By Tim Clinton
Seattle firsts were accomplished by the SuperSonics of the National Basketball Association.
The Sonics were the first major sports team to arrive on the scene in the modern era and the first to win a championship.
They showed up as an expansion team in 1967 and captured their one and only NBA title in 1979. They also won Western Conference championships in 1978 and 1996 to reach the Finals, taking second.
But basketball is now the only major sport Seattle does not have a top tier team in since the Sonics left for Oklahoma City in 2008.
Hopefully more chapters in the Sonics' story are yet to be written, however, since the team name, records, banners, trophies and retired jerseys were left behind for such a time as the NBA grants an expansion franchise to the city or if an existing one moves here.
Also left behind were 41 years of memories.
Most were made at the Seattle Center Coliseum later known as the KeyArena, where the team played from 1967-1978, 1985-1994 and 1995-2008.
But the Sonics called the Kingdome home from 1978-1985 and also spent the 1994-1995 season in the Tacoma Dome while the Coliseum was remodeled and made into the KeyArena.
That building was later redone again to become the Climate Pledge Arena, which houses the Women's National Basketball Association's Seattle Storm and the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League.
The dream is for it to one day be the home of the Sonics once again.
Sam Schulman owned the team from when it first set up shop in 1967 until 1983 and Barry Ackerley owned it from 1983 until 2001.
The Basketball Club of Seattle chaired by Howard Schultz took over from 2001 to 2006 and it was sold to the Professional Basketball Club LLC chaired by Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett, which ran it here from 2006 to 2008.
But it was moved to Oklahoma City before the 2008-2009 season when no public funding for a new arena in Renton was found here.
The City of Seattle's lease with the franchise ran through 2010, but a $45 million settlement was reached that also included what was to be left behind.
Seattle competed in the NBA's Western Division from 1967 to 1970 and in the Pacific Division from 1970 until 2004, winning five division titles there.
They were captured in 1979, 1994, 1996, 1997 and 1998.
The Sonics became a member of the Northwest Division from 2004 until 2008, winning one more division title there in 2005.
Seattle, under head coach and former Sonics player Lenny Wilkens, played in the NBA Finals in 1978 and 1979 and met the Washington Bullets both times. They came up short in seven games in 1978 but won it all in five games in 1979.
George Karl coached them back to the Finals in 1996, when they lost to Michael Jordan and the powerful Chicago Bulls in six games.
The team's six retired jerseys are the No. 1 worn by Gus Williams, the No. 10 of Nate McMillan, the No. 19 of Lenny Wilkens, No. 24 of Spencer Haywood, No. 32 of Fred Brown and the No. 43 of Jack Sikma.