OKC 2025 title sparks debate over the Thunder’s NBA history

Oklahoma City Thunder have done it. They’ve capped off an extraordinary season by clinching the first title in franchise history... since relocating from Seattle in 2008. Under head coach Mark Daigneault, the Thunder completed a stellar campaign with a championship that had nearly slipped away – they were 1-2 down and on the ropes in Game 4, with Indiana nearly making it 1-3 on their home court, and were forced into a nail-biting Game 7 before finally being crowned NBA champions, succeeding the Boston Celtics.

This is how the NBA’s roll of honor now looks after Oklahoma’s triumph and yet another heartbreak for the Pacers, who are still chasing their first NBA title (though they did win three in the now-defunct ABA back in the 1970s).

Those are the franchises that have lifted the NBA trophy at least once. The Thunder were still the Seattle Supersonics when they claimed their first title (which, as we’ll see, they may now have to relinquish); the Kings were known as the Rochester Royals when they won theirs; the Baltimore Bullets took the crown in 1948 and vanished six years later. Seven teams have made the Finals but never won: the Phoenix Suns (three losses), Utah Jazz (two), Brooklyn Nets (two), Orlando Magic (two), Indiana Pacers (now two, including 2025), Chicago Stags (one) and Washington Capitols (one). And five current franchises have never even made it to the Finals: the Charlotte Hornets, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves and New Orleans Pelicans.

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The strange case of the Supersonics

Now that the Thunder have finally reached the summit – an elusive goal ever since the 2012 Finals loss with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden – debate will flare up again over whether this is the franchise’s first or second title. What about the 1979 championship won by the Seattle Supersonics – a storied team that officially disappeared in 2008 when it was rebranded and relocated to Oklahoma City?

The Supersonics have never really gone away. The franchise is on standby, ready to return as soon as the NBA expands to 32 teams – an event that’s not imminent, but no longer feels far off. And when it does happen, it’s all but certain that the Supersonics will return to the league.

The Sonics are a beloved classic with a global fanbase – from the Dale Ellis and Tom Chambers years through to the “Sonic Boom” era of Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton, Detlef Schrempf, Hersey Hawkins and coach George Karl. In the ’90s they thrilled and frustrated in equal measure, with 63- and 64-win seasons that ultimately ended in heartbreak. Most notably, the 1996 Finals defeat to Michael Jordan’s Bulls – a fate shared later by Stockton and Malone.

NBA lovers know the names: Lenny Wilkens, Spencer Haywood, Bill Russell, Paul Silas, Dennis Johnson, Jack Sikma, Nate McMillan… The Sonics held Seattle’s only major pro sports title (1979) for decades and looked poised for a resurgence when wunderkind executive Sam Presti landed three top-five picks in 2007 and 2008 – Durant, Jeff Green and Westbrook.

Durant and Green played one season in Sonics green and gold. Westbrook, drafted in 2008, never got the chance – his only photo in Sonics gear is from draft night. Then came the relocation. The transformation from Sonics to Thunder was more than a move – it was a total identity reset: name, colors, logo... not just a change of city, like with the Lakers, Jazz or Rockets, but a true reinvention.

And so, when the Thunder returned to the Finals in 2025, the same seventeen-year-old question resurfaced: what happens to that 1979 title? Are the Sonics’ retired numbers, championship banner and history now Thunder property? Or not? Put simply: is this the Thunder’s first ring – or their second?

Officially, the NBA will count this as a second title – with an asterisk. But socially, culturally, emotionally... this is the Thunder’s first. When the team moved to OKC, they brought with them Durant, Westbrook, some office chairs, TVs, sound equipment, CDs, courtside seats – but left the legacy in Seattle. The 1979 banner, the retired numbers, the stats... all suspended in time.

Clay Bennett, seen in Seattle as the great villain behind the move, kept the Sonics name, colors and logo in deep freeze – not wanting to further alienate a city that had just lost its team. His intention was always to start fresh. When Seattle gets its expansion team, he has promised to hand everything back, no strings attached. And so the Supersonics, asleep but not dead, wait to be reawakened.

While the NBA officially considers Thunder history a continuation of the Sonics – with the understanding that it will later be split – neither side wants to claim the other. In Seattle, there’s deep resentment toward the Thunder, and in OKC there’s been no push to embrace Sonics history.

Perhaps the most symbolic detail is this: Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) houses more than 5,000 artifacts from the Supersonics. They occupy twenty shelves, all carefully archived. Just three are on public display – the 1979 Larry O’Brien trophy, a pair of used training sneakers, and a pennant.

MOHAI sits just over half a mile from Climate Pledge Arena – the former KeyArena, the Sonics’ old home and the epicenter of the battle that led to their departure. The collapse can be traced through a short series of events. With the passive approval – some say complicity – of commissioner David Stern, Bennett took over in 2006 and quickly made clear his real goal: relocation. A native of Oklahoma, he always planned to take the team home.

His group, Professional Basketball Club LLC, bought the Sonics for $350 million from another man many in Seattle now revile – Howard Schultz, then CEO of Starbucks. Once hailed as a local hero, Schultz became a pariah after selling the team like a bored child tossing aside a toy.

Bennett’s road was already paved. Oklahoma City had impressed Stern by hosting the Hornets during their Katrina exile. Though the Hornets would eventually return to New Orleans, the city’s strong showing made an impression. Bennett’s next move was to request public funding for a major KeyArena overhaul – with an inflated budget that local and state officials refused to meet. That refusal gave Bennett leverage to negotiate a $45 million exit payment to the city, with a promise of another $30 million if Seattle still didn’t have a team by 2013. That’s how Seattle lost even the right to keep the team for two final seasons.

Bennett calculated the cost of waiting at $60 million and preferred to pay now and move. Oklahoma celebrated ahead of schedule, while Seattle authorities looked the other way, ignoring the economic and emotional value of a team that had been part of the city for forty years. Oklahoma City, by contrast, showed clarity and commitment, investing $121 million to prepare the Ford Center for its new tenants.

A perfect storm of Schultz’s financial woes, the 2001 recession, Bennett’s ambitions and Stern’s support created a scenario that gutted Seattle’s basketball heart. But the Sonics weren’t buried – they were frozen in time. Once expansion comes, they’ll return with their name, colors, 1979 banner and retired jerseys: Jack Sikma, Nate McMillan, Gus Williams, Bill Russell…

And then, the record will be clear: 1979 belongs to the Supersonics. 2025 belongs to the Thunder. Until then, the confusion will linger. NBA archives will treat them as one continuous franchise. But since 2008, both Seattle and OKC have lived as if they were two different worlds. Now, each of those worlds finally has a championship of its own.

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