HEY JAY. Your slipping on posting. Seattle Sonics Slick Watts passes at 73

[sunshine11]

What a sad day here hearing the news. Gus Williams now Slick and others. Means we’re getting old.

 

[sunshine11]

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After his playing career, Watts became a physical education teacher at Dearborn Park Elementary school and High Point Elementary school. He also coached basketball at Franklin High School in the Seattle area and took up tennis. In 2001, Watts spent 22 days in a hospital with sarcoidosis, which caused his weight to drop by almost 50 pounds before his condition improved. He ended his post-basketball career teaching physical education for nearly 20 years at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary (formerly named Brighton Elementary) in Seattle before retiring in 2017. In April 2021, three months before his 70th birthday, Watts suffered a major stroke.In March 2025, Slick died at the age of 73

 

[sunshine11]

 

[BigJay]

@sunshine11

 

[sunshine11]

His passing on Saturday came on the same day that many former teammates and members of the Seattle basketball community were gathering for a celebration in honor of Gus Williams, who passed away in January.

Two iconic figures integral to the story of Seattle basketball and the SuperSonics gone within a matter of weeks

 

[sunshine11]

 

[sunshine11]

Slick Watts waves to the crowd during a preseason game in 2018.

 

[sunshine11]

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[sunshine11]

No sonic fans here.

 

[BigJay]

Slick Watts waves to the crowd during a preseason game in 2018.

Love this pic Sunny rocking the headband like his playing days

 

[sunshine11]

Must have been in october of that year. RIP

 

[keithrichard]

No sonic fans here.

Only Sonic guy I loved was Dennis Johnson before he was rescued by the Celtics.

 

[BigJay]

Only Sonic guy I loved was Dennis Johnson before he was rescued by the Celtics.

DJ was great and doesn’t get a lot of credit for the Celtics run

He was the perfect compliment to Bird, McHale, Chief

And another of dozens of great moves by Red