Thunder’s shared Sonics historical past nonetheless strikes a nerve in Seattle, the place followers will ‘hate watch’ 2025 NBA Finals

With the Oklahoma City Thunder set to sq. off with the Indiana Pacers in the 2025 NBA Finals, a query to which the reply is equal components apparent and complex has arisen: If the Thunder are in a position to defeat Indiana, will it truly be the primary championship in franchise historical past? 

“No, not technically,” says Spencer Hawes, who performed within the NBA for 10 years and is Seattle born and bred. “And it pisses me off.”

Hawes is correct. Technically, the Thunder have already gained a championship. It occurred in 1979. Practically 30 years earlier than the Thunder even existed. That is the place it will get sophisticated. 

You see, when the Skilled Basketball Membership, LLC, headed by chairman Clay Bennett, bought the Seattle SuperSonics in the summertime of 2006, they did not simply assume possession of the group; they turned the house owners of all SuperSonics historical past, too. 

Emotionally, this might by no means be true. The Sonics and all their historical past belong to Seattle, the place time has finished little, if something, to heal the collective ache and anger that followers and the group at giant felt once they misplaced their group in 2008. However technically, that 1979 championship trophy belongs to Oklahoma Metropolis, even when the Thunder are by no means going to show it as their very own. 

“Having been to video games in Oklahoma Metropolis and having interacted with individuals from the Thunder group, they view [the two franchise histories] as successfully indifferent, too,” says Brett Goldberg, who works alongside former SuperSonics coach George Karl and legendary level guard Gary Payton at Truth+Media, a digital media platform that “creates and shares actual, participating and significant tales on sports activities, management and humanity.”

Here is the place a bizarre story will get even weirder. One of many issues that Reality + Media does is create a wealth of previous Sonics content material beneath their model Iconic Sonics, however should you go to the Twitter page and click on on IconicSonics.com, you may be taken to … the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder’s official NBA web page. 

So right here everyone seems to be attempting to color this image of two franchises with no actual hyperlink to one another, and but they’re, fairly actually, linked. The extra you dig, the extra you understand that even if you assume you are taking place a path of Sonics historical past, you find yourself in Oklahoma Metropolis. Besides all of the Sonics stuff Oklahoma Metropolis owns continues to be in Seattle!

Certainly, all the pieces from the SuperSonics’ 1996 Western Convention championship banner to the retired jerseys of Lenny Wilkens, Gus Williams, Jack Sikma, Nate McMillan, Downtown Freddie Brown and Spencer Haywood at present reside inside Seattle’s Museum of Historical past and Trade, which homes hundreds of items of Sonics memorabilia. 

“Wait, you imply to inform me the Thunder personal my jersey?” an incredulous Haywood stated as he discovered for the primary time the whereabouts of his famed uniform. “I had no thought. I been sitting right here questioning the place that shit went.”

Let’s be clear, as this story is essentially about technicalities that really feel all-too actual: We’re not speaking about precise jerseys right here. Haywood has that in a glass case at dwelling, and there is one within the Naismith Corridor of Fame. We’re speaking concerning the table-cloth sized reproduction jerseys, posters primarily, that grasp in NBA arenas. 

Haywood remembers the night time his No. 24, additionally worn by late Sonics nice Dennis Johnson, went into the Key Area rafters. It was Feb. 26, 2007. Kevin Durant was 4 months from being drafted by Seattle on the night time Ray Allen was traded to the Celtics in a blockbuster that introduced again Jeff Green. 

The next summer time, six days earlier than the transfer to Oklahoma Metropolis was introduced, Russell Westbrook can be drafted by and launched in Seattle carrying a Sonics uniform. The longer term had arrived. And no person, least of all Haywood as he watched his jersey go up that night time, had any clue that it was all about to vanish. 

“That was critical ache for me [when the team was moved to Oklahoma City],” Haywood says. “As a result of a part of the enjoyable of [having your jersey retired] is getting to return to video games, you realize, and have the broadcasters say, ‘Look, there’s Spencer Haywood within the stands. His jersey is retired up there.’ Lenny Wilkens and a few of these guys acquired these moments. However I did not.”

Haywood should still get his second. However first, Seattle has to get the Sonics again. The deal is, when and if Seattle is awarded one other NBA franchise, which is wanting more and more doubtless as soon as commissioner Adam Silver formally green-lights enlargement, all the pieces from the memorabilia to the trophy and jerseys to the precise title and brand of the group will flip again over to the Sonics. At which level, one can solely assume all of the retired jerseys will return up within the new enviornment with legends like Payton and Shawn Kemp, who by no means acquired to see their jerseys retired, becoming a member of them. 

However till then, all of it type of appears like historical past with out a dwelling. Most of it is not even on show on the metropolis’s museum. It is on cabinets within the again room of an efficient mini storage. Quite a bit just like the Sonics themselves: Not completely gone, not less than not in reminiscence and within the hope {that a} resurrection is feasible, however in the mean time, not precisely alive, both.

“It is like we have been on this 17-year coma,” Hawes, who speaks for thus many still-heartbroken Sonics followers, informed CBS Sports activities. “All this tethering of the historical past (between the Sonics and Thunder) … simply permit the demise to occur so we are able to hopefully have this rebirth [of NBA basketball coming back to Seattle]. 

“There’s all these graphics that hyperlink the 2 franchises, like saying that is the [Thunder’s] third Finals since ’96, or any of those stats, most triple doubles in franchise historical past, all these items combining the 2 histories or no matter … each time I see a kind of graphics it will get me fired up. Somebody simply have the stones to do the guillotine and separate the franchise histories.”

