Ever since the Seattle Supersonics relocated to Oklahoma City and were re-named the Thunder in 2008, Seattle has often been a destination for expansion franchises in other major sports such as the MLS (Seattle Sounders), XFL (Seattle Dragons) and most recently an approved location for an NHL expansion team that will begin play in the 2021-22 season. But former 15-time NBA All-Star Kevin Garnett knows the city still yearns for an NBA franchise.
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During a lengthy interview this week, Garnett spoke about different topics including being selected for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, his relationship with Kobe Bryant and his plans for the next 5-10 years. Unexpectedly, he also brought up his fondness of Seattle and how he’d like to help bring an NBA team there.
“If I have a dream, I would say that I would love to be able to go and buy the Seattle SuperSonics and reactivate the Pacific Northwest and get NBA loving back going into that area. I think it’s needed and it’s essential,” Garnett said. “Seattle was huge to our league. Not just Portland, but the whole northwest. I would love to be able to do that. That’s what’s up. If there’s one thing I could do tomorrow, it would be that.”
He is not the only person to echo this sentiment. In an article from Seattle Business in January 2019, Kevin Durant who spent his rookie season as a member of the Sonics before the relocation, stated strongly that Seattle deserved an NBA team after returning to KeyArena for a preseason game earlier that year.
“Everybody in the basketball world and the NBA knows the Sonics need to be back in Seattle,” Durant said.
Although fans and players would like to see this idea come to fruition, NBA commissioner Adam Silver spoke to reporters during the 2019 NBA playoffs and said, “Expansion is not on our agenda right now.” He hasn’t spoken since about a new NBA franchise and with the current hostile environment stemming from the coronavirus outbreak, it’s impossible to tell when basketball will return to Seattle.
