You've seen the short proclamations around Seattle, on billboards along the highways and byways.

They are designed to capture the spirit of the SuperSonics and their coach: ALL BALL, ALL DESIRE, ALL HEART.

Last night in their regular-season opener, the Sonics, even with all those unrecognizable names and faces, just might be ALL RIGHT after all.

Not great, but highly competitive. They kept it together in one of the NBA's toughest environments against one of the NBA's better teams, ultimately dropping a 101-95 decision to the Sacramento Kings that easily could have gone the other way.

Trailing 98-91, the Sonics cut the deficit to five when Gary Payton sliced in for a finger roll with 1:14 left. Vladimir Radmanovic, the Sonics' first-round draft pick, had a chance to cut it to three, but missed two free throws with 18.3 seconds left.