The Oklahoma City Thunder franchise was born in December 1966 when the NBA awarded an expansion franchise to Seattle that would begin play in the 1967-68 season.
In the expansion draft held May 1, 1967, the SuperSonics and San Diego Rockets traded selections, with the Rockets winning a coin flip to select first. Among the notable players taken by Seattle were former All-Star guard Richie Guerin from the St. Louis Hawks, Los Angeles Lakers guard Walt Hazzard and one-time All-Star Tom Meschery from the San Francisco Warriors. Guerin was serving as player-coach of the Hawks at the time and opted to retire as a player and continue coaching in St. Louis rather than reporting to Seattle.
It took the SuperSonics until their eighth season to reach the playoffs for the first time, when coach Bill Russell’s team in 1974-75 won 43 games to finish second in the Pacific Division. The team had won 47 games under player-coach Lenny Wilkens in 1971-72, but their third-place finish in the Pacific wasn’t good enough for a playoff berth.
In 1977-78, the Sonics started 5-17 under new coach Bob Hopkins, who was fired and replaced by none other than Wilkens, now retired as a player. The team went 42-18 under Wilkens and made the playoffs. In the postseason, the Sonics stunned the defending champion Portland Trail Blazers in the second round and took the Washington Bullets to seven games in the NBA Finals.
The team won its only championship the next season, beating the Bullets in five games behind Finals MVP Dennis Johnson.
The team wouldn’t return to the finals for another 17 years and not without one noteworthy bump in the road. In 1994, the Sonics became the first No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 8 seed in the first round of the playoffs when they were upset by the Denver Nuggets.
Two years later, coach George Karl’s Sonics made the NBA Finals but ran into the Chicago Bulls’ juggernaut that had won a record 72 games during the regular season.
The last time the team reached the playoffs in Seattle was in 2005, when the Sonics won 52 games and lost in the second round.
In 2008, the club was uprooted from Seattle and relocated in Oklahoma. Oklahoma City had served as a temporary home for the New Orleans Hornets for two seasons after Hurricane Katrina and new franchise owner Clay Bennett was able to get the SuperSonics out of Seattle and move them to the Great Plains.
The Thunder have reached the playoffs in four of their five seasons in Oklahoma City, including an appearance in the 2012 NBA Finals, where they fell to the Miami Heat.
So who are the best players by position in the history of the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise?
NOTE: Players must have appeared in 250 regular-season games with the franchise to be considered for this list.
Kevin Durant didn’t need long to move to the top of the small forward charts for the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise. Photo Credit: Keith Allison, Flickr.com
Small Forward: Kevin Durant (2007-present)
Kevin Durant was the No. 2 overall pick by the SuperSonics out of Texas in 2007 and he did not disappoint.
Durant averaged 20.3 points per game as a rookie and ran away with Rookie of the Year honors. His improvement continued when the franchise moved to Oklahoma City the following season. Durant won three straight scoring titles (2009-10 through 2011-12) and led the league in minutes in both 2009-10 and 2011-12. He also topped the league with a 90.5 percent mark from the free-throw line in 2012-13, the year he became just the sixth player in NBA history to record a 50-40-90 season with 50 percent shooting from the field, 40 percent from 3-point range and 90 percent from the line.
Durant is a four-time All-Star and has been first-team All-NBA four straight seasons. He holds the franchise single-season record with 2,472 points and a 30.1 points per game average in 2009-10 and his 28.3 player efficiency rating (PER) this season is the best in franchise history. Enjoy the top 10 plays of Durant’s career:
With 12,258 points, Durant ranks third in franchise history and he is fourth with 701 3-point field goals, fifth with 470 blocked shots and a 88.4 percent free-throw mark, ninth with 3,153 rebounds and 10th with 578 steals and 461 games played. His 26.6 points per game is the highest in franchise history, as is his 23.6 career PER.
Apologies to: Rashard Lewis, Detlef Schrempf, Derrick McKey, Xavier McDaniel.
Power Forward: Shawn Kemp (1989-97)
Shawn Kemp came to the SuperSonics as a raw 20-year-old leaper out of Trinity Valley Community College in Texas, where he enrolled but never played. After playing just 13.8 minutes a game as a rookie, averaging 6.5 points and 4.3 rebounds, Kemp exploded onto the scene in 1990-91, averaging 15 points and 8.4 boards a game and making highlight reels on an almost nightly basis with his explosive dunks.
