When you dig up old game highlights from the archives, he jumps through the screen. Stealing the ball here, scooping the ball underhand for a basket there, making passes, leading the break.Bob Blackburn, the radio voice of the old Sonics, exclaims at one point, "Boy, this crowd is crazy! Slick Watts gets his hands on the ball and they go nutty!" Seattle was absolutely WILD about Slick Watts.
One time I got him and his son Donald, a high school star at the time, to play one-on-one in their driveway. Donald eventually led the University of Washington to a pair of NCAA tournaments. He was a damned fine basketball player in his own right. The video archives at KOMO News are filled with shots of Donald driving to the basket, and then the camera would cut away to the stands, where Slick would be so filled with glee that he would actually break into dance from his seat. Pure joy.
And then, one of those unthinkable gut punches that life occasionally throws at people to test their limits: Donald had a stroke.A tough situation became almost unbearable. Donald has fought hard to regain function, to get back to the family business, to keep his dad going.. Donald sits now where his dad used to sit: in the stands, cheering on his boy.Slick points at Isaiah, and the kid erupts.
"All I'd say is it's a blessing my man is here, ain't that right, big fella?" Donald says, and he kisses Slick's head, too. "Gimme some," he says, and the two of them touch their heads together.