Seattle hoops fans have been eagerly awaiting the return of an NBA franchise to the Emerald City since 2008, when the SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City, becoming the Thunder in Kevin Durant's second NBA season. The move broke the hearts of a proud fan base with an NBA title and three Western Conference crowns to their name, especially with a generational star just beginning his career with the franchise.
If and when the NBA expands, Seattle—along with Las Vegas—is expected to be in the mix to revive the SuperSonics. Tampa-St. Petersburg is the only U.S. media market larger than Seattle without an NBA franchise. The league has a team in every other city in the top 20.
Today was not the day that Sonics fans have been waiting for. Commissioner Adam Silver was asked about Seattle's NBA future following Thursday's meeting of the league's board of governors, and while he was very complimentary about the city's basketball potential, he didn't have any good news for Seattleites.
“No new developments,” Silver said, via The Seattle Times. “I would just say again to our many fans in Seattle—and I hear from them often, the legacy of the Sonics is still very strong and it’s a fantastic basketball market—is that we are very focused on it. I think the fact that I’m sort of not being more forthcoming publicly doesn’t mean we’re not studying it very intensively.
“We don’t take those fans for granted. We’re thankful that the interest has remained over all these years. And so I would just say the fact that we’re not ready to make any public announcements with a specific timeline doesn’t mean we don’t care a lot about those fans and are very focused on the potential for the NBA to return to Seattle.”
Seattle was awarded the Sonics in 1967, making them the city's first major pro sports team, nine years before the NFL's Seahawks and a decade before the MLB's Mariners were created as expansion teams for those leagues. The NHL's Seattle Kraken were born in 2021, and call the city's Climate Pledge Arena home, but they shouldn't expect an NBA co-tenant in the near future.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as What Adam Silver Said About Potential Return of Seattle SuperSonics After NBA Meeting.
