2001–02 Seattle SuperSonics season

The 2001–02 NBA season was the 35th season for the Seattle SuperSonics in the National Basketball Association.^[1] During the off-season, the SuperSonics signed free agents Calvin Booth,^[2][3] and Jerome James.^[4][5]

2001–02 Seattle SuperSonics season
Head coach	Nate McMillan
General manager	Rick Sund
Owners	Howard Schultz
Arena	KeyArena
Results
Record	45–37 (.549)
Place	Division: 4th (Pacific) Conference: 7th (Western)
Playoff finish	West First Round (lost to Spurs 2–3)
Stats at Basketball Reference
Local media
Television	KING-TV KONG Fox Sports Net Northwest
Radio	KJR
< 2000–01 2002–03 >

Heading into Nate McMillan's first full season as head coach, the SuperSonics struggled losing five of their first seven games, and held a 9–14 start to the regular season. However, the team won 14 of their next 20 games, and played above .500 basketball for the remainder of the season, holding a 25–23 record at the All-Star break,^[6] but lost six of their final eight games, finishing in fourth place in the Pacific Division with a 45–37 record, which was only a one-game improvement over the previous season, earning the #7 seed in the Western Conference, and returning to the NBA playoffs after a one-year absence.^[7]

Gary Payton averaged 22.1 points, 9.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game, and was named to the All-NBA Second Team, to the NBA All-Defensive First Team, and was selected for the 2002 NBA All-Star Game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.^{[8][9][10][11][12]} In addition, Rashard Lewis averaged 16.8 points and 7.0 rebounds per game, while Brent Barry provided the team with 14.4 points per game, Vin Baker contributed 14.1 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, but only played 55 games due to a shoulder injury,^[13][14][15] second-year forward Desmond Mason provided with 12.4 points per game off the bench, and top draft pick Vladimir Radmanovic was named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team.^[16] Payton also finished in sixth place in Most Valuable Player voting.^[17]

However, in the Western Conference First Round of the 2002 NBA playoffs, the SuperSonics lost in five games to the San Antonio Spurs.^{[18][19][20][21]} This season was also Payton's final full season in Seattle, as he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks midway through the next season.^{[22][23][24][25]} Also following the season, Baker and Shammond Williams were both traded to the Boston Celtics,^{[26][27][28][29]} and second-round draft pick Earl Watson signed as a free agent with the Memphis Grizzlies.^[30][31]

For the season, the SuperSonics changed their primary logo,^[32] and added new uniforms,^[33][34] going back to their traditional color scheme of emerald green and yellow. The logo and uniforms both remained in use until 2008.

Draft picks

Main article: 2001 NBA draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	College
1	12	Vladimir Radmanovic	SF/PF	Yugoslavia
2	39	Earl Watson	PG	United States	UCLA
2	41	Bobby Simmons	SF/PF	United States	DePaul

Roster

2001–02 Seattle SuperSonics roster

Players

Coaches

Pos. No. Player Height Weight DOB From F/C 42 Vin Baker 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 232 lb (105 kg) 1971–11–23 Hartford G/F 31 Brent Barry 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 185 lb (84 kg) 1971–12–31 Oregon State F/C 52 Calvin Booth  6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 230 lb (104 kg) 1976–05–07 Penn State F/C 14 Predrag Drobnjak 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 270 lb (122 kg) 1975–10–27 FR Yugoslavia C 33 Jerome James 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 300 lb (136 kg) 1975–11–17 Florida A&M F 7 Rashard Lewis 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 235 lb (107 kg) 1979–08–08 Alief Elsik HS (TX) G 9 Randy Livingston 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 209 lb (95 kg) 1975–04–02 LSU F 35 Art Long  6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 250 lb (113 kg) 1972–10–01 Cincinnati G/F 24 Desmond Mason 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 224 lb (102 kg) 1977–10–11 Oklahoma State C 00 Olumide Oyedeji 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 240 lb (109 kg) 1981–05–11 Nigeria G 20 Gary Payton 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 180 lb (82 kg) 1968–07–23 Oregon State F 77 Vladimir Radmanović 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 227 lb (103 kg) 1980–11–19 FR Yugoslavia F 45 Ansu Sesay 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 225 lb (102 kg) 1976–07–29 Mississippi G 25 Earl Watson 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 195 lb (88 kg) 1979–06–12 UCLA G 1 Shammond Williams 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 201 lb (91 kg) 1975–04–05 North Carolina

Head coach Nate McMillan Assistant(s) Dwane Casey Dwight Daub Dean Demopoulos Bob Weiss Legend (DP) Unsigned draft pick (FA) Free agent (S) Suspended Injured Roster

Roster Notes

• Point Guard Shammond Williams holds American and Georgian dual citizenship. He was born in the United States but he later played on the Georgian national team.

