In 1996, a strong Sonics team, fresh off an NBA Finals appearance, was looking for something that would put them over the hump and enable them to defeat the Chicago Bulls team led by Michael Jordan. The team had one of the league's most respected duos in All-Stars Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, and a solid group of scorers in the middle of the lineup with shooting guard Hersey Hawkins and small forward Detlef Schrempf. However, the center position was lacking in depth, and currently being filled by 6-foot-9 Sam "Big Smooth" Perkins, who was too small for his position and was falling from his physical peak (Perkins averaged only 26.5 minutes per game in 1996). The team's young backup center, Ervin Johnson, had not yet proven that he could play competitively at the professional level. Hoping to fill the void, Sonics management offered a seven-year, $33.6 million free-agent contract to McIlvaine, who was at the time an unproven second-year player coming off a season in which he averaged only 2.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and two blocks per game for the Washington Bullets.
Seattle fans were upset, and so was superstar forward Kemp, who had been asking for a contract increase after leading the team to a franchise-record 64 wins and its best postseason performance in 17 years. The decision by Seattle's front office to deny Kemp a salary increase and to award a largely uncoveted, unproven center with such a large-scale offer is widely thought to have hurt the team's chemistry [1]. Following the 1997 season in which McIlvaine averaged 3.8 points and 2.00 blocks per game, Seattle would be the authors of a league-altering three-team trade that effectively sent Kemp to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for the Milwaukee Bucks' Vin Baker, with the Cavaliers' Terrell Brandon and Tyrone Hill going to Milwaukee.
(Quelle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_McIlvaine)