Well, there goes that dream. The Thunder won their first NBA championship<\/a> (don\u2019t you dare say it\u2019s their first since 1979, because it\u2019s not) only after the Indiana Pacers lost star Tyrese Haliburton to an apparent Achilles injury<\/a> in Game 7 on Sunday night. And all that Sonics fans are left with now is pain.<\/p>\n Of course we are.<\/p>\n This was supposed to be the year when the Sonics coming back became really real. The NBA wrapped up its massive new media rights deal last summer, long seen as the final hurdle to the league expanding by two teams \u2013 which have been longe been speculated to be going to Seattle, where shiny and state of the art Climate Pledge Arena awaits, and Las Vegas.<\/p>\n Instead, the attention has turned to NBA franchises selling left and right<\/a>, while the expansion prospects in Seattle have only gone backwards.<\/p>\n And now NBA commissioner Adam Silver is being exceedingly vague<\/a> about expansion talks. Even when he has talked about it this year, he\u2019s mentioned Seattle in a weird way, like the fact that the city still talks about its undying dedication to bringing the Sonics back is an affront to the league\u2019s process. Well, if that\u2019s the case, the league\u2019s process has been an affront to the city for so long that the grudge could graduate high school next spring. So touch\u00e9.<\/p>\n The latest on NBA expansion? Maybe the league will do it. Or maybe they\u2019ll decide the record-setting fees it will surely net by creating two new teams won\u2019t be worth the rest of the league\u2019s owners sharing revenue with two more franchises.<\/p>\n Yeah. It\u2019s gross. But that\u2019s the NBA for you.<\/p>\n Gross is a good way to describe what went down Sunday night, too, when the Zombie Sonics crossed over to the Vampire Sonics. The Thunder are immortal now, having finally won a championship in the most blood-sucking way after Haliburton\u2019s injury \u2013 and officially sucking all of the blood out of Seattle\u2019s remaining NBA fans in the process.<\/p>\n Not that there was much left, because Sonics fans have been through the wringer over the last two decades.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve lived through Howard Schultz and Clay Bennett.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve watched Kevin Durant, who began his career as a 19-year-old rookie in Seattle, turn into one of the best players in NBA history while wearing jerseys devoid of green and gold (including a tour of old Sonics rivals that is now going through Houston<\/a>).<\/p>\n We saw Russell Westbrook put on a Sonics hat<\/a> on draft day in 2008, then go with the franchise to Oklahoma City less than a week later, where he would begin a first-ballot Hall of Fame career.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve seen Sam Presti, the last Sonics general manager, be the architect of not one but now two championship-contending roster cores in OKC, where he has earned the reputation as one of the great executives in pro basketball.<\/p>\n Perhaps most poignantly, we endured the agony of defeat that was hedge fund manager Chris Hansen\u2019s bid to bring back the Sonics, complete with his agreement to buy the Sacramento Kings in 2013 in order to relocate them to Seattle that was unanimously rejected by the league\u2019s owners. He tried, but the league didn\u2019t want to see another city go through the pain of losing a team \u2013 you know, like Seattle did.<\/p>\n And now, while the league continues to drag its feet on what no longer seems like a sure expansion announcement, salt is poured in those old wounds as the same trophy that the Sonics won 46 years ago is lifted in OKC 17 years after it stole its team from Seattle.<\/p>\n Pain. At every turn, that\u2019s what the NBA has inflicted upon Seattle.<\/p>\n And no matter what happens in the future, after all this time, all those rugs pulled out from under us, that\u2019s the NBA\u2019s rotten legacy here. Just pain.<\/p>\n Previously: No love lost for Seattle Sonics fans with Thunder in NBA Finals<\/a><\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SeattleSportsEmail-830x100-1.jpg\")
\t