Russell Wilson credits NBA Jam for Sonics fandom

Russell Wilson (or a ghostwriter) took to The Players' Tribune on Tuesday, to explain his business interest in building a new arena for potential NBA and NHL franchises in the Emerald City.

Specifically, the Seahawks quarterback credited the '90s video game institution NBA Jam for making him fall in love with Shawn Kemp, Detlef Schrempf, and the Seattle SuperSonics franchise as a youngster.

"I know the arcade version we played at the mall had Kemp and Benoit Benjamin," Wilson's post reads. "For some reason, you couldn't pick Gary Payton. The rumor at school was that you could get him through a secret code, but I still don't know if that was real."

This sample on YouTube does include Payton (and Kemp), against a stunningly forgotten Dallas Mavericks combination of Jimmy Jackson and Jamal Mashburn:

"The NBA needs that green and gold back. Seattle needs basketball back," Wilson continued. "And hockey, too. (The Seattle Metropolitans won the Stanley Cup in 1917, in case you didn't know)."

The three-time Pro Bowler added that sports is a uniting force in a divided America, and that bringing two teams to a fair-sized market like Seattle would go beyond appeasing the city that lost the Sonics to Oklahoma City in 2008.

"We live in divisive times, and sports have a way of bringing people closer together," Wilson wrote. "I want kids in Seattle to grow up dreaming of playing basketball or hockey for their hometown team."