What happened to the Sonics basketball team? Reason behind Seattle losing its NBA team explored

The Seattle SuperSonics were an NBA team from 1967 to 2008. They relocated to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder due to a variety of reasons. Let's explore some of them and what really happened to the Sonics.

Oklahoma City-based businessman Clay Bennett bought the Sonics in 2006 for an estimated $350 million from Howard Schultz. Bennett promised fans that he will keep the team in the city as long as a new arena was built.

However, Bennett failed to get public funding for a new arena and decided to relocate the team to Oklahoma City. Then-NBA commissioner David Stern supported the move with NBA owners, giving their approval on April 18, 2008.

The city of Seattle filed a lawsuit against Clay Bennett, but a settlement was reached ahead of the Sonics' move to Oklahoma City ahead of the 2008-09 season. The Thunder has had some success in their new location but has not won a championship.

More than a decade after selling the team to Bennett, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz apologized to Sonics fans. Schultz admitted that he should have waited for a local resident businessman to purchase the team.

"Selling the Sonics as I did is one of the biggest regrets of my professional life," Schultz said. "I should have been willing to lose money until a local buyer emerged. I am forever sorry."

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Is Seattle getting an NBA team soon?

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver

The city of Seattle has been clamoring for an NBA team since the Sonics left in 2008.

It has been 15 years, but there's a renewed hope that they will finally get the team back. Oak View Group renovated the KeyArena and turned it into Climate Pledge Arena, complete and ready to host NBA games.

There have been rumors over the last year that there will be two new expansion teams in the near future — the Sonics and one in Las Vegas. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has been mum about the location of the next franchises but hinted that the city is a great market.

"I was in this league for many years while Seattle still had a team, and we were all sad," Silver told the New York Post in 2020.

"And it still remains a great market. I know I hear from fans of the old Sonics, fans in Seattle all of the time. … There is no doubt that when we do turn back to expansion, which we invariably will one day, that Seattle will be at the top of the list."