Oklahoma City Thunder’s Best NBA Playoff Runs Revealed!

The Oklahoma City Thunder has kicked off the NBA playoffs as the top seed from the Western Conference, with their sights firmly set on the championship.

Currently, the Thunder are the favorites to clinch the championship according to BetMGM, sparking debates about whether this squad is the greatest in the history of the franchise. While opinions might vary, one fact remains clear:

Should they win the championship, it would be a first for the Oklahoma City team, but not for the franchise itself.

Oklahoma City Thunder’s Championship History

The Thunder has reached the NBA Finals once in 2012 and has made four appearances in the Western Conference finals (2011, 2012, 2014, and 2016).

This period in Thunder history was initially marked by three rising stars: Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook.

Durant was picked first overall in the 2007 draft, followed by Westbrook in 2008 and Harden in 2009. Each of these players would go on to win an NBA MVP award, with all three receiving MVP votes by 2012, early in their careers.

The 2011–12 season saw the Thunder achieve a 47–19 record (the season started late due to a labor dispute and kicked off on Christmas Day), which was the league’s second-best record. Durant secured his third consecutive scoring title—a feat not achieved since Michael Jordan—and Harden was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year.

In the playoffs, the Thunder, seeded second in the Western Conference, swept the Dallas Mavericks in the first round and defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in five games in the second round. They triumphed over the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference finals in six games.

On July 12, 2012, the Thunder won the first game of the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat team of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh. However, Miami bounced back to win four consecutive games, securing their first of two back-to-back championships.

Months later, Harden was traded to the Houston Rockets following a failure to agree on a contract extension. Durant and Westbrook continued as the team’s leaders, reaching the conference finals again in 2014 and 2016 but ultimately falling short.

Durant left for the Golden State Warriors in 2016 and won his first NBA title the next season. Westbrook stayed with the Thunder and claimed the NBA MVP award.

Since then, the Thunder have not advanced past the second round of the playoffs. However, before relocating to Oklahoma City, the franchise was known as the Seattle SuperSonics and won a championship in 1979.

The 1979 Seattle SuperSonics Championship

In June 1979, amidst economic and social challenges in Seattle, the SuperSonics brought joy to the city by winning the NBA championship.

The city still remembered the 1971 billboard joke, “Will the last person leaving Seattle turn out the lights,” a reference to the mass layoffs at Boeing.

But that summer, the SuperSonics, a team with only four winning seasons in its first 12 years, clinched their first NBA title by defeating the Washington Bullets in five games.

This wasn’t a team dependent on a single superstar. It thrived on a well-knit group of players like Dennis Johnson, Jack Sikma, Gus Williams, and the experienced Fred Brown. The team’s scoring was evenly distributed, with seven players averaging double digits in points but none exceeding 20 points per game.

The previous year, the SuperSonics had faced a bitter loss to the Bullets in a seven-game series. However, the following season they returned stronger and dominated the finals after dropping the first game, leading to a jubilant victory parade attended by over 300,000 people.

Oklahoma City Thunder’s NBA Playoff Appearances