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Wally Walker {Link without Title} (born Walter Frederick Walker) was born on July 18, 1954 in Millersville, Pennsylvania . Walker is best known for his NBA career - both as a player and as a front office executive - for the Seattle SuperSonics .


PLAYING CAREER

His playing career was largely unstellar, with career averages of 7.0 points and 3.1 rebounds {Link without Title} during eight years with Portland, Seattle and Houston. After retiring in 1984, Walker enrolled in - and received an MBA from and consultant for his former team, the Seattle SuperSonics , owned by, Barry Ackerley.


FRONT OFFICE

Following the 1993-94 season - despite having no prior NBA front office experience - Walker was promoted by Ackerley to General Manager of the team. The Sonics would continue to be successful for the next four seasons with a roster built primarily around players acquired by former GM Bob Whitsitt, including Gary Payton , Shawn Kemp , Detlef Schrempf , Sam Perkins , Vincent Askew and Nate McMillan .

However, Walker's standing with Seattle fans would begin to turn south following the 1995-96 season when Walker signed unproven center, Jim MacIlvaine , to a seven-year, $33.6 million contract, and refused to re-negotiate a considerably lower contract previously signed by team star, Shawn Kemp . Walker further angered and perplexed fans by his refusal to re-sign popular and successful coach, George Karl , who would go on to appear in five playoffs between 1999-2005 as coach of the Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets . Karl lead the Bucks to within one win of the NBA Finals in 2001, while the Sonics would make only three playoff appearances during this six-year period.

From there the team steadily declined from its peak of the early- and mid-90s, and was regularly out of the playoffs by the first half of the next decade. Despite this, Walker continued to hand out inflated, long-term contracts to centers and power forwards who were unproven, including Jerome James and Vin Baker . Jerome James would be the only of these players to advance to the second round of the playoffs after signing with the Sonics.

On April 13, 2004, Wally Walker made national headlines when a plane towing a banner reading, "Go Sonics - Fire Wally!" was flown near Key Arena prior to a game against the Houston Rockets. The flight and banner were paid for by a group of Sonics fans dubbed SFU (Sonics Fans United)[http://firewallywalker.com/blog/?page_id=2 . The Sonics would lose the game, and finished the season 21-20 at home ... their worst home record in nearly 20 seasons.

In an October, 2005 article with local sportswriter Frank Hughes {Link without Title} , Walker uttered the infamous line, "I am responsible for all of it" in reference to his power and decision-making within the organization. As of December 28, 2005, the Sonics were 12-15, and in third place in the weakest division in the league. They are currently on pace to miss the playoffs for the fifth time in the last eight seasons.