“The Thunder have [the] 2012 [Finals]. That ’96 [Sonics] group was ours. I at all times affiliate a franchise with town. The place was your fanbase if you gained? Can your grandpa inform you the place he was or how he remembers prefer it was yesterday when [the Sonics] gained that title in ’79, or when GP [Gary Payton] and [Shawn] Kemp have been doing their factor in ’96? I assure you no person offers a shit about that stuff in Oklahoma Metropolis.”

If you cannot inform, that is nonetheless a uncooked topic for Hawes. He does not have a look at this as a former NBA participant. It is private to him. It is household. He grew up down the road from Key Area. His uncle, Steve Hawes, performed for the Sonics. He was proper there with everybody else when the “Save our Sonics” rallies have been echoing by way of town. His father used to inform him tales of Haywood coming all the way down to the park to play pick-up ball. 

“There was no distinction between the road, the followers, the gamers … in these days, we have been all part of that metropolis and the group,” Haywood stated. “There have been no different skilled groups [in Seattle in the early-and-mid ’70s]. Seattle was the Sonics. And the Sonics have been Seattle. So town has actually been hurting for 17 years now. It is not likely something towards the Thunder, I do not assume. I like how these guys play. They’re critical they usually play robust protection. It is nothing towards them. I simply assume that is going to be a painful sequence to look at for lots of people [who loved the Sonics].”

Little doubt that is true. Hawes, who says he won’t ever forgive a few of the metropolis officers and politicians that he and so many Seattleites consider, for all intents and functions, let their group slip away in one thing of a middle-of-the-night transfer, has no qualms about telling you he can be “hate-watching” these NBA Finals. 

“I went with my buddies to look at Sport 4 [of the Western Conference finals between OKC and Minnesota] proper throughout from the previous Key Area, and it was comparatively packed, and the complete bar was actively rooting towards the Thunder,” Hawes stated. 

“I’ve by no means been a Pacers fan, however now my Twitter avatar is a Pacers brand. [The Pacers] have a brand new fan for not less than one other few weeks. We will hate watch these Finals, and nevertheless steep the highway could also be [to getting a team back in Seattle], till it will get settled, there’s an enormous contingent right here [in Seattle] that is going to be rooting for whoever the Thunder are enjoying.”

Haywood can solely giggle when he hears about Hawes’ hate-watch agenda. 

“Im telling you, man, Spencer Hawes is a typical Seattle Sonic and a typical Seattle individual,” Haywood stated. “There are lots of people who really feel similar to him.”

However not everybody. Take the aforementioned George Karl, as an example. Karl led that ’96 Sonics group to the Finals as its head coach and is eternally tied to town, however for him, time has finished fairly a little bit of therapeutic. 

“I feel normally there was loads of animosity towards Oklahoma Metropolis for the primary 10 years or so,” Karl informed CBS Sports activities. “I feel when Gary [Payton] and Shawn [Kemp] and Detlef [Schrempf] and Nate [McMillan] get collectively, I feel we have been slightly offended for some time, and we in all probability stated some good ass issues about, you realize, we do not need something to do with OKC. 

“However I will be sincere with you,” Karl continued, “[the Thunder] are a cultured group. I’ve gone to a few video games down there, and I’ve loads of respect for them. They’ve finished so many issues the precise approach, and you’ll’t assist by be impressed by the group they’ve constructed. I feel they’re the classiest group within the NBA proper now. Does that imply I do not love Seattle anymore? No. By no means.”

Certainly, there are two sides to each story. The Thunder declined to be interviewed for his or her aspect of this one, however at any charge, this look again is just meant to look at the toll being paid in Seattle and the additional emotional tax town is being hit with as this Thunder-Pacers Finals takes middle stage. 

OKC does not have any of those wounds. The town acquired the group it needed and, importantly, proved its price as an NBA metropolis when Oklahoma Metropolis served as a foster dwelling for the Pelicans once they have been displaced from New Orleans for 2 years following Hurricane Katrina. 

Thunder vs. Sonics historical past

Enterprise is usually brutal, and the Sonics actually aren’t the primary NBA team to be relocated. The Lakers began out in Minneapolis. The Jazz went from New Orleans to Salt Lake Metropolis. The Grizzlies from Vancouver to Memphis. The Warriors from Philadelphia to Oakland, after which to San Francisco. The Nets from New Jersey to Brooklyn. 

The distinction in all these examples is that the group title by no means modified. Totally different metropolis, sure. However identical group. Maybe this can be a technicality, too, in a narrative stuffed with them, however it’s nonetheless a distinction that does make the Thunder, with their complete name-and-color rebrand, really feel extra like a brand-new enlargement group than a technical extension of the Sonics. 

“I do not affiliate the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder with any of the Seattle SuperSonics historical past,” says longtime NBA participant and coach Avery Johnson, who spent the primary two years of his profession enjoying with the Sonics. “After I have a look at the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, I have a look at this as a brand new franchise that is attempting for its first championship.”

That is the apparent half. Everybody sees it this manner. The Sonics belong to Seattle, and the Thunder belong to Oklahoma Metropolis. Solely the legalities say one thing totally different, and to that, you possibly can guess Seattle people are counting every single day all the way down to the one the place their Sonics hopefully return dwelling and the Thunder present up on their schedule. 

That, Goldberg says, “goes to be a blood rivalry.”