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Jun 27, 2025

OKC's Thunder is Seattle's Lightning


In the history of the NBA the finals have been decided in game 7 of the series 19 times before this year. The 2016 Finals were the last edition to go the distance. The Cavaliers’ comeback from a 3-1 series deficit was the headline, led by Finals MVP LeBron James en route to securing Cleveland’s first NBA championship. That game went down to the final possessions. Game 7s in the NBA Finals are normally closely contested with low-scoring and an average margin of victory of less than 7 points. In the last 50 years no team has won the Finals Game 7 by double-digits. And no team has reached 100 points in Game 7 of the Finals since the Lakers beat the Pistons 108-105 in 1988. Well, the Oklahoma City Thunder just rewrote the history books. 

The OKC Thunder won the NBA Finals on Sunday June 22nd by defeating the Indiana Pacers in a thrilling seven-game series. The Thunder won the final tie against Indiana, game 7, by scoring over 100 points and with a margin of victory over ten points. The final numbers on the scoreboard were 103-91. This marks the franchise's first NBA title since relocating to Oklahoma City in 2008. The team was previously in Seattle and moved to Oklahoma in the 2008/2009 season. 

The victory was a culmination of a successful rebuild, with a young and talented roster led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren. The key player in OKC's victory was Gilgeous-Alexander. He was a dominant force in the tie-breaking game on Sunday, scoring 29 points and dishing out 12 assists. He was also named the Finals MVP and the regular season MVP, becoming the first player in 25 years to win both awards and the scoring title in the same season.

As a team the Thunder had a remarkable season, posting a league-best 68 wins in the regular season. They showed great maturity and resilience throughout the playoffs, overcoming challenges in both the Western Conference Finals against the Denver Nuggets and the NBA Finals against the Pacers. While this is the first championship for the Oklahoma City Thunder, the franchise also has a championship from its time as the Seattle SuperSonics in 1979.

The Seattle SuperSonics moved to OKC and became the Oklahoma City Thunder due to the team's owner, Clay Bennett, being unable to secure public funding for a new arena in Seattle. After failing to reach a deal for a new arena, Bennett's group settled with the city of Seattle to break the existing lease and relocate the team. The team officially moved to Oklahoma City in the summer of 2008 and rebranded as the Thunder at that time.  

The Seattle SuperSonics' departure from Washington State was the culmination of years of instability, largely centered around the team's arena situation. In the 2000s, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, then the team owner, sought public funding for a new arena or significant renovations to KeyArena (now Climate Pledge Arena). KeyArena, originally opened in 1962 and with the NBA's smallest capacity at just over 17,000, needed a major overhaul to be financially viable long-term. However, Seattle voters had an initiative preventing public money from being used for an arena, and the city was reluctant to spend funds. Facing financial struggles and a lack of on-court success, the Sonics couldn't generate enough revenue for the needed renovations. 

So, in 2006 Schultz sold the team to an Oklahoma City-based group led by Clay Bennett, a local businessman. While the agreement included a promise from Bennett's group to try for a year to secure an arena deal in Seattle, many, including former Mayor Greg Nickels, believed Bennett intended to move the team all along, a suspicion later supported by leaked emails. After his "good faith" period ended in October 2007 without a deal, Bennett announced plans to relocate. This sparked a legal battle, with Seattle suing to keep the team from breaking its lease before 2010. Ultimately, the two sides settled just hours before a judge's ruling, with the franchise paying Seattle $45 million for breaking the lease and an additional $30 million if the city didn't get a replacement team within five years. Schultz's own lawsuit to overturn the sale after the leaked emails was eventually dropped. 

Oklahoma City was chosen as the new home largely because Bennett's group was based there, and the city had successfully hosted the New Orleans Hornets temporarily after Hurricane Katrina, proving it could support an NBA team. 

Oklahoma City's Paycom Center (then Ford Center), opened in 2002, was also ready to host a team. The formal move happened on July 2, 2008, and the team became the Thunder, playing their first game in Oklahoma City in October 2008. The relocation left a lasting sense of betrayal among Seattle fans, with Schultz later expressing regret for selling the team. However, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has indicated that Seattle is at the top of the list for potential NBA expansion, especially with the renovated Climate Pledge Arena now capable of hosting an NBA team and having recently received a $700 million renovation in 2018 for the NHL's Seattle Kraken. The return of NBA basketball to Seattle seems likely, though no firm timeline exists yet. But the teams in the NBA do evolve over time, for various reasons, and at some point the lightning will strike for Seattle and they will get their basketball team back. 

The NBA win this year was massive for the state of Oklahoma, which had waited 17 years since the team's arrival for a national title. Unlike Washington State, which has a team in every major professional sports league (besides the NBA), outside of their basketball team and college sports, Oklahoma does not have an NFL football team, an NHL hockey team, an MLB baseball team, an MLR rugby team, or an MLS soccer team. In terms of large professional sports teams, they just have the OKC Thunder. So, the fans in Oklahoma City are probably still celebrating this NBA win, and they will be for a while to come. 

Being from Oklahoma too, celebrity singers Blake Shelton and Reba must be happy. They might spend most of their time in Los Angeles and Nashville but they are both proud "Okies". Maybe they will write a song about Oklahoma's win - and release it at Christmas - so that this victory can live on in song forever.  

Side note: Oklahoma City will host two events during the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics. The LA2028 Organizing Committee decided to host canoe slalom and softball in OKC given the lack of acceptable venues for those sports in LA.