Seattle SuperSonics

• 1. Introduction

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  The Seattle SuperSonics played their last home game on the 13th of April 2008, beating the Dallas Mavericks 99-95 while the crowd chanted "Save our Sonics" and a 19-year-old Kevin Durant waved back at them. It was the final act of a franchise that had existed for 41 seasons, won an NBA championship, and produced some of the most decorated players in league history. How did a team with that kind of legacy end up relocating to Oklahoma City? What forces, financial and political, conspired to end professional basketball in Seattle? And what does it mean that the story might not be over?

• 2. Born in a Boardroom

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  Security analyst Dick Vertlieb and script writer Don Richman started the whole thing with a shared dream and a surprisingly modest entry fee. In 1965, an NBA franchise cost $1.75 million, and the two men set out to find a city with a quality arena and willing investors. Seattle was their third choice; Cleveland and Pittsburgh had already fallen through. The pair zeroed in on Sam Schulman and Gene Klein, who already owned the San Diego Chargers of the AFL, after hearing about their consortium. Schulman and Klein didn't have the full sum, so Vertlieb and Richman guided them to serve as the public-facing partners by putting up a $100,000 performance bond while Vertlieb and Richman raised the rest. On the 20th of December 1966, Schulman and Klein were awarded the franchise, making the SuperSonics Seattle's first major-league sports team. The name arrived on the 11th of January 1967, chosen as a nod to Boeing's recent contract for a supersonic transport project. Richman became general manager and hired Al Bianchi as the first head coach before both men left the organization by 1969. The team debuted on the 13th of October 1967 in San Francisco, losing to the Warriors 144-116. Their first win came eight days later, a 117-110 overtime victory against the San Diego Rockets.

• 3. The Wilkens Years

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  Before the 1968-69 season, the SuperSonics traded Walt Hazzard to the Atlanta Hawks for Lenny Wilkens, a move that reoriented the franchise. Wilkens averaged 22.4 points, 8.2 assists and 6.2 rebounds per game in his first Seattle season, and he led the NBA in assists the following year. Bob Rule improved his numbers to 24.0 points and 11.5 rebounds per game that same season. When the team fell to 30 wins, Bianchi was replaced by Wilkens as player-coach. Wilkens was named the 1971 All-Star Game MVP, and the arrival of ABA Rookie of the Year and MVP Spencer Haywood, won through a lengthy court battle by owner Schulman, produced the franchise's first winning season at 47-35. Haywood set a SuperSonics record that still stands, averaging 29.2 points per game during the 1972-73 season while also pulling down 12.9 rebounds per game. That was the year after Wilkens was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a move the fanbase considered deeply unpopular, and without him the team fell to 26-56. The pattern of the Wilkens years established something the franchise would return to repeatedly: individual brilliance alongside inconsistent team construction.

• 4. The Championship

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  Bill Russell arrived as head coach in 1974 and took the SuperSonics to the playoffs for the first time. A roster featuring Haywood, Fred Brown, Slick Watts and rookie center Tommy Burleson defeated the Detroit Pistons before losing to the eventual champion Golden State Warriors in six games. After the team traded Haywood to the New York Knicks, Watts led the NBA in assists and steals and was named to the All-NBA Defensive First Team, while Brown finished fifth in the league in scoring. Russell left after the 1976-77 season, and the team stumbled to a 5-17 start under new coach Bob Hopkins. Wilkens was brought back, and the SuperSonics immediately won 11 of their first 12 games under him. They finished 47-35, won the Western Conference title, and took the Washington Bullets to seven games in the 1978 NBA Finals before losing. The following year, after center Marvin Webster departed for New York, the roster held together and the Sonics won their first division title. In the playoffs they defeated the Phoenix Suns in seven games in the conference finals, then beat the Bullets in five games in a rematch to claim the franchise's only NBA championship. The 1979 championship roster included Finals MVP Dennis Johnson, Gus Williams, second-year All-Star center Jack Sikma, forwards John Johnson and Lonnie Shelton, and reserves Fred Brown and Paul Silas. The 1979-80 season brought a then-NBA record regular season average attendance of 21,725 fans per game.