Regular season

Season standings

Pacific Division v t e	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	Div
y-Sacramento Kings	61	21	.744	–	36–5	25–16	15–9
x-Los Angeles Lakers	58	24	.707	3	34–7	24–17	16–8
x-Portland Trail Blazers	49	33	.598	12	30–11	19–22	14–10
x-Seattle SuperSonics	45	37	.549	16	26–15	19–22	13–11
e-Los Angeles Clippers	39	43	.476	22	25–16	14–27	9–15
e-Phoenix Suns	36	46	.439	25	23–18	13–28	12–12
e-Golden State Warriors	21	61	.256	40	14–27	7–34	5–19

#	Western Conference v t e
	Team	W	L	PCT	GB
1	z-Sacramento Kings	61	21	.744	–
2	y-San Antonio Spurs	58	24	.707	3
3	x-Los Angeles Lakers	58	24	.707	3
4	x-Dallas Mavericks	57	25	.695	4
5	x-Minnesota Timberwolves	50	32	.610	11
6	x-Portland Trail Blazers	49	33	.598	12
7	x-Seattle SuperSonics	45	37	.549	16
8	x-Utah Jazz	44	38	.537	17
9	e-Los Angeles Clippers	39	43	.476	22
10	e-Phoenix Suns	36	46	.439	25
11	e-Houston Rockets	28	54	.341	33
12	e-Denver Nuggets	27	55	.329	34
13	e-Memphis Grizzlies	23	59	.280	38
14	e-Golden State Warriors	21	61	.256	40

z - clinched division title

y - clinched division title

x - clinched playoff spot

Game log

Playoffs

2002 playoff game log
First round: 2–3 (home: 1–1; road: 1–2) Game Date Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location Attendance Series 1 April 20 @ San Antonio L 89–110 Vin Baker (22) Vin Baker (7) four players tied (2) Alamodome 23,634 0–1 2 April 22 @ San Antonio W 98–90 Gary Payton (21) Gary Payton (11) Gary Payton (5) Alamodome 23,059 1–1 3 April 27 San Antonio L 75–102 Gary Payton (20) Brent Barry (8) Gary Payton (6) KeyArena 17,072 1–2 4 May 1 San Antonio W 91–79 Gary Payton (28) Gary Payton (12) Gary Payton (11) KeyArena 17,072 2–2 5 May 3 @ San Antonio L 78–101 Gary Payton (23) Gary Payton (9) Gary Payton (5) Alamodome 23,369 2–3
2002 schedule

Player statistics

Legend

GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game

Season

Player	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Gary Payton	82	82	40.3	.467	.314	.797	4.8	9.0	1.6	0.3	22.1
Brent Barry	81	81	37.5	.508	.424	.846	5.4	5.3	1.8	0.5	14.4
Rashard Lewis	71	70	36.4	.468	.389	.810	7.0	1.7	1.5	0.6	16.8
Desmond Mason	75	20	32.3	.464	.271	.848	4.7	1.4	0.9	0.4	12.4
Vin Baker	55	41	31.1	.485	.125	.633	6.4	1.3	0.4	0.7	14.1
Vladimir Radmanovic	61	16	20.2	.412	.420	.681	3.8	1.3	0.9	0.4	6.7
Calvin Booth	15	15	18.6	.427		.958	3.6	1.1	0.4	0.9	6.2
Predrag Drobnjak	64	12	18.3	.461	.000	.753	3.4	0.8	0.3	0.5	6.8
Jerome James	56	40	16.9	.491		.500	4.1	0.4	0.4	1.5	5.3
Ansu Sesay	9	0	15.8	.500		.700	2.2	0.9	0.3	0.2	6.4
Art Long	63	27	15.7	.492		.529	4.0	0.7	0.3	0.4	4.5
Earl Watson	64	0	15.1	.453	.364	.639	1.3	2.0	0.9	0.1	3.6
Randy Livingston	13	0	13.5	.278	.125	.909	1.9	2.0	0.7	0.2	3.2
Shammond Williams	50	2	12.1	.420	.373	.795	1.3	1.7	0.4	0.0	4.4
Antonio Harvey	5	3	9.4	.333		.500	1.8	1.0	0.2	0.6	1.8
Olumide Oyedeji	36	1	6.1	.537		.611	2.2	0.1	0.1	0.1	1.5

Playoffs

Player	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Gary Payton	5	5	41.4	.425	.267	.586	8.6	5.8	0.6	0.4	22.2
Desmond Mason	5	5	41.0	.421	.333	.588	6.2	1.8	0.8	0.4	11.8
Brent Barry	5	5	29.8	.412	.438	1.000	4.6	2.8	0.6	0.8	7.8
Vin Baker	5	4	28.8	.500	1.000	.778	5.0	0.8	0.6	1.2	13.2
Rashard Lewis	3	2	26.3	.375	.167	1.000	3.7	0.7	0.3	0.0	12.7
Vladimir Radmanovic	5	2	22.6	.438	.538	1.000	3.6	1.0	0.2	0.2	7.6
Randy Livingston	5	0	16.0	.412	.333	1.000	1.2	2.0	0.4	0.0	4.0
Ansu Sesay	4	0	15.0	.375		1.000	3.5	1.0	0.0	1.0	1.8
Jerome James	5	1	14.0	.391		.000	2.4	0.8	0.0	1.0	3.6
Predrag Drobnjak	3	1	12.7	.333		.500	2.7	0.7	0.3	0.0	3.3
Shammond Williams	3	0	12.7	.429	.500	.667	1.3	1.0	0.7	0.0	5.3
Olumide Oyedeji	3	0	5.7	.800		.200	2.0	0.3	0.0	0.0	3.0

Player Statistics Citation:^[16]

Awards and records

• Gary Payton, All-NBA Second Team
• Gary Payton, NBA All-Defensive First Team
• Vladimir Radmanovic, NBA All-Rookie Team 2nd Team

Transactions