A Brief History

The Oklahoma City Thunder franchise began in 1967 as the Seattle Super Sonics and remained in Seattle for 47 years until the 2008 move to Oklahoma City.  As part of the city of Seattle, the Sonics the franchise posted a 1745-1585 (.524) regular season record and won three Western Conference Championships and one NBA Title.

A number of Hall of Famers graced the Sonics uniform to include; Patrick Ewing, K.C. Jones, Bill Russell and Lenny Wilkens (who also coached the team to its only championship in 1979).  As a part of the Sonics, the franchise retired seven numbers 1 (Gus Williams), 10 (Nate McMillan), 19 (Lenny Wilkens), 24 (Spencer Haywood), 32 (Freddy Brown), 43 (Jack Sikma) and 19 again (Lenny Wilkens as a Coach).

In the aftermath of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Hornets played the majority of their home games at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, clearly showing NBA Commissioner David Stern that the city could support a franchise of its own.  When the city of Seattle and the Super Sonics franchise failed to reach an agreement on funding to update Key Arena, Howard Schultz sold the team to Professional Basketball LLC led by Oklahoma City businessman Clayton Bennett who then notified the NBA that he was moving the team to Oklahoma City.