SuperSonics, Jazz Aren’t Surprised at Low Billing

The Seattle SuperSonics and Utah Jazz exist on the wrong side of the galaxy in a sort of parallel NBA universe.

Sure, their conference final series in the West is just as important as the one in the East, but the Jazz and SuperSonics aren’t the glamour teams and are having to settle for second-class treatment.

That’s why the Western Conference finals begin this afternoon--barely 36 hours after the Jazz eliminated the San Antonio Spurs in the second round--and not Sunday.

“Nobody’s talking about the West. They want prime time for the prime teams,” Karl Malone said Friday after the Jazz practiced in Salt Lake City. “On Saturday, half the dads will be out fishing with their kids, so they won’t watch anyway.”

Today’s starting time--and the reasons behind it--came as no surprise to the SuperSonics and Jazz, teams that have endured a season away from the limelight while the rest of the country has been following the Chicago Bulls’ pursuit of NBA records.

Now that the playoffs are down to four teams, even the Jazz and SuperSonics realize that the average fan wants to watch Michael and Shaq, not Detlef and Jeff.

“We’re out here in the West and we don’t play good basketball out here, we don’t have any athletes,” Malone joked.

The exact opposite is true, of course.

Seattle had the second-best record in the league (64-18) despite playing in a conference that has more good teams than the East, and the SuperSonics eliminated the two-time defending champion Houston Rockets with a four-game sweep after beating the Sacramento Kings, 3-1, in the first round.

“We’ve been waiting too long,” Gary Payton said. “We’ve been sitting around for the last five days. We’ve been seeing a lot of film, getting a lot of looks at everything. Now we’re ready to go.”

Seattle won the season series 3-1, losing the first game by 18 points before winning the next three by 1, 2 and 9.

“Those games were a lot different from the games going on right now,” Shawn Kemp said. “These games here are in the playoffs. They’re much more intense, much more physical. They’re different type games.”

Kemp was outplayed by Malone in the season series, but all-star point guards John Stockton and Payton played to a draw. The difference in Seattle’s three victories was Detlef Schrempf, who averaged almost 21 points.