If he waits til year 35 then it’ll all be full circle 

He signed the blood oath. It is not his decision to make.

He was 19 when he played for Seattle. He’s been in the NBA longer than he was alive when he got drafted by the Sonics. Wild !

You also need to beat him in a game 7 first

Like Earth… unless you’re Kyrie

Excited to have you not hate us too man.

Now I fully expect Clay Bennett to pick up the phone, buy the Seahawks, move them to OKC, and call them the OKCHawks.

What do you mean? That’s the start of a new rivalry. Late the hate flow

You can do both. In fact, you SHOULD do both.

Well, you’d stop hating them as a Sonics fan but it would probably take like two weeks for you to start hating them again as a basketball fan

I am excited for that too, unless you guys just want to keep running with the rivalry and actually have smoke in the game now

I’ll just hate them with 90% of the fibers of my being now

I for one plan on starting to hate okc even more.

I didn’t know that! That’s really cool. The MOHAI may have the coolest location of any museum other than the Met

I had to go search this up because there is no way Westbrook only scored 11k points in OKC when he was such a high volume player and mostly an iron man

Westbrook had 18800 points as a member of the Thunder. GP had 18200 as a member of the Sonics

OKC was a total rebrand whereas the Lakers just relocated. Not like championships are tied to geographic location anyways

But the only retired jersey hanging in the OKC arena is #4 Nick Collison.

They aren’t hanging from the rafters though.

Was this a Supersonics’ tradition?

When we won the ship last year and ESPN/ABC mentioned the 79 championship, both fanbases were pissed about it.

It’s typical that legacy sports media would fuck something like that up. All they had to do was look in the rafters and not see the 79 banner hanging to get a clue to ask a question.

Because that’s how they’re officially recognized by the NBA. OKC saying “nah we’re cool, we don’t need to recognize those” as a kind gesture is just that: a gesture.

No, this is more like if when the Jets moved to Phoenix, Phoenix agreed to let the Jets keep all the history and logos. It’s actually basically like when the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens, but Cleveland kept the history and logos.

OKC is still technically recognized as the same franchise by the NBA, but in practical terms OKC recognizes itself as a seperate franchise

settlement means that the involved parties agree with the terms. okc wasn’t forced to do this.

edit: if we’re going to stick to the letter and spirit of the agreement, then we have to acknowledge that the thunder is not obligated to return any of the sonics history because 1) it’s been more than 5 years, and 2) the team probably won’t be playing in key arena.

don’t get your panties in a twist, though. the thunder will probably allow the new seattle team to take ownership of sonics history out of the kindness of their hearts.

There has been some minor doubt the past year. Silver had some comments about prioritizing their idea for a European league and put the 2-team expansion on the backburner.

Some people think that was just posturing to drive up the prices for the NBA expansion, but either way that has been in the air.

Yeah, I think the NHL getting the golden knights and kraken really showed the NBA how hungry that community is for sports. Especially with the Golden Knights winning the Stanley cup in their first 6 years.

Vegas and Seattle for sure need a team. As much as I really want Vancouver. I really doubt that community would support an NBA team. (Especially if the Aquilini family has any type of hold on it)

Isn’t it pretty much an open secret at this point that it’s Las Vegas and Seattle

It was announced this morning there will be a vote next week, it isn’t even a secret at this point 

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/48221805/sources-nba-set-1st-vote-las-vegas-seattle-expansion

The NBA will hold a vote at the board of governors meetings next week to explore adding expansion teams exclusively in Las Vegas and Seattle, sources told ESPN, with the two new franchises being targeted to start play in the 2028-29 season.

I’d rather see San Diego get a team than Las Vegas. San Diego metro area has a million more people, and I just don’t like Las Vegas.

I don’t want to get my hopes too high until the vote is counted and done and it’s a confirmed thing the Sonics are coming back haha

It’s been an open secret for years but Silver has also constantly talked about expansion without making a decision on it so it was more of a question of when rather than if

The man loves Seattle. Not in a “yeah, I’m from there, it’s great” kind of way. And let’s be real: Orlando vs Seattle? Come on lol

There is the added fact that the team will be coming back from hiatus. He would instantly become a fan favorite across the city, and his jersey would absolutely be one of the highest selling jerseys in the league. When the team has been around the whole time you are in the league it’s different, but coming home to lead the team in their first years back is how you become a legend

His mom hates Orlando and he never corrects her.

Personally I don’t care if he leaves, he’s a great player but he’s not a supermax player.

