Tonight’s Monday Night Football game is in Seattle, a town that was once home to a really good basketball franchise – the Seattle SuperSonics – which was rudely ripped away from them back in 2008 and is now the Oklahoma City Thunder.
If you watched the NBA in the 1990s you know how great Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton were to watch. They faced Michael Jordan and the Bulls in the 1996 NBA Finals and lost in six great games.
ESPN paid tribute to those days by featuring Kemp and Payton in their intro for Monday night’s Vikings-Seahawks game and it was pretty great.
Check out this wonderful piece of nostalgia:
Not surprising, @GaryPayton_20 and Shawn Kemp know how to hype up a game … @BringBackSonics! pic.twitter.com/CfU2npj1tS
— Justin Reed (@JustinReed99) December 3, 2019
It had fans wanting the Sonics to make a return to their home, something which the NBA should do some day with an expansion team:
Bring back the Sonics. pic.twitter.com/b3yLq2iYfp
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) December 3, 2019
🗣BRING BACK THE SONICS
Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp make an appearance on MNF 🔥
— Whistle (@WhistleSports) December 3, 2019
Seeing Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton hype up the Vikings-Seahawks game just reminds me that I miss the Seattle Supersonics… #MINvsSEA #BringBackTheSonics pic.twitter.com/h0zEfw5ghB
— ThreeD is LIMITLESS 🚫🧢 (@my3Dmind) December 3, 2019
Goosebumps. #BringBackTheSonics 🏀 https://t.co/zqsZ74PM2b
— ItsMeJoanie.🌺 (@JoanieX2) December 3, 2019
"Shawn Kemp " and Gary Payton man one the best duo's ever to play in the NBA. Bring back the Sonics!
— Derrick Mitchell Sr (@BigD_Roc23) December 3, 2019
Them @BringBackSonics Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton doing intro is the energy I need in my life 😤 @Seahawks #mnf #SeavsMin
— BScotty39 (@BScotty_39) December 3, 2019
Oh man! Payton and Kemp!!! #gohawks #bringbackthesonics https://t.co/jUdWjKgQ5L
— James McFarland (@sirjames77) December 3, 2019
Oh man, that MNF intro with Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp… #BringBackTheSonics
— Matt T. Michigan 9-3 Lions 3-8-1 Pistons 6-13 (@michiganlions) December 3, 2019