Bennett made it clear that the Sonics and Storm would move to Oklahoma City at some point after the 2007 – 08 NBA season, unless an arena for the Sonics was approved by Seattle leaders before October 31, 2007.

Berry continued to write and record into the early 1960s, including such numbers as " Have Love, Will Travel " ( which would later become a local hit for The Sonics ), but with little commercial success, and also continued as a performer.

Logistics would be a problem during the playoffs, as the Mariners ( the Kingdome's primary tenants ) objected to letting the Sonics play there in the spring.

When Bennett purchased the Sonics and its sister franchise in the WNBA, the Seattle Storm, for $ 350 million, he agreed to a stipulation that he would make a " good-faith best effort " for one year to keep both teams in Seattle.

After an April 2008 league approval, it was announced on July 2, 2008 that the Sonics franchise would be relocating to Oklahoma City and would play at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Wilkins would start seven games the rest of the way as the Sonics battled injuries.

On February 21, 2008, Szczerbiak was traded from the SuperSonics to the Cleveland Cavaliers along with Sonics teammate Delonte West, in a 3-way deal also involving the Bulls, which also sent Ben Wallace and Joe Smith to Cleveland.

The band also have a clearly marked influence on American punk bands such as The Dead Boys in their brash, masculine style and posturing, and on 1980s grunge bands ( who originated in the same area ), especially Mudhoney, who adopted some of the darker themes from Sonics music, and a lot of their techniques on over-driving and distorting electric guitars.

On a Sonics team that also featured Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Sam Perkins, and Hersey Hawkins, Schrempf reached the NBA Finals in 1996, where they lost to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in six games.

The song has also been covered by The Sonics on their album Here Are The Sonics and as well as by Screaming Lord Sutch.

However, the Wolves dropped Game 4 at home as the Sonics went on to win the series in five games.

With a shot to take a commanding 3 – 0 series lead, Tim Duncan missed a final shot at the buzzer as the Sonics held on for a 92 – 91 win.

He proved himself in the 2005 Playoffs when injuries struck again, finishing with 15 points, six rebounds and five steals in the Sonics ' Game 4 win over San Antonio.

However, the Sonics lost in seven games, partly because of Johnson's Game 7 scoring drought, in which the second-year guard missed all of his 14 field goal attempts.

After losing Game 1, the Sonics won the next four games to take the finals series, helped by Johnson, who averaged almost 23 points along with six rebounds and assists per game.

Among his notable career achievements are his seven All-Star Game selections ( from 1979 to 1985 ) and his championship ring won with the 1978 – 1979 Sonics, where Sikma teamed with talented players such as Dennis Johnson, Gus Williams and an aging Paul Silas.

In 1993, Pierce and teammates Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp led the Sonics to Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, but lost to the Phoenix Suns.

In 2007, The Sonics reunited again, this time for the Cavestomp garage rock festival in Brooklyn ( November 2 – 4, 2007 ).

However, given the impending relocation decision of the Sonics ownership group in late 2007, the City Council of Oklahoma City placed a sales tax initiative on the city election ballot on March 4, 2008.

Although the Sonics won the first game, the Lakers responded with four straight wins, taking the series, but were swept by the Jazz in the next round.

** The Sonics do a series of reunion shows at The Garage, Islington, London.

One of the three whistles was taken back to Kockum Sonics in Malmö, Sweden, where it was refurbished for a new life of service aboard the RMS Queen Mary 2.

After a five-year stint on Popovich ’ s staff, he insisted that he had learned how to develop relationships with players, but several sources insisted that as Sonics / Thunder coach he reverted back to the strident ways that precipitated the Latrell Sprewell attack in 1997.

Thomas was traded by the Sonics to the San Antonio Spurs on February 20, 2008, for Francisco Elson, Brent Barry, and a 2009 first round draft pick.

On February 21, 2008, Elson was traded by the San Antonio Spurs along with Brent Barry to the Sonics in exchange for Kurt Thomas .< ref >

Early in 1965, The Sonics began recording an LP, Here Are The Sonics was recorded at Audio Recording in Seattle, WA by famed Pacific Northwest recording engineer Kearney Barton.

During the recording, The Sonics ripped the soundproofing off the walls at the country and western-oriented Wiley / Griffith studio in Tacoma, WA, to " get a live-er sound.

Soloff, the founder of Sonics & Materials Inc., was a lab manager at Branson Instruments where thin plastic films were welded into bags and tubes using ultrasonic probes.

Schonely accepted, but was pushed aside at the behest of Union Oil of California, a key sponsor who wanted Bob Blackburn, who was the Sonics ' radio voice until the early 1990s.

* Squatch, The Sonics Mascot at the Seattle SuperSonics official website

On July 2, 2008 the City of Seattle reached an agreement to terminate the Sonics ' lease and allow the team to relocate to Oklahoma City.

In 2008, The Sonics recorded a live session for Mark Lamarr's BBC Radio 2 show God's Jukebox on March 22.

Examples include: " I Just Don't Care " by New York City's The D-Men ( 1965 ), " The Witch " by Tacoma's The Sonics ( 1965 ), " Where You Gonna Go " by Detroit's Unrelated Segments ( 1967 ), " Girl I Got News for You " by Miami's Birdwatchers ( 1966 ) and " 1 – 2 – 5 " by Montreal's The Haunted.

In his rookie year, the 1976 – 77 NBA season, Johnson, playing backup to the experienced Sonics backcourt tandem of Slick Watts and Fred Brown, averaged 9. 2 points and 1. 5 assists per game.

While playing for the Sonics in 2005 – 2006, Wilcox averaged 14. 1 points per game and 8. 2 rebounds per game.

While with the Sonics, Schrempf played in his final two NBA All-Star games.

Schrempf was released by the Sonics in 1999 and signed the same day by the Portland Trail Blazers, with whom he played until his retirement from professional basketball in 2001, playing in a total of 1136 regular season games and 114 playoff games.

The arena hosted the Seattle SuperSonics from 1994-1995 while the Seattle Center Coliseum was being renovated into the venue now known as KeyArena as well as various regular season Sonics games during other seasons.

The Sonics finished 22 games worse in the next season despite the addition of Westphal.

He was on the starting lineup for 23 of his 29 games with the Sonics that season.

In his first five games with the division-leading Nuggets, Evans played more minutes than he did in his final twenty-one games with the Sonics.