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Sonics' 1979 NBA Championship: A look back 40 years later

On June 1, 1979, the Seattle Supersonics won their first and only NBA Championship.

A year earlier, the Sonics lost Game 7 of the NBA Finals at the Seattle Center Coliseum. They returned to the finals the following year, lost Game 1, then won the next four to beat the Washington Bullets. Gus Williams led the team in scoring, while Dennis Johnson was named Finals MVP.

KIRO7 dove into the station archives so viewers can relive the pivotal championship game, and experience again the excitement created by hundreds of thousands of fans that gathered for the championship parade around the city.

On June 1, 2019 at 7:30pm, tune into KIRO7 for a half-hour special celebrating the Supersonics' Golden Era of Basketball. After the airing, you can catch a full hour-long special streaming daily on the KIRO7 smart tv app (Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple & Samsung TV).

Streaming Schedule (Starting Sunday June 2) 
* Monday & Tuesday:  9am-10am / 4pm-5pm
* Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 11am-12pm / 4pm-5pm
* Saturday: 1pm-2pm / 3pm-4pm / 9:30pm-10:30pm
* Sunday: 5am-6am / 1pm-2pm / 10pm-11pm

The championship game was broadcast on KIRO 7, and Bob Blackburn’s radio play by play was on KIRO Radio. This is a look back at that championship team with KIRO 7 anchor Steve Raible, who was playing for the Seahawks at the time.