The Oklahoma City Thunder have won a championship before, sort of.
This franchise has, at least, back when the Seattle SuperSonics took the NBA crown in 1979.
But memory doesn’t really work like that. Seattle basketball fans know that they lost their team, and this OKC title will feel, at the very least, bittersweet.
Really, this could’ve been Seattle. What would’ve stopped the same build from happening in the Pacific Northwest?
The jerseys would’ve looked different, but the result very well may have wound up the same.
And at least as far as Sonics fans are concerned, it’s too bad.
The team left Seattle after the 2007-08 season.
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Kevin Durant played his rookie season there before he and the rest of the franchise relocated to Oklahoma City.
Seattle has been pitched as an NBA expansion city, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Many remember Seattle basketball fondly, but that doesn’t change what this Sunday night must’ve felt like.
Some fans probably stuck closely as Thunder fans. Some probably wanted to root for someone else altogether.
And some probably are a bit in the middle, happy to see the Thunder win but sad that it didn’t happen on a home court in Seattle.
It’s a feeling that will probably be hard to shake, unless the NBA returns to Seattle. If that happens, and the Sonics are back, then it’ll be a true chance to pursue another championship in the Pacific Northwest.
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