Mike Vorel The Seattle Times
SEATTLE — Hate is not the foremost feeling here.
It’s 7:41 p.m. on Friday, and a “Let’s Go Pacers” chant bounces off the walls of Ballard’s original sports bar. It may be the first such chant Mike’s Chili Parlor has experienced in its 103 years. In a booth, Mike Semandiris (the bar’s fourth-generation owner) sits across from Donald Watts (the former Husky hooper and son of Sonics legend Slick Watts).
The bar, like the booth, has hosted generations of Seattle sports.
“I like to call ourselves ‘Ballard’s Original Sports Bar,’ because there was always sports going on here,” Semandiris says. “Even before you had a million channels, I’m telling you, we used to listen to sports on the radio here. You’d listen to the game and people would focus on it.
“I grew up with a Nerf hoop on my family’s front door, listening to Bob Blackburn with Freddie Brown and Slick Watts and Spencer Haywood. That’s where my Sonics dumb (love) starts.”
People are also reading…
Tonight is not about dumb love.
It’s about cold, hard hate.
At least, that’s the premise for an Oklahoma City Thunder hate-watch party. Seventeen years after the Sonics were shockingly shipped to Oklahoma City and rebranded in orange, black and blue, the Thunder began Game 4 of the NBA Finals three games from their first title. They’re led by 26-year-old league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, as well as a core that could dominate for the next decade.
But at 7:41 p.m. on Friday, the haters have hope. The upstart Indiana Pacers hold a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series and an 87-80 edge after three frantic quarters at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. In a brick building nestled by the Ballard Bridge since 1939, Sonics fans chant for a team 2,200 miles away.
In the enemy of their enemy, these fans have found a friend.
“I didn’t want to care,” says Jeff Roman, donning a green Sonics 1979 NBA title T-shirt and flowing black hair. “But for some reason I just had to be here to watch this.”
Adds Mike Seely, who’s sporting an obscure Ansu Sesay Sonics jersey: “I’m not a person who likes a lot of hatred in my life, but some grudges are worth holding onto. This is one of them.”
At Mike’s Chili Parlor, they’ve held onto so much more. Like the trademark sign, beckoning above the building. Like the art deco bar, black stools and indestructible grill — all of which have been here since 1939. Like the photo of Semandiris’ great-grandfather Mike, grandpa George and father Phil ladling a bowl of chili. Like the recipe, never written, which only the owner knows.
Like the land itself. When a developer inquired about buying it in 2006, Phil (profanely) refused.
“The guy tried to come in and big-time my dad a little bit, and my dad was like, ‘(Expletive) beat it. We’re not interested,’ ” says Semandiris, 59. “We’re not getting rich here, but we’re not bound by some lease. I love the community and seeing people in here. I don’t have a ton of money, but I can pay the bills. I’m not going to get rich here, but being a part of the community is as big as anything.”
That community doesn’t look like it did. After emigrating from Greece, Mike Semandiris — whose great-grandson was gifted his name — started selling chili from a cart in 1922. His clientele included Ballard’s commercial fishermen, longshoremen, lumber workers and welders.
Now, there’s a Trader Joe’s, an LA Fitness, an acai bar, two hair salons and a Top Pot Doughnuts sharing the shopping center towering beside the bar.
But Mike’s Chili Parlor is a time capsule that can’t be buried.
Here, the Sonics never left. There’s hope and love (and hate).
“I can’t think of any other place I would want to be,” Roman says, “especially for a Seattle event such as this.”
Somehow, a game between Oklahoma City and Indiana qualifies as a Seattle event. Why else would Gary Payton and Vin Baker jerseys jam into corner booths? Why else would the bartender wear a black T-shirt of Jimi Hendrix in a Sonics jersey? Why else would Semandiris, who skipped school to attend the 1979 championship parade, show off a 46-year-old mug from the same season?
Why else would Trevor Pratt be here, sitting at the bar?
Pratt, who hails from Snohomish, grew up watching games with his great grandma, Lillian Raben — the biggest Sonics fan he knew.
“She knew every single player on the 1996 Sonics, from Hersey Hawkins to Detlef Schrempf to Shawn Kemp to Gary Payton to Nate McMillan,” Pratt says. “She knew everybody by name, and she was 92. My mother would drive me (15 miles) from Snohomish to Sultan just to watch the games with my great grandma, because she knew I was a diehard Sonics fan. We were very, very connected — probably more so than anyone in my family — just from watching the team.”
Nearly three decades later, Pratt is still watching now.
And because it’s a Seattle sporting event, you know what happens next.
The Thunder rip off a 16-7 run to even the series with a 111-104 win. Gilgeous-Alexander scores 15 of his 35 points in the final five minutes, and a standing-room-only crowd at Mike’s Chili Parlor is punished for their chants.
“We’ll see you all on Thursday for game six!” Semandiris stands and says.
That’s the solace for Indiana: They’ll get another game.
There’s no guarantee for the abandoned SuperSonics, though their return appears increasingly imminent. This month, NBA commissioner Adam Silver indicated that the league’s owners could authorize the start of a formal expansion process at the next Board of Governors meeting in July.
Will more generations watch Sonics basketball at Ballard’s original sports bar?
We know what great grandma Raben and Slick Watts would want.
But on Friday, a “hate watch” will work.
“It was a hate watch. But at the same time, it was very much love of the community,” Pratt says after it’s over, standing outside the bar. “I think everybody here is sad to see OKC win tonight, but at the same time I think everybody here is probably happier to feel the Sonics community and be around each other.”
Hate was the headliner. But Sonics love, like the bar, can’t be buried. Both are here to stay.
0 Comments
Be the first to know
Get local news delivered to your inbox!