Oklahoma City Thunder is a professional basketball team that plays in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team competes in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. The Thunder plays at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.
The Thunder formerly played in Seattle as the Seattle SuperSonics. The SuperSonics entered the NBA for the 1967-1968 season. The team did not have a winning season until its ninth season. The team reached the NBA finals in 1977-1978 and won its only NBA championship in 1978-1979. The stars of those teams were guards Dennis Johnson, Fred Brown, and Gus Williams, and center Jack Sikma. The coach was Lenny Wilkens.
The SuperSonics declined during the 1980’s. However, they became one of the dominant teams in the Western Conference from 1992 through 1998, winning the division title or coming in second every season. Those teams were coached by George Karl and led by guards Gary Payton and Hersey Hawkins and forwards Shawn Kemp and Detlef Schrempf. During the 2004-2005 season, Seattle won 52 games, the most for the team since the 1996-1997 season. Seattle was led by guard Ray Allen and forward Rashard Lewis.
At the beginning of the 2008-2009 season, the SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City and changed their name to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Oklahoma City made the playoffs in 2009-2010 behind two young stars, forward Kevin Durant and guard Russell Westbrook.
The Thunder reached the conference finals in the 2010-2011 season playoffs, losing to the Dallas Mavericks. In 2011-2012, Oklahoma City reached the NBA finals, losing to the Miami Heat. The Thunder won its third consecutive division championship in 2012-2013 but lost in the second round of the playoffs to the Memphis Grizzlies. Oklahoma City won its division again in 2013-2014 but lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the conference finals. The team won its division in 2015-2016, but the Golden State Warriors beat them in the conference finals. Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander became the Thunder’s star player in the early 2020’s.
