NBA Way to Goat for franchise: Seattle Supersonics/Oklahoma City Thunder
Welcome to the Ranking Goat Franchice to franchise. Today is Seattle Supersonics/Oklahoma City Thunder.
Welcome to Ranking Goat franchise to NBA franchise. Before starting, it is important to define the evaluation criteria: it is not the best players but the most impact for the team in their history. We put, in a situation, trajectory, championships won, faithfulness and, of course, quality.
This committee composed of a single person has decided to immerse yourself in swampy waters to bring definitions. We will be inflexible. We will be dogmatic. And we will bring answers.
Made the respective clarifications, We get into the Top 10 of Seattle Supersonics/Oklahoma City Thunder.
Adjust your belts. It is time to take off.
10. Lenny Wilkens (1968-1972)
Winning has an important value, and beyond that it was only four years in the franchise, it deserves to enter the Top 10. Wilkens is an absolute legend of the NBA, both for what was done as a player and also for what was done as a coach.
In his passage through the Supersonics, this skilled shipowner averaged 19.5 points and nine assists per game. He reached three All-Star Game, but much more important than all that is that he helped to lay the foundations for transforming this franchise into the winner. His number 19 was removed by Supersonics, and was induced three times to Hall of Fame: in 1989 as a player, in 1998 as Coach and in 2010 as a 1992 Dream Team assistant.
Beyond his passage as a player, we cannot fail to mention his impact as coach on these lands: with him they gained the 1979 championship.
9. Detlef Schrempf (1993-1999)
Schrempf competed six years for Seattle Supersonics and his versatile game advanced to the time. The German talent-the first of his country to play in the NBA-was three times All-Star (1993, 1995 and 1997) and prior to his arrival at the vertigo of George Karl, Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, had been twice sixth man of the year.
Schrempf was pure balance and helped the Sonics reach the NBA finals in 1996, an instance in which they lost to the Chicago Bulls de Michael Jordan and company. High percentage, dynamic and multifaceted shooter, left an indelible mark on the heart of Seattle fans. He was a precursor of the modern NBA that we know today, full of international talent.
8. Fred Brown (1971-1984)
There are already several deliveries, but we will say it to the fed up: fidelity, in this ranking, pay. Brown played thirteen seasons in the Sonics, started as a substitute for Lenny Wilkens and Dick Snyder, but when Seattle sent Wilkens to Cleveland Cavaliers, he charged maximum notoriety to the point of erecting in irreplaceable. His story is closely linked to Wilkens, because ‘Downtown Freddie Brown’ was part of the 1979 champion team that, curiously, directed Wilkens already in his role as coach.
Excellent shooter, determinant in the Clutch, has a match that defines it: in the fifth game against Washington Bullets, decisive to be champions, Brown jumped from the bank, made 7-10 in field shots (14 points) and helped his team win the championship trophy. He became eternal for Seattle fans, who enjoyed great when he was honored by removing his number in 1986, two years after his retirement.
7. Jalen Williams (2022-present)
Too soon to be the seventh best of all time in the franchise? At all. After three years with the Thunder uniform, Williams became the perfect bodyguard of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Williams, champion in 2025 with Thunder, is a perfect help wheel. Brilliant in defense and attack, he is a double-Vía player who did not look from Kawhi Leonard. A sports reincarnation of Scottie Pippen. Williams, with an absurd arms extension, measures only 1.96 meters but seems much higher. It covers a lot of space with its movements.
All-Star in 2025, a prolific career awaits you in achievements. He signed for five more years and 287 million, so he can rise much more in this list of chosen.
6. Shawn Kemp (1989-1997)
The Reign Man. He played eight years in the Supersonics, but he could never take off the tattoo caused by this cult franchise. He formed with Gary Payton one of the most wonderful duos that existed in the NBA: the little and the giant. The fly flying and the dump. They were together bread and butter: they made alley Oop their registered trademark.
What did those Sonics win? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. However, they survive in the popular imaginary as a midnight spell. And Kemp, six times All-Star, spectacular player where he looks at it, was a fundamental piece of this fluorescent film.
Subsequent problems with the law did not prevent him from being crowned with the sixth position of the Gats ranking of the franchise. A fact that illuminates its game is that, in the 1996 playoffs, which ended with Seattle playing the finals against Chicago Bulls, Kemp averaged 20.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and 2 tapas per game.
Kemp was a force of nature. A machine that always accompanied its shaped content; its statistics with acrobatic jumps and show.
Before Seattle’s move to OKC, Shawn said goodbye to his name in the historical top ten at points, and was second in tapas and rebounds.
5. Kevin Durant (2007-2016)
We talk here about the most illustrious name of this list. Enter the Top Five, but it could well have been number one if I had not thrown the towel a long time. He played for both Sonics and Thunder, and is the main talent of home migration.
