It’s been 17 years since the city of Seattle last had an NBA team, since the beloved SuperSonics were ripped away from their fanbase and relocated to Oklahoma City. Now, Sonics fans must watch — or not — as the Thunder face the Indiana Pacers for an NBA title, while questions still hang in the air about when Seattle will get a franchise again.
If the Thunder are crowned champions, it may sting for those who remember the days when Sonics legends over the years would suit up in the green and gold. But as the topic of expansion has been buzzing around the league for years now, Seattle has been one of the most talked-about locations to be awarded another franchise. But will that actually happen? Let’s break down all the latest intel on the matter.
When will NBA expansion happen?
Commissioner Adam Silver has publicly stated that the league hasn’t had recent formal discussions about expansion, though he did say back in March that this could change this summer when the Board of Governors plans to have another meeting in July.
“I think at this point, we have an NBA board meeting in July in Las Vegas and my sense is [expansion] will be on the agenda to discuss with full ownership now for the 30 teams to get directly the existing owners views on potential expansion and how we would begin furthering the study of all the implications,” Silver said.
It hasn’t been on the league’s agenda as of late, which is understandable given that in just the last couple years they’ve had to deal with getting a new CBA nailed down, negotiating a lucrative media rights package which will take effect next season and oversee the sales of multiple NBA franchises, with the Boston Celtics recently switching ownership. But with many of those big items off the docket, the league can now shift focus toward expansion. But in terms of when it could happen, Silver’s been very careful not to put a timeline on it any time he’s asked.
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There have been reports suggesting that the NBA could be targeting the 2027-28 season for when the two expansion teams would begin their first season, and the 2026-27 season is also a possibility, but that would mean all of this would have to come together rather quickly in the next year for that to happen.
Will Seattle be rewarded with an expansion franchise?
There’s certainly reason to suggest there will be a return of the SuperSonics. While the league can’t make any public declarations about which cities will be rewarded one of the two projected new teams, over the years, Silver has made comments that would make one assume Seattle is at the top of the list.
In 2017, he said that Seattle would be on the league’s shortlist of cities to consider. Silver also said in March this year that the league is “focused” on the city as an expansion potential.
“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 we aren’t focused on the potential for the NBA to return to Seattle,” Silver said.
It would be incredibly surprising if Seattle weren’t the city awarded an NBA franchise with the league’s expansion. That’s not just because of how the city lost the SuperSonics in the first place, in which former owner Howard Schultz sold his majority stake to an investment group led by an Oklahoma City businessman, Clay Bennett, under the premise that the team wouldn’t be relocated, which obviously didn’t happen. But Seattle is the 18th-largest city in the United States, and several cities with smaller populations — Denver, Oklahoma City and Boston — all have franchises.
City population aside, the SuperSonics have a deep NBA history with some of the greatest players ever having suited up for them in the 40 seasons they existed. And whenever that expansion does happen, the Thunder will have to return the team’s history back to Seattle per the agreement from when the team originally relocated. Now it’s just a matter of when — or possibly if — the NBA brings the SuperSonics back.
