List_of_Seattle_SuperSonics_seasons
The Seattle SuperSonics, also known the Sonics, are a former professional basketball team based from Seattle, Washington, United States, that played from 1967 to 2008.[1] They were members of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1970 onward; the team played in the conference's Pacific Division from 1970 to 2004 and the Northwest Division from 2004 to 2008.[2][lower-alpha 1] The Sonics joined the NBA as an expansion team in 1967 and were named for the supersonic airliner under development by Boeing, which was later cancelled.[4] They played for their first eleven seasons at the Seattle Center Coliseum, which was built for the 1962 World's Fair and had a seating capacity of 12,595.[5] The team moved in 1978 to the Kingdome, a multipurpose stadium shared with other sports teams, and set NBA attendance records there during a seven-season stay.[6] The Sonics hosted twenty Kingdome games with crowds larger than 30,000 and drew a league-record 40,172 spectators at a 1980 playoffs game.[5][6]
The team returned to the Seattle Center Coliseum in 1985 as attendance at the Kingdome declined and the stadium's scheduling and layout caused issues for fans.[6][7] A major renovation of the Coliseum began in 1994 and displaced the Sonics, who played for two seasons at the Tacoma Dome, a suburban arena that was expanded to 16,296 seats.[8] The renovated Coliseum, renamed to KeyArena, had the NBA's smallest seating capacity at 17,072 and hosted its first regular season game on November 4, 1995.[5][9] The team played their final home game at KeyArena on April 13, 2008.[10] After the end of the 2007–08 season, the Sonics were relocated by its new ownership group to Oklahoma City. A lawsuit to halt the relocation and enforce the team's 15-year lease at KeyArena was filed by the Seattle city government but dropped as part of a settlement in July 2008.[11][12] The team has played since the 2008–09 season as the Oklahoma City Thunder;[13] as part of the settlement, the SuperSonics name and history was left with the city for use by a future team.[11]
In their 41 seasons as an NBA team, the SuperSonics had an all-time regular season record of 1,745 wins and 1,585 losses; in the playoffs, they had 107 wins and 110 losses.[14] They reached the postseason 22 times and played in three NBA Finals, winning one league championship in 1979.[14] The Sonics were the first team from Washington state to win a major professional sports championship since the Seattle Metropolitans in the 1917 Stanley Cup.[15] Their .524 winning percentage was also historically the best among professional teams in the Seattle area, surpassing the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Mariners.[16] The team's all-time points leader is Gary Payton with 18,207 points; he also holds the most assists in Sonics history at 7,384.[17]
The Sonics had a 23–59 record during their inaugural season and finished with the NBA's second-worst record, narrowly ahead of fellow expansion team San Diego Rockets.[18] The team were below .500 for their first four seasons and had their first winning season in 1971–72, where they earned a 47–35 record.[19] The Sonics clinched their first playoff berth in the 1974–75 season,[20] which was followed by consecutive NBA Finals in 1978 and 1979 against the Washington Bullets.[21] Seattle lost the first final, but defeated Washington in the rematch after finishing first in the Western Conference.[22] Lenny Wilkens, who led the team to both finals appearances, was replaced as head coach in 1985 after missing the playoffs by finishing with a 31–51 record, which his successor Bernie Bickerstaff equaled the following season.[23] The Sonics made an unexpected run to the Western Conference Final in the 1987 playoffs, only to lose to the Los Angeles Lakers.[24]
The 1990s brought more consistent success, including eight consecutive playoff appearances, with head coach George Karl and new players Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton, both acquired in the draft.[25] The Sonics finished as the top seed in the 1993–94 season with a 63–19 record, but lost in a major upset to the eighth-seeded Denver Nuggets in the opening round of the playoffs.[26] The team reached the 1996 NBA Finals—their third and final apperance—after clinching first in the Western Conference standings but lost to the Chicago Bulls in six games.[27] The Sonics were eliminated in the conference semifinals two more times under Karl before he left the team along with Kemp by 1998.[25] The team, now under coach Paul Westphal, missed the playoffs in the shortened 1998–99 season, but returned the following year as a seventh-seed.[28][29] Westphal was replaced early in the 2000–01 season by assistant coach and former Sonics player Nate McMillan, who led the team through rebuilds and to their two final playoff appearances: in 2002–03 and 2004–05 as the Northwest Division champions with 52 wins.[30][31] The team's final three seasons in Seattle all finished with losing records and no playoff berths under the three different head coaches.[32] The Sonics had 20 wins and 62 losses during their 2007–08 season, their worst record in franchise history, shortly before moving to Oklahoma City.[16]
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