Washington governor talks potential return of SuperSonics with NBA commissioner

Late last year, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver indicated the league would decide in 2026 whether to pursue expansion, while floating Seattle and Las Vegas as two likely destinations

Jake Goldstein-Street
Washington State Standard

With the NBA considering a possible expansion, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson met Thursday with the league’s commissioner to offer assistance in returning the SuperSonics to Seattle.

Ferguson had reached out to set what his spokesperson called an introductory meeting with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. The two didn’t meet in person.

“As a kid, the governor grew up attending many Sonics games, and attending the Lenny Wilkens basketball camp,” spokesperson Brionna Aho said in an email. She said Ferguson and Silver “had a good conversation, and the governor offered to be helpful.”

Aho clarified later that Ferguson specifically “offered to be helpful in bringing back the Sonics.”

Ferguson’s public calendar was updated Wednesday afternoon, showing an 11:15 a.m. meeting Thursday with Silver. This set off alarm bells for local basketball fans yearning for their team back 18 years after the Sonics left. 

The NBA didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Late last year, Silver indicated the league would decide in 2026 whether to pursue expansion, while floating Seattle and Las Vegas as two likely destinations. Seattle has been awaiting news of a return of its beloved SuperSonics for years, with no luck. 

The city lost the team, owned by Starbucks executive Howard Schultz, to Oklahoma City in 2008. The Oklahoma City Thunder won its first NBA title last season.

Five years later, Seattle sports fans had hoped they’d get a team to return when the Sacramento Kings reportedly reached a deal with a local ownership group, including Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, to buy the Kings and relocate. But other NBA owners rejected the relocation attempt, keeping the team in Sacramento. 

Ballmer has since purchased the Los Angeles Clippers. 

Expanding the NBA back to Seattle is expected to cost an ownership group billions of dollars, as franchise values have surged alongside lucrative media rights deals. But current team owners would have to approve, and more teams means they’d be giving up a slice of their revenue. 

Since the Sonics left, Seattle has replaced the aging Key Arena with the state-of-the-art Climate Pledge Arena, with the hopes of adding professional men’s basketball to the NHL’s Kraken, WNBA’s Storm and Professional Women’s Hockey League’s Torrent that currently call the arena home. Climate Pledge has hosted NBA preseason games in recent years.

As governor, Ferguson has shown his fandom for Seattle sports teams, especially as the Mariners and Seahawks have had playoff success since he took office last year. He even mentioned wanting to see the return of the SuperSonics in his State of the State address last month. 

“We know that our work in professional sports is not done until we bring the Seattle SuperSonics back home,” Ferguson said.

The league has also expressed interest in international expansion, to cities like Mexico City and Vancouver, which had a team until it moved to Memphis in 2001.

This report was first published by the Washington State Standard.