Can’t protect him from free agency

That is wrong. If the Thunder wanted, they could keep the history. The provision was a 5 year window. Aka, Seattle would’ve needed a new team within 5 years (clearly that passed) to retain their history. So by legal standings, OKC fully owns the rights and could keep it forever.

However, OKC has literally said every time when asked about it that they will willingly give it all back and don’t want it.

Because they lied all throughout the purchase process, said they had no desire to move the team (and that it was staying in Seattle), and then robbed the city blind the second the purchase went through.

Honestly fuck every single other owner at the time for voting to allow the relocation to happen too.

It’s not just the Thunder ownership, it’s Howard Schultz and the NBA as well because they all lied throughout the entire sale. Last week Schultz announced he was moving to Florida to get away from new taxes they are passing and in every article the first comment was something along the lines of “Fuck you for selling the Sonics to Bennett knowing he was going to move the team”. He will never not be hated up here.

Dual hate I guess. Hate the Thunder ownership for stealing the SuperSonics and moving them to OKC and hate the old SuperSonics ownership for selling the team knowing it would happen.

He ripped away a beloved team from Seattle because he thought he could make a little more money…

Give it about 20 years

A monument to mans arrogance 

As they should. Two time Finals MVP absolutely deserves the acknowledgment.

Because he only got to play one year, was rookie of the year that year, and has consistently shown love to the city and fans and advocated for the team to come back. He’s the last great to play in a Sonics jersey and we still think of him as a Sonic.

Edit: idk why I’m so worked up about this, but to call the 2008 Sonics a “rebuild” massively under-describes the situation. We all knew the team was gone against the fan base’s will. He and Jeff Green were the only bright lights in a dark era for a town that loves basketball (see the number of current NBA players who grew up in Seattle with that 08 team being their last memory of pro ball in town)

Can’t wait for when there’s no barkin from the dog. No smog. And when momma cooks a breakfast with no hog

I mean didn’t the Washington State US Senator have to convince Nintendo to buy the Mariners just to keep them in Seattle lol?

Weren’t the Seahawks legit moving to LA in 1996 because of cheap ownership and a lack of stadium?

I don’t think the Seahawks got a blank check lol

They own it for life seattle needed a team back within 5 years to legally get the rights back and that clearly never happened. OKC dont gotta do anything.

wrong. read paragraph 6

why didn’t you post the entire paragraph?

1. Seattle Sonics/Supersonics Team Name(s), History, Memorabilia, Colors, Intellectual Property Rights. PBC agrees that it will not use the “Seattle Sonics/Supersonics” team name or any logos, symbols, designs, trade dress (including, but not limited to, team colors) or other indicia associated with the Seattle Sonics/Supersonics (the “Intellectual Property”) for purposes of identifying its NBA team in game competition, marketing, promotional or other similar purposes following relocation of the team to Oklahoma City, other than as permitted in this paragraph 6. PBC further agrees that if (i) the NBA grants approval for a new NBA team to be located in Seattle and play its games in a renovated Key Arena, (ii) the pending litigation between PBC and the former owners of the Sonics is fully and finally resolved, and {iii) PBC has permanently relocated its NBA team to Oklahoma City, then, following the NBA approval referenced in subparagraph (i) above and upon request of the owner of the new NBA team to be located in Seattle, it will transfer at no cost all right, title and interest in the Intellectual Property to such new owner, such rights being subject to NBA rules, agreements, and approvals. PBC further agrees that if an expansion team is approved by the NBA within the next five years to play in a renovated KeyArena, then the owner of such team and the PBC are each free to use and refer to the Sonics’ history (e.g., statistics, player histories and records) during the NBA seasons. prior to the date of this MOU that the Sonics played in Seattle. PBC further agrees, to the extent requested by a new Seattle team owner, it will transfer at no cost the team’s banners, trophies and retired jerseys to such owner, provided that such owner acknowledges that the memorabilia relates to a “shared history” between PBC and the team and that PBC retains the right to create and display duplicate copies of such memorabilia. The trophies, banners, and retired jerseys, together with other memorabilia identified by the City and acceptable to PBC, will remain in Seattle in the custody of the Museum of History and Industry or such other custodian acceptable to the parties. PBC will negotiate and enter into a curatorial agreement with MOHAI acceptable to the City providing for the safe keeping of such memorabilia, access for duplication by PBC, and periodic display in Oklahoma City at the request of PBC or in Seattle at the request of the City.