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The basketball culture in Seattle is rolling strong coming into 2017 WNBA All-Star Game.  Getty Images

Let's observe a few significant dates to Seattle basketball fans. September 16, 2010: That would be the day the city won its last professional basketball championship, an 87-84 win by the Seattle Storm over the Atlanta Dream to give the city its second WNBA championship.

How about July 22, 2017, the date of the WNBA All-Star Game, the first time an all-star professional basketball event has been within the city limits since 1987 when Tom Chambers of the Seattle SuperSonics was the game MVP.

But those dates are likely foreign to many outside the city limits and even some within Seattle who have craved professional men's basketball to return to their city, so let's start with a date almost everyone in Seattle -- and Oklahoma City -- knows well: July 2, 2008.

"I know people who were born and raised in Seattle, love basketball, loved the Sonics, and they were devastated and vowed to never watch the NBA again," Seattle Storm guard Sami Whitcomb said. "And I know people who followed through with that. I know people who still don't watch NBA because of that and it destroyed them as basketball fans."

'Save our Sonics'

While the SuperSonics weren't officially "gone" from Seattle until July 2, the strife and despair of the fanbase was felt well before that day. The Sonics were sold to Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett on Oct. 20, 2006 for $350 million, beginning the slow, agonizing exodus from its home.

The sale began a nearly two-year process during which Bennett was fined by the NBA for saying, "We didn't buy the team to keep it in Seattle. We hoped to come here [to Oklahoma City]," and fans held a "Save Our Sonics" rally outside Seattle's federal courthouse to protest the inevitable move. And once it was official and the team traded its iconic green and yellow for the blue and orange of the Oklahoma City Thunder, there was a power vacuum in one of the country's most basketball-obsessed cities.

The Storm, who also won a WNBA title in 2004, have stepped in admirably -- but the city's favorite sports child had been taken. Thus began desperate pleas for another franchise. When any team was rumored to be on the move, Seattle fans' ears perk up -- most recently happened when the Sacramento Kings became the closest team to take up residency in Seattle in 2013 before the NBA Board of Governors Relocation Committee voted unanimously to keep the franchise in Northern California.

And ever since then, any time potential expansion is brought up there is an audible cry from the Pacific Northwest while the three other major basketball teams in the area watch, resigned to backseat status. Even an All-Star Game can't solve that.

The Other Guys (and Women)

With a sudden opening in the hearts and minds of Seattleites, it seemed like perfect timing when the Storm won it all in 2010. Whitcomb, who was in college at Washington in Seattle, said the celebration was special, even for people like her who hadn't grown up in the area.

"It was amazing," she said. "It was how any championship is. It's so exciting, but I think that one was really special, for me, because I wasn't around for the first one. So it felt like the first one for me. So I loved it being so into basketball at the time was really fun. But I think they had such a great following that it was a really special time."

The Storm were in a special position. There was a thirst for basketball from an area that's produced Isaiah Thomas, Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson, Jason Terry and Brandon Roy. The city had one of the WNBA's best coaches in Brian Agler, but it never appeared to be enough.

Last season, the Storm ranked No. 6 in the 12-team WNBA in attendance with an average of 7,230 fans per game. The next highest team -- the Indiana Fever -- brought in more than 1,000 more fans per game, averaging 8,575 per game. And for a bit more reference, Thomas' 2011-12 college team at U-Dub attracted 8,785.

So why is it a struggle to get Seattle fans to come out? According to many, the support may be a bit more intimate but it's strong. Matt Pentz, who covered sports at the Seattle Times from 2007-17 (predominantly the Sounders and the Reign), said gender bias toward sports is somewhat "flattened" in Seattle, but there's nothing like having an NBA franchise.

"I think there's collectively an appetite for women's sports that I think are on a level playing field than it is anywhere else," Pentz said. "The one thing I would say is them losing the Sonics was this very, I don't want to say traumatic experience, but that was such a central part of the cities sporting identity.

"And I think it does make sense to me on some level that people still long for that because no matter how you fill that void, whether it's a college or a WNBA team, it's a very specific void that can't be filled."

College Daze

Those Washington teams also struggle to draw the same intrigue and level of support that the Sonics had, despite NBA talents like Thomas, Dejounte Murray, Marquese Chriss and 2017 No. 1 overall picks Kelsey Plum and Markelle Fultz plying their talents in Alaska Airlines Arena in recent years.

Plum said there wasn't a great deal of interest in her Huskies team when she was a freshman, but as the team got better, fans came out.

"Oh, we were super supported and I think it goes to the saying, 'When you win, they'll come,' " she said. "My freshman year was pretty low. My sophomore year: Low. Then my junior year when we went to the Final Four, I think that grew a huge base of appreciation and fans. And then my senior year it just kinda took off."

And Plum Fever did indeed take hold during that Final Four run as she also became the all-time leading scorer in women's NCAA history. Plum was selected by the San Antonio Stars, but has started slowly. Nonetheless, Seattle welcomed her back like royalty when the Stars visited KeyArena.

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Plum was given quite the greeting when she returned to Seattle on June 16. Getty Images

"It was crazy. I think they had almost sold-out capacity. Just to kinda hear my name called and everybody erupt was pretty cool," Plum said. "It was just really special because I don't think that would happen to very many players."

Back to reality 

Despite the jolt from Plum's return, the thirst for the NBA looms. It doesn't take a deep dive into social media to find the craving. Tweets and Instagram posts and long Facebook soliloquies about a franchise ripped from the area.

But don't let a perceived lack of support, a longing for an NBA team and a couple poor showings deceive you. The culture in Seattle is still strong, as Sue Bird is likely to talk about during her special before the All-Star Game on ABC at 3 p.m. Saturday about her adopted city and the fervor for basketball in the area.

"It's a dream. I love Seattle, I love being here," Whitcomb said. "I love being a part of that community and it's amazing being able to come back at a time that's really exciting for Storm basketball."

She's not the only one that regularly sings Seattle's praises, as everyone interviewed for this story said the basketball culture in Seattle is incredibly special. 

"Oh my gosh. I think being able to go to school in Seattle for the past four years, I didn't realize how much they love their sports until I left. And I think just in particularly for me, basketball," Plum said. "It doesn't really matter what sport I think. They really treasure their athletes."

And on its most significant date in years, Seattle will have the perfect event to showcase its culture to the world.