Oklahoma City Thunder: Pretenders or Contenders?

The Oklahoma City Thunder began as a basketball team franchise in 2008, after the transformation from the Seattle SuperSonics which began in 2007.

The beginning of the franchise began after a dispute between the Seattle SuperSonics owner and lawmakers in Seattle. The inaugural season was not record setting for an NBA team, nor was it expected to be by many. P.J. Carlesimo began as the head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder with Scott Brooks coming in as assistant coach. As the season moved forward, and the Thunder continually lost game after game, an important decision finally came about to fire P.J. Carlesimo as the head coach and to move assistant coach Scott Brooks up to the leading spot for the team.

In the inaugural season the Thunder went 23-59 on their stats, causing a lot of raised eyebrows over the coaching abilities of Carlesimo, which initially led to the firing. Thunder has since improved this year, thusfar, and has increased much hope for the future of the franchise and the basketball team themselves. Brooks took over as head coach in November of 2008.

In 2005 after Hurricane Katrina ripped through Louisiana, Oklahoma City warmly welcomed the Hornets, who played the 2005-2006, 2006-2007 seasons. This showed that Oklahoma City was, indeed, able to support a franchised team of it's own and tossed out rumors that they couldn't sustain a professional sports team.

Unknown to most people is the fact that the SuperSonics had been sold to a group of Oklahoma City investors in 2006. Long before the professional team "Thunder" was announced to the public. Although it took nearly a year for the move to be approved. This gave plenty of time for the investors to settle on ideas such as a logo appearance, mascot, what players to keep and to let go, and a practice facility (which a new one is currently being build by Broadway Extension in northern Oklahoma City).

The Thunder are having a better season this year with Scott Brooks coaching them. With a new draft pick (James Harden), they have definitely improved their scoring, win/loss percentage, and respect by tenfold. The Thunder ended their first season with a win against the Clippers. This set their finishing season record to 23-59, which was an improvement on their previous record of 20-62 by three games. The 2009-2010 season holds more promise for the Thunder, as they are ahead from last year, and continue to rack up the record.

With this new franchise, will the 09-10 season be record setting, or will the Thunder fall into the same slump that they did on their inaugural season? Only time will tell for this 42 year old team, and only as this season comes to a close will we truly see what has become of the new Oklahoma City Thunder.