Durant, rookie of the year in 2007-08, scratched a championship in 2012 after falling into the finals against Miami Heat. He shared team with James Harden and Russell Westbrook, an electrifying Big Three, but committed the original sin of the generation that stepped on the league before 2010: too impatient to gain things, something that remedied the current generation with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren.
Espigado Alero, a player impossible to defend, unprecedented offensive talent, won, in his stage at Thunder, the MVP of 2013-14, was seven times All-Star, five times was in the ideal NBA team and was four times maximum scorer of the competition. He also won two Olympic golds and a World Cup while defending this uniform. It is, for many, the greatest ‘What if’ in history: what if it had been? How many rings would the Thunder have? Of course, it is contrafactic. We will never know the answer.
Durant was champion twice, but already in Golden State Warriors. He could be higher, but the lack of fidelity made him lower positions. Spoiler Alert: Your shirt will be removed when you leave the activity and will have a safe place at the Hall of Fame. Beyond everything, it is the usual: honor to whom honor deserves.
4. Russell Westbrook (2008-2019)
Thunder fans love Westbrook, because he was the Big Three member who did not abandon them. Harden left, Durant left, and Westbrook was fighting alone. It was not even better than the beard or better than KD, but it is still fair that it has a higher place on Mount Rushmore of the franchise.
Westbrook was a supernatural physicist for sport. Triple-double player, he always traveled faster than the rest of mortals, even at the risk, at times, of not thinking. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Harvey two faces. Take it or leave it equal. However, in his years in OKC, he was always decisive, to the point of winning the MVP in 2016-17. The year Durant left, Russ averaged 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds and 10.4 assists per meeting.
In his stage in Oklahoma City, it was eight times All-Star and twice he was in the ideal team of the League. In addition, he was a NBA scorer in two seasons and was also maximum assistor in two regular series. Really extraordinary numbers, although with a backpack that still loads in tow: he never won a championship.
In spite of everything, on this earth, Westbrook loves him, because his exit to the Rockets was the decision of the franchise. In short, no one stops wanting who never released his hand.
3. Jack Sikma (1977-1986)
It is unable that Sikma belongs to the top 3 of the Goat ranking of this franchise. He arrived at the NBA in 1977 and two years later he crowned champion with the Sonics. His blonde hair always identified him: he was much more skilled than his competitors in the position, always exhibited a fine hand for the hoop and also an enormous ability to write down in different ways. Unlike other big men, I knew how to pass the ball and ran the court frequently. For the time a big man with a revolutionary capacity was and that stood out above average.
Sikma was seven times there, all in his stage in Seattle. He played 715 games in the Sonics and averaged a double-double of 16.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, in addition to 3.3 assists, 1.1 robberies and a blockade by appearance, with 47% in field shots and 83% from the personal line.
His number 43 was removed by the franchise in 1992. He arrived at the Hall of Fame in 2019. It is the maximum historical rebounder of the franchise with 7,729 in his career and second figure in minutes played (24,707) and second in tapas (705).
2. Gary Payton (1990-2003)
The Glove. A wonderful base, which made the ball a chewing rubber. Perimeter defender of excellence, Payton was one of the greatest transh talent in the history of the NBA. He formed an elite duo, iconic for the League of the 1990s, the Belle Epoque of globalization. It was, what we met, as the ‘Sonic Boom’ under George Karl’s orders.
Payton played 13 years in Los Sonics and dominated almost all the statistical items of the franchise: games, minutes played, points, assists and robberies, among others. In his time as Seattle he got his nine All-Star appearances, he was a defensive player of the year in 1996 (same year that he was the largest robber of the League balls), he integrated nine ideal defensive teams of the NBA and twice he was in the ideal quintet. A galley and cane race.
He won two Olympic golds (Atlanta 1996 and Sidney 2000). He did not allow the Thunder to withdraw the number 20 out of respect for Seattle fans, since he always wanted his ceremony to be in that city. However, this electric, intense, hypnotic owner did not win any title. He entered the Hall of Fame in 2013.
1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2019-present)
He arrived at the franchise in 2019, from Los Angeles Clippers, and is already the undisputed Goat, with only 27 years. Canadian Birth, Shai conquered in the last year the title of Máximo Hardeer (32.7 points per game), the MVP of the season, the MVP of the late and the Larry O’Brien trophy, something they only achieved, in the story, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. No talent from the Sonics or the Thunder reached, at any time, a similar merit.
Shai, perimeter elite, king of silence with the ball in his hands, already chosen three times all-Star and three times integrated the ideal quintet of the season. From the hand of Sam Presti, the architect in the offices of a franchise that wants to transform into dynasty, Gilgeous-Alexander, a master of the average and short distance, climbed to the top of Mount Rushmore in OKC.
And the best pages are yet to be written.