Kemp was a five-time All-Star with the Sonics and was second-team All-NBA three times. Kemp’s finest moment may have been against the Houston Rockets in the 1996 Western Conference semifinals:
He is the franchise’s all-time leader in blocked shots with 959, while he is also second with 5,978 rebounds, sixth with 10,148 points, 775 steals, 1.5 blocks per game and 625 games, and seventh with a 52.1 field-goal percentage.
The Sonics traded away Kemp in September 1997 as part of a three-team deal. Kemp went to the Cleveland Cavaliers, with the Cavs sending Terrell Brandon, Tyrone Hill and a 1998 first-round draft pick to the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks sent Sherman Douglas to Cleveland and Vin Baker to Seattle.
Apologies to: Spencer Haywood, Sam Perkins, Tom Chambers, Serge Ibaka.
Jack Sikma (43) turned into an All-Star for the Seattle SuperSonics after being drafted out of tiny Illinois Wesleyan. (Flickr.com photo/Seattle Municipal Archives)
Center: Jack Sikma (1977-86)
Jack Sikma was a small-college star at Illinois Wesleyan and the Sonics stunned the NBA by taking the 6’11” center with the eighth overall pick. Sikma didn’t disappoint, averaging 10.7 points and 8.3 rebounds a game as a rookie as Seattle reached its first NBA Finals, with Sikma earning a spot on the first-team All-Rookie squad.
Sikma went on to play in seven All-Star games as a SuperSonic and was named to the All-Defensive second team in 1981-82, when he led the NBA with a 97.2 defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions).
Sikma is the team’s single-season record-holder with his 1,038 rebounds and 6.7 defensive win shares in 1981-82. Here are some highlights from his long NBA career:
He is also the franchise’s career leader with 7,729 rebounds and 43.1 defensive win shares. He is second with 10.8 rebounds per game, third with 705 blocked shots, fourth with 12,034 points and 715 games and seventh with 2,345 assists and 755 steals.
In July 1986, Sikma was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks with second-round draft picks in 1987 and 1989 for Alton Lister and first-round picks in 1987 and 1989.
Apologies to: Nick Collison, Michael Cage, Bob Rule, Vin Baker.
Downtown Freddie Brown lit up the scoreboard for the Seattle SuperSonics for his entire 13-year NBA career. (Flickr.com photo/King County, Washington)
Shooting Guard: Fred Brown (1971-84)
Downtown Fred Brown was the No. 6 overall pick out of Iowa in 1971 and played his entire 13-year career for the SuperSonics. Brown was an All-Star in 1976 and was the team’s offensive spark off the bench during its run to the title in 1979.
Brown was also the NBA’s first single-season leader in 3-point shooting, hitting 44.3 percent of his attempts (39-for-88) in 1979-80, the year the league adopted the shot. Brown put on a particularly good show in the 1980 Western Conference Finals, scorching the Los Angeles Lakers for 34 points off the bench.
With 14,018 points, Brown is second on the franchise’s all-time scoring list. He is also second with 963 games, third with 3,160 assists and 1,149 steals and eighth with his 85.8 percent free-throw shooting.
Brown was released after the 1983-84 season and his No. 32 was hung from the rafters in November 1986.
Apologies to: Dale Ellis, Brent Barry, Ray Allen, Dick Snyder.
Point Guard: Gary Payton (1990-2003)
Gary Payton was the second overall pick in the 1990 NBA Draft out of Oregon State and the Sonics never regretted the selection. “The Glove” will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in September after a sterling 17-year career.
Payton was one of the best defensive point guards ever to play in the NBA and as a member of the SuperSonics, he was a nine-time All-Star. Named the Defensive Player of the Year after helping the Sonics to the NBA Finals in 1995-96, Payton was named All-NBA nine times, including first-team nods 1997-98 and 1999-2000. He was also a nine-time member of the first-team All-Defensive unit.
Payton led the NBA in steals with 2.9 per game in 1995-96 and with 177 3-pointers in 1999-2000. Payton was also tremendously durable in Seattle, missing just four games in his 12-plus seasons, and averaging more than 40 minutes a game in five different seasons. Here are Payton’s top highlights as a Seattle SuperSonic:
Payton is the franchise’s career leader with 18,207 points, 7,384 assists, 2,107 steals and 999 games and is second with 917 3-point field goals and 7.4 assists per game, third with 4,240 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game and fifth with 36.9 minutes per game. He is also the franchise’s career leader with 123.8 win shares.
In February 2003, Payton was dealt with Desmond Mason to the Milwaukee Bucks for Ray Allen, Ronald Murray, Kevin Ollie and a 2003 first-round draft pick.
Apologies to: Gus Williams, Nate McMillan, Russell Westbrook, Lenny Wilkens.