NBA expansion has been a topic of conversation for at least the last decade, and over the last few years there’s been reports and speculation about which cities the league would target for their next franchises. Seattle has always been top of mind ever since the city’s former team, the Seattle SuperSonics, were relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008. There’s obvious mutual interest in bringing a team back to Seattle, as the NBA has held several preseason games in the city over the years. Kevin Durant, who was drafted by Seattle in 2007, and played his rookie season for the SuperSonics before the relocation to OKC the following year, is among several who have been vocal about bringing the NBA back to Seattle.
There isn’t a public timeline on when the NBA plans to expand, though ESPN reports that the expansion teams could be added for the 2027-28 season. Official cities also haven’t been named, but Seattle has been long rumored as one of the preferred destinations, as well as Las Vegas. But whenever that happens, and if Seattle is awarded one of the two teams, not only will the city be getting an NBA team back, they could be getting the name “SuperSonics” back, too.
Per ESPN:
“Sources said if a team was to return to Seattle, the Thunder would cede the Seattle history back to the SuperSonics — just as the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets reclaimed the Charlotte-era history of the New Orleans Pelicans when Charlotte switched from being the Bobcats to the Hornets in 2014.”
Because the Thunder don’t celebrate the SuperSonics’ history in any way, this would make it easy to untangle the shared history of the two teams if Seattle were to be awarded a franchise. It would also restore some important NBA history in a sense, as the Sonics feature some of the greatest players in league history who don’t get celebrated as much because there isn’t a team in Seattle.
While the 2027-28 season is a rumored target date for when expansion teams could be added, league commissioner Adam Silver said last week that there was “not a lot of discussion” during the annual fall Board of Governors meeting regarding expansion. However, Silver did say expansion is a topic the board plans to address this upcoming season. With the new CBA taken care of last summer, and a television rights deal finalized this summer, expansion seems like it will be the league’s No. 1 priority over the next couple years.
