June 1, 1979: The Sonics Were Super

June 1, 1979: The Seattle SuperSonics defeat the Washington Bullets, 97-93 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland, in Game 5, to take the NBA Finals 4 games to 1, and win their 1st NBA Championship. This avenged their defeat to the Bullets in the previous season's Finals.

Dennis Johnson is in the Basketball Hall of Fame, and Gus Williams probably should be. But the Sonics are the only NBA Champions between 1951 and 2022 not to have a single player in the NBA's 75th Anniversary 75 Greatest Players. But their head coach was one of those 75, as he had been for the 50 selected for the 50th Anniversary: Lenny Wilkens. His 1,332 wins as an NBA head coach once were the most in history, but he has since been surpassed by Gregg Popovich and Don Nelson.

Neither of these teams uses its 1979 name anymore. The Sonics reached the Finals again in 1996, but were moved in 2008, becoming the Oklahoma City Thunder. An agreement is in place where, if Seattle gets a new team, the Thunder will forfeit all legal rights associated with the Sonics. The 1979 Sonics title was Seattle's only World Championship, in any sport, between 1917 and 2014.

The Bullets, wanting to get away from D.C.'s crime-ridden image, changed their name to the Washington Wizards in 1997, the same year they moved into the District, to the building now known as the Capital One Arena. They have not made the Finals since.

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June 1, 1979 was a Friday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-0 at Yankee Stadium. Ron Guidry, still looking like the pitcher he was the season before, allowed only 2 hits, singles to Chet Lemon and Alan Bannister. He struck out 10. Lou Piniella hit a home run. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-3.

* The New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-4 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Frank Taveras singled Doug Flynn home with the winning run in the top of the 11th inning. Joel Youngblood hit a home run.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Diego Padres, 9-8 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Dave Parker hit a home run. Willie Stargell went 1-for-5. Phil Garner went 4-for-5. For the Padres, Dave Winfield hit 2 home runs.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Steve Carlton was betrayed by an 8th-inning error by 2nd baseman Ramón Avilés that allowed 2 runs to score. Johnny Bench went 1-for-2 with 2 walks. Against his once-and-former team, Pete Rose went 0-for-4. So did Mike Schmidt. Del Unser and Garry Maddox hit home runs.

An inability to find a 2nd baseman who could hit (unlike Avilés and Ted Sizemore), field (unlike Avilés) and stay healthy (unlike Dave Cash) was a big reason why the Phillies reached 3 straight National League Championship Series, but lost them all. Later in the year, the Phillies acquired Manny Trillo. He became a big reason why they won the 1980 World Series.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 8-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-7 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. The Dodgers scored a run in the 8th and a run in the 9th to tie it, and took a 7-6 lead in the top of the 11th. But in the bottom of the 11th, the Cards got singles by Keith Hernandez, Ted Simmons and Tony Scott to tie the game. After a strikeout, and an intentional walk to Ken Reitz, Dane Iorg singled Simmons home with the winning run.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-4 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Milwaukee. Robin Yount hit a home run. Paul Molitor went 2-for-4 with a walk. George Brett went 0-for-3, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Eddie Murray went 0-for-4.

* The Houston Astros beat the Montreal Expos, 3-2 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the California Angels, 7-4 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Rod Carew went 2-for-5 with a stolen base and an RBI.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-2 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* And the Seattle Mariners, under circumstances considerably less important than their basketball neighbors, matched the SuperSonics with a win, beating the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-2 at the Kingdome in Seattle.