April 13, 2008: Although it is not yet official, the Seattle SuperSonics play their last game. They beat the Dallas Mavericks, 99-95 at the KeyArena. Earl Watson leads the Sonics with 21 points, and rookie Kevin Durant scored 19. In defeat, Dirk Nowitzki leads all scorers with 32.
The SuperSonics were Seattle's 1st true major league sports team. Before that, the city had the University of Washington, Seattle University, and the Seattle Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, 1917 Stanley Cup winners, but they folded in 1926. The team known at various times as the Seattle Indians, the Seattle Rainiers and the Seattle Angels had won 7 Pennants, but they were all in the Pacific Coast League.
Losing the Sonics, a team that existed for 41 years, made the Playoffs 22 times, reaching 6 Conference Finals, winning 3 Conference Championships and the 1979 NBA title was a blow to the Queen City of the Northwest.
Granted, since then, Oklahoma City has strongly supported the team. It proved to be a good city for the NBA. But they should have gotten an expansion team, not taken somebody else's team.
The NBA did a "Cleveland Browns" with the Sonics: The Thunder could take the organization and the players, but not the history or the trademarks. They do not hang banners for the titles won by the Sonics. The NBA committed itself to restoring the Sonics, but, through the 2021-22 season, has not done so.
UPDATE: The original version of the Sonics never had a team Hall of Fame. But they did retire 6 uniform numbers: 1, for 1970s and '80s guard Gus Williams; 10, for 1980s and '90s guard Nate McMillan; 19, for 1970s guard and head coach Lenny Wilkens; 24, for 1970s forward Spencer Haywood; 32, for 1970s and '80s guard Fred Brown; and 43, for 1970s and '80s guard Jack Sikma. They also raised a banner in honor of Bo Blackburn, who broadcast for them from their debut in 1967 until 1992.
Should the franchise be re-established, they would be entitled to re-raise those banners, as well as for their 1979 NBA Championship; their Western Conference Championships of 1978, 1979 and 1996; and their Division Championships of 1979, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2005.
Wilkens, Brown and Blackburn have been elected to the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame. So have 1990s guard Gary Payton, 1990s forward Detlef Schrempf (also a University of Washington graduate), and forward Steve Hawes, a UW graduate who played only the 1983-84 season with the Sonics.
For now, the Thunder do not have a team Hall of Fame, but are honoring the Sonics' retired numbers. To those, they have added 4, for 2000s and '10s forward Nick Collison. The only Thunder personnel yet elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame have been forward Carmelo Anthony, who played the 2017-18 season for them; and Billy Donovan, their head coach from 2015 to 2020, but elected on the basis of having coached the University of Florida to back-to-back National Championships in 2006 and '07.
There is an Oklahoma Hall of Fame, for citizens of the State in all walks of life, in Oklahoma City, but not yet an Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. 2007-16 forward Kevin Durant (taken in the team's last NBA Draft as the Sonics) and 2008-19 guard Russell Westbrook were elected to it while still with the Thunder. General manager Sam Presti was elected after the 2025 NBA Championship.
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April 13, 2008 was a Sunday. There were 5 other games in the NBA that day:
* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Miami Heat, 84-76 at the Quicken Loans Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Toronto Raptors, 91-84 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.
* The Orlando Magic beat the Chicago Bulls, 104-84 at the United Center in Chicago.
* The Denver Nuggets beat the Houston Rockets, 111-94 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver. Allen Iverson scored 33 for the Nugs.
* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 106-85 at the Staples Center (now the
Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.
These games were played in Major League Baseball:
* The New York Yankees lost to their arch-rivals, the Boston Red Sox, 8-5 at Fenway Park in Boston. Daisuke Matsuzaka was the winning pitcher, while Phil Hughes didn't get an out in the 3rd inning. David Ortiz did not play, but the other main steroid cheat, Manny Ramirez, went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Of the Yankees' steroid users, Jason Giambi hit a home run, but Alex Rodriguez went 0-for-5. Derek Jeter did not play.
* The New York Mets lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-7 at Shea Stadium. Gabe Kapler and Rickie Weeks hit home runs for the Brew Crew, David Wright for the Metropolitans.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-5 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. In the top of the 10th inning, Carlos Zambrano grounded out, but it allowed Ronny Cedeño to score the winning run. Mark DeRosa hit a home run for the Cubs, Jayson Werth and Eric Bruntlett for the Phils.
* The Washington Nationals beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-4 at Nationals Park in Washington.
* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-1 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Ken Griffey Jr. went 0-for-4.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-1 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-0 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago. Javier Vázquez pitched 7 innings of 5-hit shutout ball. Matt Thornton and Nick Masset completed the 6-hit shutout. Paul Konerko went 2-for-5 with a home run and 5 RBIs. Joe Crede hit a grand slam.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-1 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.
* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers, 5-4 at Rangers Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Joe Inglett hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th inning, to score Marco Scutaro with the winning run.
* The Houston Astros beat the Florida Marlins, 5-1 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.
* The Colorado Rockies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 13-5 at Chase Field in Phoenix.
* The San Diego Padres beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 1-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. How many Padre pitchers does it take to pitch a 5-hit shutout? On this afternoon, 5: Greg Maddux, 2 hits over 5 innings; Joe Thatcher, a hit in the 6th; Cla Meredith, a hitless 7th; Heath Bell, a hit in the 8th; and Trevor Hoffman, a hit in the 9th. The only run of the game came in the top of the 4th, Jim Edmonds scoring on a sacrifice fly by Paul McAnulty.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-4 at AT&T Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco.
* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Seattle Mariners, 10-5 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. Ichiro Suzuki went 0-for-3, but drew 2 walks and stole a base.
Football was out of season. The NHL was in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and 4 games were played:
* The New Jersey Devils beat their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 4-3 at Madison Square Garden. John Madden (no relation to the football coach, broadcaster and video game impresario) scored the winning goal, 6:01 into overtime. Unfortunately for me, that was the only game the Devils won in that series.
* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 2-1 at the TD Banknorth Garden (now the TD Garden) in Boston. Marc Savard scored the winning goal, 9:25 into overtime. Marc is not related to Canadiens legend Serge Savard, although Serge does have a son named Marc.
* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Washington Capitals, 2-0 at the Verizon Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.
* And the Calgary Flames beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-3 at the Saddledome in Calgary.
And in English soccer, Manchester United beat Arsenal, 2-1 at Old Trafford in Salford. Owen Hargreaves scored the winning goal in the 72nd minute. This didn't quite clinch the Premier League title for United, but it did pretty much knock Arsenal out. United ended up beating Chelsea for the title by 2 points, and Arsenal by 4.
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