• 5. The Payton-Kemp Era

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  Shawn Kemp was drafted in 1989 and Gary Payton in 1990, but the franchise didn't find its footing until George Karl arrived as head coach in 1992. That first full season under Karl, the Sonics posted a 55-27 record and pushed the Phoenix Suns to seven games in the Western Conference Finals. In the 1993-94 season, Seattle had the best record in the NBA at 63-19, then suffered a historic first-round loss to the Denver Nuggets, becoming the first number-one seed to fall to an eighth seed in NBA history. The 1995-96 team posted a franchise-best 64-18 record. The roster that year included Kemp, Payton, Detlef Schrempf, Sam Perkins, Hersey Hawkins and Nate McMillan; it reached the NBA Finals but lost in six games to the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls. Payton earned the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award in 1996 and went on to make the All-NBA First Team in 1998 and 2000. Gary Payton's career franchise records are remarkable in scope: 999 games played, 18,207 points, 7,384 assists, and 2,107 steals. At the end of the 1997-98 season, Karl departed after disagreements with management, and the team's run as a Western Conference powerhouse ended with his exit.

• 6. The Sale and Departure

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  From 2001 to 2006, Howard Schultz, the Starbucks chairman emeritus, led ownership of the SuperSonics through the Basketball Club of Seattle LLP, with 58 partners. On the 18th of July 2006, after failing to secure state funding to update KeyArena, Schultz sold the franchise along with the WNBA's Seattle Storm to Professional Basketball Club LLC for $350 million. The buyer was Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett. Schultz later said he believed Bennett would keep the team in Seattle. After Bennett's group failed to win $500 million in public funding for a new arena in the Seattle suburb of Renton, they notified the NBA of their intent to relocate. Seattle sued to enforce the SuperSonics' lease at KeyArena, which ran through 2010. On the 18th of April 2008, NBA owners voted 28-2 to approve the potential relocation, with only Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks and Paul Allen of the Portland Trail Blazers opposing it. On the 2nd of July 2008, a settlement was reached: Bennett's group paid $45 million to Seattle, with an additional $30 million possible by 2013 if no new team had been awarded to the city. Months before the settlement, Seattle publicly released emails from within Bennett's ownership group that appeared to show intent to relocate before the purchase. SuperSonics co-owner Aubrey McClendon told The Journal Record that the group did not buy the team to keep it in Seattle. Under the settlement terms, the SuperSonics' banners, trophies and retired jerseys remained in Seattle.

• 7. The Long Wait

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  After the team left, a group of Seattle filmmakers called the Seattle SuperSonics Historical Preservation Society produced a documentary titled Sonicsgate - Requiem For A Team, which won the 2010 Webby Award for Best Sports Film. Efforts to bring the NBA back began almost immediately. In 2011, hedge fund founder Chris Hansen began talking with Seattle mayor Mike McGinn about investing in an arena. By September 2012, the King County Council unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding with Hansen that included personal guarantees from him covering construction overruns and a $40 million transportation fund financed by arena tax revenue. Hansen's partners included Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and brothers Erik and Peter Nordstrom of the fashion retailer Nordstrom, Inc. In January 2013, reports emerged of a proposed $525 million purchase of the Sacramento Kings to relocate to Seattle. The NBA's Board of Governors ultimately voted 22-8 against moving the Kings, and Sacramento assembled a rival ownership group that kept the franchise in place. A later attempt to acquire the Milwaukee Bucks was reported at more than $600 million, but owner Herb Kohl would only entertain offers that kept the team in Milwaukee. The KeyArena renovation, completed ahead of the 2021-22 seasons and renamed Climate Pledge Arena, reopened the door. During their meetings on the 24th and the 25th of March 2026, the NBA's Board of Governors unanimously voted to explore adding an expansion team in Seattle and Las Vegas.