How many times has the Oklahoma City Thunder played in the NBA Finals?

The Oklahoma City Thunder are heading back to the NBA Finals after defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games in the Western Conference Finals. It marks a major milestone for the franchise, which will now compete for the Larry O’Brien Trophy for just the second time since relocating from Seattle.

The Thunder’s only previous Finals appearance came in the 2011–12 season, when a young core of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden fell in five games to LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh’s Miami Heat. The loss triggered a long and slow unraveling. Harden was traded to the Houston Rockets, and under coaches Scott Brooks and later Billy Donovan, that promising group never got back to the Finals – only managing two more trips to the Western Conference Finals before Durant left for Golden State and won two titles there.

Now, the task falls to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his teammates to deliver a title to OKC. Their opponent will be either the New York Knicks or the Indiana Pacers – the latter just one win away from sealing the series and earning their first Finals berth in 25 years.

The legacy of the Seattle SuperSonics

Before becoming the Thunder, the franchise entered the NBA in the 1967–68 season as the Seattle SuperSonics. The team made three trips to the Finals and claimed one championship. In the late 1970s, they developed a fierce rivalry with the Washington Bullets, facing them in back-to-back Finals. Washington won the first series in seven games in 1978, but Seattle responded the following year, needing just five games to clinch the 1979 title.

That championship team featured Dennis Johnson, Gus Williams and Jack Sikma, and remains a high point in Seattle sports history. Years later, the SuperSonics rebuilt around Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton. But their resurgence coincided with the dominance of Michael Jordan, and in the 1996 Finals – the first of Chicago’s second three-peat – they were outmatched by the Bulls.

Following that defeat, Seattle’s form declined, with the team only making it as far as the Conference Semifinals over the following years. The franchise left the Emerald City after the 2007–08 season and relocated to Oklahoma City the following year.

Should the NBA ever award Seattle a new franchise, the Thunder have previously signaled a willingness to return the SuperSonics’ history and records to the city.

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