With teams in 28 different cities, the NBA has a presence all over North America that features some of the best basketball communities in the world.
For a while, Seattle was included in that group. As the home of the SuperSonics, they rooted hard for their team and made sure to show up to the stadium for each and every home game.
But in 2008, a settlement was reached to relocate the Sonics from Seattle to Oklahoma City, where they transformed into the Thunder.
Seattle hasn’t had an NBA team since, and the thousands of basketball fans in that corner have been pushing hard to change that.
On ‘Around the Horn’ this week, NBA analyst Michael Wilbon became the latest to pitch a Sonics return.
“Somebody better put an NBA team in Seattle you see the support for that team [@seattlestorm] you how much they love basketball there… Put a damn team in Sea @NBA stop being stupid…”
Michael Wilbon on @nba in Seattle:
“Somebody better put an NBA team in Seattle you see the support for that team [@seattlestorm] you how much they love basketball there… Put a damn team in Sea @NBA stop being stupid,” Says @RealMikeWilbon.#TakeCover #nbatwitter #SueBird pic.twitter.com/huP4cs1O2z
— Landon Buford (@LandonBuford) September 7, 2022
Seattle is a hard-core basketball city, and it’s still a mystery why the team moved out of there, to begin with. But since the Sonics’ death, there has been a pretty big movement to get them back that has included some pretty prominent voices.
“I felt like the world ended in Seattle,” said former Sonics guard Gary Payton. “Because that city and them fans don’t deserve that. They don’t deserve it. And I’ve been working very hard to get it back. We’re gonna try and get an expansion team and I think. the expansion team is gonna happen. I think with Adam Silver, he knows that we’re gonna add some teams and I think Seattle is one of them teams that he’s going to add and I think that they deserve it. As getting a new hockey team there as the Krakens right now and making the arena that they just built there. I think it’s something that the NBA has to look at. And then I think at the opening of the Krakens in NHL season that Adam Silver was there and he was in the facility. So I think it’s going to happen and when it happens it’s gonna be a great thing.”
The good news is that the NBA seems ready to announce some expansion teams soon, and Seattle is apparently one of the cities set to host a new team.
Michael Wilbon will be just one of the thousands of people pumped to see an NBA team return to the Pacific Northwest.
