By Eashan Arun, special to The Seattle Medium
Whether it’s fans decked out in green and yellow at Climate Pledge Arena, coaches seeking out talent in local communities, or former players inspiring the next generation, Seattle has always been a city fascinated with the sport of basketball.
The city cheered for their beloved Supersonics from 1967 to 2008, when the team relocated to Oklahoma City. Despite this loss, Seattle’s NBA franchise left a lasting mark on the city’s basketball culture.
“They were really very active in the community. The Sonics really helped grow that community roots, grassroots community basketball. They were always involved, they were always in the gym, and they did a lot for local basketball programs,” says Rhonda Banchero. A Seattle native, Banchero played basketball at the University of Washington from 1991 to 1995 and is the mother of the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft: Paolo Banchero.
Players such as Sonics point guard Gary Payton also served as an inspiration to the community’s youth at the time. Payton served as a role model to Will Conroy, who played basketball at Garfield High School and the University of Washington from 2001 to 2005, as well as professionally for 10 years. He currently serves as an assistant head coach on UW’s men’s basketball team.
As a young basketball player, Conroy played for the Gary Payton All-Stars, a basketball program funded by Payton. As a result, Conroy had the chance to be around Payton during Payton’s playing years.
“I went to all of his camps, and I just loved his mentality. I love how you have to basically kill him to beat him. And I like how he gets in your face. I like how he talked crap. I liked how he’d back it up. I like every single thing about how Gary Payton played basketball. And my mentality was I wanted to mimic that,” says Conroy.
The Sonics left, but because of the team’s impact in Seattle, the passion for basketball carried on, especially in local leagues.
“I think not having a team hurt in a lot of ways, but I think it also helped people to pay attention to AAU basketball,” says Banchero. “I think select basketball probably blew up after that because you couldn’t watch pro basketball.”
But, of course, Seattle hasn’t been entirely without pro basketball. The WNBA’s Seattle Storm was established in 2000, and the team has since won four championship titles.
Before their arrival, young fans in the city would cheer for the American Basketball League’s short-lived Seattle Reign who played from 1996-98, as well as the Washington Huskies women’s basketball team. Banchero, who played for both teams, nurtured her love for the sport by attending these games.
“The women’s basketball team here at UW was really good during my formative years. It really was a place where young girls like myself could all go to those games because games weren’t on television,” she says. “It was definitely a helpful resource to see like, ‘Oh, there are women who are in college, they’re playing basketball, they’re on scholarship, they’re tangible, right? You can see them.’”
The Storm’s arrival was a turning point in Seattle basketball, and an encouraging signal to a number of young women in the city interested in the sport to go out and play.
According to Conroy: “Not only do we have a WNBA franchise, we have one of the best WNBA franchises, and we have players who are icons. Breanna Stewart is an icon. Sue Bird is an icon. Even within our University of Washington program, Kelsey Plum was a national star.”
“When you have those kinds of players in your city, they affect the youth. They just do. You have young women and young girls who say ‘I want to be like that, I want to be like her.’”
Building on Seattle’s NBA, WNBA, high school, and college basketball legacies, the city continues to be a site of high-profile basketball news and events.
In June, the 2022 NBA Draft was held in Brooklyn, New York. Basketball fans around the world tuned in to see three Seattle natives get drafted in the first round, including the No. 1 overall pick, Paolo Banchero of O’Dea High School, No. 17 pick Tari Eason of Garfield High School, and Marjon Beauchamp of Rainier Beach High School, who was the No. 24 pick.
This feat was anything but a coincidence. These three players are all alumni of the Rotary Style Select Basketball Program, one of the city’s most renowned basketball programs.
“They all have their very unique experiences, yet they all came through Rotary. They all went to different high schools, they’re all different ages, you know what I mean? But they all went through Rotary,” says Banchero.
“Daryll and Dan, the founders of Rotary Style, they have to be given a huge amount of credit, a huge amount of credit,” she adds.
