O Oklahoma City Thunderfounded in 2008, seeks its first title in the history of the NBA. The franchise could even count a title of its predecessor, the Seattle Supersonics, but prefers not to do that.
About decisions, in 2012 OKC reached the NBA finals, but was defeated by LeBron James’s Miami Heat 4-1. Thunder had names like Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden.
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Oklahoma City Thunder: Connection with Seattle Supersonics
The direction of Oklahoma City Thunder does not count the title of predecessor Seattle Supersonics in 1979 for a source of pride. The city of Seattle has an agreement with the NBA that says the name “Supersonics” and the trademark will return there as soon as the city has a new team. The title of 1979 would not return to Seattle, but OKC’s direction see no sense to inherit the achievement.
In March, NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver, said the League could have new franchises in the coming years and commented that “Sonic’s legacy is still very strong, and the city is a fantastic market for basketball.” Supersonics existed from 1967 to 2008.
In 2006, former Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, sold Supersonics and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Seattle Storm for 350 million for Professional Basketball Club LLC, a group of Oklahoma City investors led by businessman Clay Bennett. The sale was approved by the owners of the NBA in the following October. In 2007, Bennett announced that the franchise would move to Oklahoma City as soon as the contract with Keyarena, the Seattle Arena, expired.
In June 2008, a lawsuit filed by the city of Seattle against Bennett due to his attempts to break the last two years of the Sonic Rental in Keyarena went to the Federal Court. Almost a month later, both sides reached an agreement. The terms granted the city $ 45 million to leave the remaining lease in Keyarena and would have provided an additional $ 30 million payment to Seattle in 2013 if certain conditions had been met.
The new owners agreed to leave the name, logo, and colors of Seattle Supersonics for a possible future NBA franchise; However, the items would continue to be owned by the Oklahoma City team, along with other “active,” including championship banners and trophies. But in months, the management decided that it would not make exposure of the history of Supersonics.
On September 3, 2008, the team name, the logo and colors of the Oklahoma City franchise were revealed to the public. The name “Thunder” was chosen in reference to the location of Oklahoma in Tornado Alley and Oklahoma City as the house of the 45th US Army Infantry Division, the Thunderbirds.
Oklahoma City Thunder: Statistics
| Deeds | Amount |
|---|---|
| Championships | 0 |
| Conference titles | 1 (2012) |
| NBA Cup titles | 0 |
| Retired numbers | 1 (nº 4 – Nick Collison) |
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