The Oklahoma City Thunder
are an American professional basketball team
based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The Thunder competes in
the National
Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's
Western Conference
Northwest Division. The team plays its home games at
Chesapeake Energy Arena. The
Thunder's NBA Development League affiliate is the Oklahoma
City Blue, which it
owns. The Thunder is the only team in the major
professional North American
sports leagues based in the state of Oklahoma.
The
team was originally established as the Seattle
SuperSonics, an
expansion team that joined the NBA for the 1967–68
season. The SuperSonics
moved in 2008 after a settlement was reached between the
ownership group led by
Clay Bennett and lawmakers in Seattle, Washington
following a lawsuit. In
Seattle, the SuperSonics qualified for the NBA playoffs
22 times, won their
division six times, and won the 1979 NBA Championship.
In Oklahoma City, the
Thunder qualified for their first playoff berth during
the 2009–10
season. They won their first division title as the
Thunder in the 2010–11
season and their first Western Conference championship
as the Thunder in the
2011–12 season, appearing in the NBA Finals for the
fourth time in franchise
history and first since 1996, when the club was based in
Seattle.