Since becoming an NBA team in 1967, the Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder franchise has just one championship.
That came back in 1979, when the SuperSonics defeated the Washington Bullets in the '79 Finals.
The '96 SuperSonics led by Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp were close to winning the championship. But they ran into the 72-10 Chicago Bulls, led by Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
Chicago defeated Seattle in six games to capture the '96 Finals, with Jordan winning his fourth title and Finals MVP.
The SuperSonics turned into the OKC Thunder for the 2008-09 season. Guided by young superstars Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, the 2012 Thunder got to the NBA Finals, where they faced LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat.
Despite winning Game 1 to start the series, the Thunder wound up losing to the Heat in five games, giving LeBron his first NBA ring.
Since then, no Thunder team has got back to the Finals. To make matters even more sad, Durant, Westbrook and Harden are all gone from OKC.
Durant left the Thunder in the summer of 2016 to sign with the Golden State Warriors, where he won two ‘chips. Harden and Westbrook, meanwhile, are teammates again on the Houston Rockets. Neither MVP has a title yet.
The '96 SuperSonics and '12 Thunder were very fun teams to watch. But until a Thunder team wins a title, the 1978-79 Seattle SuperSonics will remain as the best team in Seattle/OKC franchise history.
The 1978-79 SuperSonics were coached by Lenny Wilkens. They began the season an impressive 15-5, doing most of their damage on defense. Seattle gave up only 103.9 points per game. That was good for first in the NBA. The SuperSonics were 19th out of 22 in offense, though, averaging just 106.6 points.
Guard Gus Williams led the team in scoring. He averaged 19.2 points while shooting 49.5 percent from the field. Hall of Famer Dennis Johnson was the second-leading scorer. He put up 15.9 points per game.
The SuperSonics finished the season 52-30. They had the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference playoffs and would face the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Semifinals of the '79 postseason. The Lakers were led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. To recall, there wasn't a first-round of the playoffs at this time.
Behind Williams, who averaged 30.8 points, the SuperSonics defeated the Lakers in five quick games. Los Angeles simply had no answers for Williams, who shot an efficient 50.0 percent from the floor. The Sonics were now headed to the Western Conference Finals, where they would need to defeat the Phoenix Suns to continue their magical season and advance to the NBA Finals.
The Suns were a tougher matchup for the SuperSonics than the Lakers were. The series went seven epic games, with the Sonics coming out on top to get to the Finals. Williams once again led Seattle in scoring. He averaged 22.1 points.
The '79 Finals saw the Sonics defeat the Bullets for their lone title in franchise history. It was Johnson, though, and not Williams who was named Finals MVP. Dennis averaged 22.6 points, 6.0 assists and 6.0 rebounds in the five-game series.
Hopefully the Thunder can capture a title soon. They certainly have the right youngster to build around in point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
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