Want the Sonics back? NBA boss Adam Silver is happy to play stall ball

If you’re a fan who loved the Sonics and desperately wants them back in Seattle, prepare for more negative news in the next few months. I base this on comments from NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who continues to play a game of stall ball as it relates to expansion and the rebirth of the Sonics.

This ongoing nonsense coincides with troubling developments on the court, where the Oklahoma City Thunder, the former Sonics, have an excellent shot at winning the NBA championship this year. That would be every Sonics’ fan’s biggest nightmare to see the team that should still be theirs hoisting the trophy.

OKC is favored to win the title at +155 at Draft Kings mainly because they’re pretty damn good, posting a 68-14 regular season record, winning 54 of their games by double digits. The Thunder won their first playoff game over Memphis by 51 points.

It’s been 17 years since the Sonics were done dirty, taken to the dust bowl in the most misguided transfer of a team in professional sports history. Debate that all you want, but 41 years in Seattle with a successful NBA franchise is proof enough for me.

I didn’t think anyone could out-bozo David Stern, but Silver has managed to do it - the only things missing from his statements about NBA expansion as it pertains to Seattle are a red nose and red hair and oversized shoes.

Everyone knows that when the NBA does decide to expand that Seattle is the most obvious spot for the next team to join the league. An ownership group and a state of the art arena are in place along with a long history that has shown an NBA team can thrive in Seattle.

Yet we get the same old crap from Silver whenever he talks about expansion, rarely confirming what he should be confirming, that Seattle should be first in line when the league adds new teams.

This is what he should be saying:

“We in the league recognize that the Sonics should have never been allowed to leave Seattle, and we’re looking forward to righting that wrong and can’t wait to see the green and gold back at Climate Pledge Arena.”

Instead, we get the lanky bald man saying nice stuff about the Sonics but always having to throw in some B.S. as a side dish that no one ordered.

“(Seattle) was a market that was fantastic for the league that we left for understandable reasons, but there’s no doubt there continues to be enormous passion in that market for the NBA,” Silver said on The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN last week.

OK, come on, who in the world besides Silver and OKC owner Clay Bennett feel like the Sonics left Seattle for understandable reasons? Answer: No one.

And he can never quite commit to Seattle, most recently saying the NBA is looking at the Emerald City and Las Vegas, but mentioning the league is considering other markets too.

He did tell McAfee that the NBA will start a formal expansion process this summer - most likely when the Board of Governors meets in July - but wouldn’t commit to the league actually adding teams.

It’s yet another reminder from the league that we need to be patient, as if 18 years doesn’t qualify as patient enough. We were led to believe that the NBA would consider expansion after the new media rights deal was secured, but that happened last July. Then we were told that expansion would be on the front burner after the Celtics were sold. That happened last month, but here we are with more empty comments from Silver.

I personally don’t care if the Sonics come back. But I really want them to return for fans who miss them so much, and I can relate to how they feel.

I grew up in Redmond and was 10 years old when the Sonics came to town in 1967. I loved them all, from Tom Meschery to Bob Rule to Walt Hazzard to Tommy Kron to Bob Weiss to Plummer Lott to their first coach, Al Bianchi. I kept score of most of their games and enjoyed listening to Bob Blackburn’s play by play on the radio.

I lived out my dream to cover the Sonics for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in the 1990’s, but I don’t watch the NBA anymore. I guess you could call me one of those guys who appreciates how talented the elite players are but doesn’t care for the style of play in the league.

Threes and dunks. Does anyone care about defense? And what about load management, a nice of way of saying I’m sorry you bought a ticket to watch a superstar play tonight, but he’ll be on the bench watching just like you this evening.

Did you see Miami’s Tyler Herro the other night? He made a nice steal and had a sure thing break-away dunk or layin waiting for him, but he chose to pull up for a three that he missed, and the Bulls turned that into a game-clinching three of their own.

Here’s the other thing, if they come back, the Sonics won’t be the team you remembered. And the ticket prices won’t be what they were in 2008. The average NBA ticket costs $94 now.

You can call me old and clueless and that’s fine. It might even be accurate. I just know if I were part of the ownership group I would get sick of having to suck up to Silver at every turn.

Imagine always telling Silver they understand why he’s taking his time with the expansion process while actually thinking they’re tired of his song and dance and wish they could tell him to pound sand.

It’s as if he still wants the future Sonics to provide a resume that shows their worth as an expansion team when all anyone needs is two eyes to see that no one else is a better candidate.

Jim Moore has covered Washington’s sports scene from every angle for multiple news outlets. He appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 10 a.m. on Jason Puckett’s podcast at PuckSports.com. He writes a Substack blog at jimmoorethego2guy.substack.com. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) @cougsgo.

This story was originally published April 22, 2025 at 9:46 AM.