff years, at the end of the season; it was morgue-ish in there," said Jack Sikma, a former Sonics center.

The Sonics were treated to 20 Kingdome games that topped 30,000 fans or more, including one that drew 40,172 -- a 1980 playoff encounter against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Yet, in 1984 and 1985, the team couldn't sell 10,000 seats for 29 of 37 games played in its final full season in the Dome.

Without a doubt, the team's time had come and gone under the gray top.

"From the revenue perspective, and with the league evolving, I think it was important for management to make the decision to go to the Kingdome," Brown said. "Preferably, I think we all loved playing in the intimacy of the Coliseum.

"With the hugeness of the Kingdome and the openness of it, it wasn't as intimidating as the Coliseum."

The Kingdome had its basketball distractions.

The stadium's overhead fluorescent lighting often created a glare rather than properly illuminating play. And the steep end zone seating practically had faces pressed up against the glass backboards.

Still, the Sonics won 208 of 303 games played there, including eight of 14 playoff contests.

They also blazed a basketball trail that drew the NCAA to town with great frequency.

The amateur game showed up at the Kingdome with three Final Fours and four West Regional Finals. And unlike the Sonics, the collegians would continue to come if the place hadn't turned to dust.

In 1995, 29,084 fans showed up for the Friday practices alone.

"The NCAA still can't figure it out," said Bob Walsh, a Seattle sports promoter and driving force behind bringing the showcase college events here.

"We had the only building on the West Coast with a seating capacity over 30,000," Walsh said. "Seattle was automatically going to get it. It's a huge loss."

Instead, we're left with only memories of Georgetown, Michigan and UCLA claiming titles and of Arizona, Michigan and UNLV (twice) advancing to Final Fours from here.

The game to beat all games was the 1989 title matchup between Michigan and Seton Hall. Two free throws by guard Rumeal Robinson with three seconds left in overtime made the Big Ten entry an 80-79 winner.

For a full weekend of fun, it came five years earlier.

Georgetown, Houston, Kentucky and Virginia were the contestants.

Patrick Ewing, Akeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson were some of the combatants.

"The NCAA still says the '84 Final Four was the best in the history of the Final Four," Walsh said. "That's what started March Madness. It went so well, they gave us the '89 Final Four and the West Regionals."

The first college game held at the Kingdome did not fall out of a bracket, but it had enough excitement to qualify for the postseason.

Three months before the 1984 Final Four showed its face, the Washington Huskies moved across town and beat Notre Dame, 63-61, in double overtime. The deciding points were provided by a junior forward named Detlef Schrempf, who hit two late free throws.

The Huskies also won their only other visit, beating Old Dominion, 71-61, in 1994.

The first and only women's game involving collegians in the Kingdome was a disaster. In 1979, Seattle University hosted the Russian national team and got destroyed, 135-45.

"We were in great shape until the anthems were played before the game," Chieftains coach Cathy Benedetto said at the time.

The Harlem Globetrotters also paid a visit in 1979. The U.S. Olympic team met a collection of NBA players in the Dome in 1980 before boycotting games held in the Soviet Union. And the NBA All-Star Game was held there in 1987.

With the collegians and pros deserting the place, 3A and 4A high school teams decided their state championships in the Kingdome for five of the past seven years. The girls and boys played games simultaneously until the title matchup, when they took turns on center stage.

Basketball was a distinct third when it came to favored sports in the Dome. There were three full years when the facility didn't host one hoop game at any level -- 1976, 1977 and 1986.

Some local pros say they will miss the wide-bodied stadium. None of them is a basketball player.

"I respect the Kingdome," Sikma said. "It was a great facility when you look at the number of major sporting events, the concerts and everything it held. But its time had passed."

After all, the place always resembled a deflated basketball.