Dan Finkley and Daryll Hennings founded what is now known as Rotary Style in the early 90s. The two coached for the Central Area Youth Association (CAY) at the time, when they noticed problems within the city’s local select programs.
“You had the Jason Terrys, the Mike Dickersons… [select programs] would only take one guy from the city… They would only take one guy from [CAY] to play when all these guys were well deserving, talented enough,” says Finkley.
“Moving to the high school level, it was always politics, and this is what really fueled my fire,” he adds. Finkley says politics around play style in Washington motivated him even further, as others would claim that city-based players played ‘ratball’; they didn’t play the right way.
In response to this exclusive judgment of local basketball talent compiled with a lack of exposure given to these young players, Finkley and Hennings created their own program.
“My vision, along with Daryll, was to create a program where we could play our style of basketball and not be criticized, critiqued,” says Finkley.
This decision did not come without backlash, as members of the community questioned why they chose to start a new program.
“People didn’t see what was going on. Because I was traveling around and seeing what was happening in California and seeing what was happening in Texas to where kids were getting opportunities. We wanted to play that [style]. That’s why I came up with that name: Seattle Style. We wanted to play Seattle-style basketball. Up-tempo, in-your-face, aggressive,” says Finkley.
Soon, the program moved from Garfield Community Center to the Rotary Boys & Girls Club and became what is now known as the Rotary Style Select Basketball Program. The program has proven to be a major success, and has since produced nine players currently on NBA rosters, including the three rookies drafted this year.
In August, these new NBA rookies participated in “The CrawsOver,” a local pro-am basketball league held at Seattle Pacific University. The event was put together by Jamal Crawford, a Seattle native and former NBA player. These rookies were joined by the likes of Trae Young, Dejounte Murray (a Seattle native), Jayson Tatum, and LeBron James. These players are some of the biggest faces of the league, having 24 NBA All-Star selections combined.
Banchero says these stars coming to play in Seattle is a testament to Crawford:
“He’s got a great reputation in the NBA. I think that Jamal’s reputation in the league with LeBron, with Michael Jordan, with all of these superstars, is absolutely the reason that they come to the pro-am.”
“He’s been a great spokesperson for our city. He’s been a great role model for kids to look up to. And he’s very accessible. There was a time when he was in the league and… every kid in the community may have had his phone number; they could reach out and call Jamal or text him,” adds Conroy.
A good friend of the Bancheros, Crawford also took Paolo under his wing and mentored him. He allowed Paolo to make his first appearance at The CrawsOver as a freshman in high school, giving him exposure.
“He put Paolo on the pro-am team when he was a freshman, and Steve Ballmer’s in the gym. Like you’re playing this pro-am, and there’s the owner of the Clippers there,” says Banchero.
Ballmer is the former CEO of Microsoft and current owner of the Los Angeles Clippers.
With or without an NBA team, local communities and individuals have kept love for basketball in Seattle alive, with forces such as Seattle Rotary and Jamal Crawford shedding light on the city’s talent. Local standouts will continue to inspire the next generation of Seattle basketball, just as Gary Payton did to Conroy.
“The fact that Paolo was the number one pick and probably will compete for NBA Rookie of the Year… there’s probably about 1,000, maybe more, kids in Washington that’s saying ‘I’m going to be the next number one pick,’ just because Paolo was number one pick,” says Conroy.
Pioneers within the Seattle and King County area continue to show their love for the game, so much so that the terms “Seattle” and “basketball” have once again stolen sports media headlines. Whether the Supersonics will return to Seattle remains to be seen, but there is no questioning the Emerald City’s passion for the sport.
“We’re a very tight-knit basketball community, and we want to keep it that way,” says Conroy. “We root for each other, we support each other, and we want each other to all have success, and we want to make sure that the youngsters understand that. That’s the way we’ve built it, and that’s the way we want to continue to see it grow.”
