I’m a general purpose Seattle sports team homer, but the SuperSonics will always hold a special place in my heart. Long before Seattle was established as a major sports market, the Sonics put this town on the map, predating the Seahawks, the Mariners, and all the other teams that followed. Throughout the 1990s while I was living abroad, my annual hometown holiday visits felt incomplete If I couldn’t catch a Sonics game (or two) in person. And when we moved back for good in 2000, we lived at the foot of Queen Anne, just a two-block stroll from KeyArena. With a partial season ticket package in hand, it was pure basketball heaven in our literal backyard.

For me, the period leading up to the Sonics’ departure in 2008 felt like a long, grueling traffic accident happening in slow motion, starting with the team’s sale in 2006. Long story short, the OKC investors got their franchise, while Howard Schultz and his partners walked away with a big payout, somehow placating themselves in a self-righteous justification of the deal. The City Council wasn’t much help either, and we even had to watch the team essentially tank during their final season. Even the arrival of a generational talent like Kevin Durant couldn’t mask the bitterness of that last “lame duck” year; if anything, it felt even worse. In the end, it was us fans who lost out.

I think most Sonics fans believed in their hearts that the team would eventually return, but my own original prediction was five years, ten at most. The wait turned out to be much longer, but yesterday we finally saw the first truly meaningful movement: the NBA Board of Governors voted to begin the formal league expansion process, specifically targeting Seattle and Las Vegas. I know that might sound like just having the “concepts of a plan,” but believe me, this is the most tangible evidence of the team’s imminent return since the day they left. With pundits eyeing the 2028-29 season for tip-off, all in all it will have been a 20-year journey if everything plays out. Definitely longer than I predicted, but today I’m just feeling grateful, and dare I say, optimistic. Letsgoooooo!!!