Basketball <\/p>\n
There are lots of important conversations to have about looming NBA expansion<\/a>. Conference realignment, schedule changes, the literal billions of dollars each team will bring in from their sale \u2014\u00a0you know, grown up stuff. But no one is talking about the most important part of all of this; a custody battle that spans all NBA history: who gets the 1979 NBA Championship?<\/p>\n It has been widely reported<\/a> that the NBA has zeroed in on Seattle and Las Vegas as the two destinations for its expansion teams, both large media markets and the former of which a legacy basketball town that really-super hasn\u2019t gotten over the theft of their team, the Seattle SuperSonics, to Oklahoma City in 2008. To bring a team back to Seattle and not use the name \u201cSuperSonics\u201d would be a crime so horrific they\u2019d have to add an eighth deadly sin \u2014\u00a0thankfully, we\u2019re all in agreement<\/a> that the Seattle SuperSonics would return; name, colors and all. But it does beg a pretty interesting question: who are the true <\/em>SuperSonics, the Oklahoma City Thunder or \u2026 you know, the SuperSonics? The NewperSonics, <\/em>if you will.<\/p>\n The boring answer is that there is no problem. Sources told ESPN in 2024<\/a> that the Thunder would likely cede all SuperSonics history to the new team, given that the Thunder don\u2019t celebrate Seattle history with banners or some sort of ring of honor or anything. Given that the Thunder just won their own championship, there is no question that the 1979 Championship would revert back to its rightful owners: the city of Seattle.<\/p>\n However, this lame formulation doesn\u2019t capture all the intrigue associated with this history-custody situation. Because the NewperSonics (yes we\u2019re going to make that a thing) are literally not<\/em> the same franchise as the old SuperSonics, which were legally purchased and transferred to Oklahoma City, though there was a strange resolution in the lawsuit between the city of Seattle and Thunder that allowed the SuperSonics to use their old digs if a team ever came back. History was officially merged and shared, though it seems the Thunder intend to be benevolent.<\/p>\n (Side note: can you imagine <\/em>if the Thunder decided to make this a big deal and said \u201cno, that 1979 championship is ours, so are Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp and Ray Allen. Deal with it.\u201d That would make the Thunder the most reviled franchise in sports basically overnight. But more on this later [foreshadowing])<\/p>\n Despite what the reports might say, I\u2019m confident the transfer of history won\u2019t be some hunky-dory happiness parade where Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hands a lifesize portrait of Jack Sikma to Macklemore and then everyone throws fish to each other and watches the sun set over Puget sound. We are going to have problems, and if nobody has problems, I will create problems.<\/em><\/p>\n Question 1: Who drafted Kevin Durant? <\/strong>Short answer: the SuperSonics, where he played the first year of his career. However, on Thunder all-time scoring lists, Durant now loses the first year of his career and the 1624 points he scored that season. That keeps him at third place on their all-time list behind Russell Westbrook and Gary Payton, but actually he will be moved up <\/em>to second because Gary Payton is now first <\/em>in SuperSonics scoring history. Durant\u2019s Rookie of the Year now goes to the Sonics, and Durant is now not <\/em>the first homegrown Thunder star; Durant was not stolen from the Thunder by the Warriors, he was stolen by the Thunder <\/em>from the Sonics. We cool with that, Thunder fans?<\/p>\n Question 2: How did Durant and the rest of the 2006 team officially get from the Sonics to the Thunder?<\/strong> Durant has officially played for five teams \u2014 Thunder, Warriors, Nets, Suns and Rockets \u2014\u00a0but now he will have played for six. Did he and the rest of the team just get \u201ctraded\u201d to the Thunder? Are we going to have to add a line in his Wikipedia page that says Durant was \u201crelocated\u201d to Oklahoma City?\u00a0<\/p>\n Question 3: Should Russell Westbrook\u2019s legacy receive this much of a boost?<\/strong> On the official NBA record books, the SuperSonics and Thunder have shared player records, split relatively evenly between Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Should the Sonics history migrate back to Seattle, here is a list of statistical categories Westbrook will suddenly be the Thunder\u2019s franchise leader in: Points, assists, defensive rebounds, total rebounds, steals, minutes played, field goals made, field goals attempted, free throws made, free throws attempted. <\/em>Games played, obviously, now belongs to Nick Collison.<\/p>\n Durant retains the three-pointers made records, but Westbrook steals (pun intended) many of the rest from Payton, who, conversely, becomes the hegemon for SuperSonics history. The most hilarious one: since Durant\u2019s 2006 season now belongs to Seattle, Westbrook passes Durant <\/em>for first on the Thunder all-time 3-pointers attempted list.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe Thunder giving Seattle it\u2019s history back won\u2019t be so simple<\/h2>\n
Three statistical and historical problems caused by the SuperSonics return<\/h2>\n
Should the Thunder give up the SuperSonics\u2019 history?<\/h2>\n