SuperSonics win Western Conference Championship, earn trip to NBA Finals on June 2, 1996.

HistoryLink.org Essay 3068 : Printer-Friendly Format

On June 2, 1996, the SuperSonics earn their first trip to the NBA (National Basketball Association) Finals since 1979 with a 90-86 victory over the Utah Jazz in Game 7 at KeyArena in Seattle. Shawn Kemp paces the SuperSonics with a 26-point, 14-rebound effort.

The conference championship was the culmination of an impressive playoff run for Seattle. After dispatching the Sacramento Kings 3-1 in a best-of-five series, the Sonics swept the defending-champion Houston Rockets in the second round.

In the Western Conference Finals, Seattle jumped out to a 3-1 series lead but had to fend off a Utah rally before eventually putting the Jazz away.

The Sonics went on to lose to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the NBA Finals.

Sources:
SuperSonics website (www.supersonics.com); Seattle SuperSonics 1999-2000 Media Guide ed. by Marc Moquin (Seattle: Full House Sports & Entertainment, 1999); The Sporting News Official NBA Register, 1998-99 edition, ed. by Mark Bonavita, Mark Broussard, and Brendan Roberts (St. Louis: The Sporting News, 1998); The Sporting News Official NBA Guide, 1998-99 edition, ed. by Mark Broussard and Craig Carter (St. Louis: The Sporting News, 1998).

By Dan Johnson, March 06, 2001

Travel through time (chronological order):
< Browse to Previous Essay | Browse to Next Essay >

Related Topics: Sports |

Licensing: This essay is licensed under a Creative Commons license that encourages reproduction with attribution. Credit should be given to both HistoryLink.org and to the author, and sources must be included with any reproduction. Click the icon for more info. Please note that this Creative Commons license applies to text only, and not to images. For more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact the source noted in the image credit.