'93 Sonics: A Pain That Lingers

'93 Western Conference Finals: It still hurts.

It's been just over 11 years, and I'm still not done being mad about the '93 Sonics getting jobbed in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals vs. Phoenix. But somehow, it does help to have a fairly well-known guy with a column on ESPN.com and in ESPN the Magazine come out and say in a by-the-way, "the sky is blue" kind of statement of fact that yes, the Sonics were robbed.

If you're breaking out a batch of sour grapes, you'd better have a really good reason. Like that South Korean gymnast who was robbed of Paul Hamm's gold medal, or the 1993 Sonics, 1994 Bulls or 1985 Cards, all of whom who were screwed by comically poor officiating.

With my scorn and bile suddenly rekindled, I needed to make sure my memory was correct. Could it really have been SIXTY-FOUR free throw attempts in one game? Have I embellished that figure in my mind to magnify the injustice over the years, to keep it from being filed away as a cold case?

Nope. Even the Phoenix Suns themselves acknowledge that they couldn't have done it without the refs:

The whistles helped their cause, too. Phoenix tied an NBA playoff record with 57 free throws in 64 attempts – 15-of-15 in the fourth quarter.

STILL. SO. ANGRY.

Sigh. At any rate, I wish that the Young, Stupid, Superstitious Me of back then would have just taped every game that year (you know, to foil the VHS Jinx where if you tape a game that you can't watch, it's pretty much a guarantee that your team will lose and you'll never watch that tape anyway; so you tape every game, thinking, "no way do they lose EVERY game, right?"), so that the Old, Partially Senile Me of today could enjoy the Young, Athletic, Still Had a Future Sonics of '93.