OKLAHOMA CITY — The Thunder’s NBA championship comes at a cost. The title makes it all the more likely that the Thunder soon could be sold.
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Clay Bennett, center, chairman of the ownership group of the Oklahoma City Thunder, celebrates with his team after they won the NBA basketball championship against the Indiana Pacers. Nate Billings, AP
A source close to Thunder Chairman Clay Bennett told the Tulsa World that the rising value of NBA franchises makes it quite likely that the Thunder’s partners will want to sell soon.
And now that a championship parade has come to downtown OKC, there is one fewer reason for the ownership group to retain the franchise. Apart from bringing an NBA franchise to their home state, the owners have achieved the ultimate goal, winning the O’Brien Trophy.
“Soon” is a variable. The owners could wait until the Thunder’s new $1 billion arena opens in 2028, which will be another landmark event for the franchise, city and state.
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The Thunder is owned by The Professional Basketball Club LLC, which includes Tulsa businessman George Kaiser, left. Clay Bennett, Oklahoma City banker Jeffrey Records and Kaiser each owned 19% of the franchise before the partners bought the 19% share of the late Aubrey McClendon, who died in 2016. Mike Simons, Tulsa World Archive
The expectation is that new ownership would keep the team in Oklahoma. Oklahoma City’s approval of funding to build the arena, across the street from the Paycom Center, provides all kinds of incentives to keep the franchise here.
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The new arena also raises the value of the Thunder franchise, as does the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander contract extension, reported Tuesday, which attaches SGA to the Thunder into the summer of 2031.
The Boston Celtics sold for $6.1 billion earlier this year, and the Buss family has agreed to sell a majority stake in the Los Angeles Lakers for a $10 billion valuation. Just a few months ago, most sports business evaluators estimated the Lakers franchise’s value at $7.3 billion.
Bennett’s group of investors bought the Seattle SuperSonics for $350 million in 2006.
Earlier this year, analysts from CNBC, Forbes and Sportico estimated the Thunder’s value at more than $3.5 billion, but that is now expected to be in the $4 billion range. Before the Lakers and Celtics deals, the most recent NBA franchise sales were the Phoenix Suns for $4 billion and the Dallas Mavericks for $3.5 billion, both in 2023.
Selling for more than 10 times what the franchise cost in 2006 could be too much windfall to bypass for the Thunder owners.
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Oklahoma City businessman Bill Cameron, left, is part of the ownership group that owns the Thunder. He was the owner of the Tulsa Shock along with David Box, right. They are pictured with then-WNBA president Donna Orender when the team was announced before the 2010 season. The Shock relocated to Dallas in 2015. Cameron is still the chairman and majority owner of the Dallas Wings, and Box is a partner. Stephen Pingry, Tulsa World Archive
The Thunder is owned by The Professional Basketball Club LLC, which is made up of Bennett, Oklahoma City banker Jeffrey Records, Tulsa businessman George Kaiser and Oklahoma City businessmen Bill Cameron (who once owned the Tulsa Shock, the former WNBA franchise), Bob Howard, Everett Dobson and Jay Scaramucci. Bennett, Records and Kaiser each owned 19% of the franchise before the partners bought the 19% share of the late Aubrey McClendon, who died in 2016.
None of the Thunder owners is younger than 65. Few NBA franchises are rolled over to second-generation family members. Most are sold to outside interests.
Bennett is chairman and serves as the Thunder representative on the NBA Board of Governors.
Almost two decades ago, Bennett’s partners approached the initial deal as a civic duty, to help the franchise form stable, local ownership, much like the San Antonio Spurs have enjoyed over the last 30 years.
“These guys, their ability to kind of park their own experiences or interests and allow Clay to manage, that is an unbelievable competitive advantage for us,” Thunder General Manager Sam Presti said during his post-season press conference Monday. “We’re very, very grateful for that.
“We have a tremendous group of people that own this team, and it’s a great example for all of us on how to operate as a team. There is a tremendous selflessness to these individuals. There is no egos. They’ve really been a key to the success that we’ve been able to have over the last 17 years.”
But now, with an NBA championship banner soon to be hanging from the Paycom Center, a roster positioned for future success, with the new arena assured and a Thunder lease through 2050, plus the skyrocketing valuations of franchises, the right time for selling seems to be approaching.
Bennett has said the ownership group never has taken money out of the Thunder coffers. Some of the group paid almost $70 million initially and have not reaped a nickel from the venture.
“They didn’t get into it for the investment, but …,” said a Thunder source.
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Howard Schultz, left, owner of Starbucks and former owner of the Seattle SuperSonics, presents a jersey to Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett, head of the Professional Basketball Club LLC group, which purchased the Seattle SuperSonics in 2006. Ted S. Warren, AP file
The hope would be that Oklahoma interests purchase the Thunder. The Tulsa World reached out to representatives of the Chickasaw Nation and Kaiser, both capable of making that kind of financial commitment, but they said they did not know of any Thunder talks. It’s not clear whether the Chickasaws would be eligible for full ownership; the NBA has grown more lenient to private equity groups investing in franchises but not as majority owners, and the Chickasaws would be an unusual candidate.
Bennett, who consistently stays out of the spotlight and did not even speak when the Thunder won the NBA championship, declined interview requests.
Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt said he had no comment or knowledge of a potential Thunder sale, but he did say: “We recognize how much we have benefited from the commitment our Thunder owners have to Oklahoma City. They are OKC guys. But now we’re planning for a time beyond our own generation, to a future that extends beyond 2050. So with this new arena and this new lease with the team, we think we are doing everything we can to prepare our city to retain this franchise, regardless of what the future holds relative to team ownership.”
Bennett has been an exemplary chairman. He works closely with Presti and has granted Presti the latitude to both spend big — the Thunder had the NBA’s highest payroll in the 2017-18 season, a remarkable level for such a small market — and to undergo a massive rebuild starting in the summer of 2019.
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“These guys, their ability to kind of park their own experiences or interests and allow Clay to manage, that is an unbelievable competitive advantage for us,” Thunder General Manager Sam Presti, center, said during his post-game press conference. “We’re very, very grateful for that." Jay Wiggins, AP file
Under the Bennett/Presti leadership, the Thunder has been one of the NBA’s most successful franchises since moving to Oklahoma, and in 2024-25 the Thunder produced one of the best seasons in NBA history, a 68-14 regular season, followed by the NBA championship. Only one NBA champion ever won more than the Thunder’s 84 combined victories: the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, who won 87.
Heady stuff for the third-smallest market in the NBA. Oklahoma City is ahead of only Memphis and New Orleans.
Smaller markets constantly are on alert for relocation. However, the three franchise moves in the 21st century all moved to smaller markets: the Grizzlies from Vancouver to Memphis in 2000, the Hornets from Charlotte to New Orleans in 2002 and the SuperSonics from Seattle to Oklahoma City in 2008.
The lease with the new arena requires the Thunder to pay the city certain financial penalties if the franchise leaves OKC — $1 billion if the exit is in the first five years of playing in the new arena, $850 million if the exit comes in years six through 10 of the new arena, etc.
Those are steep penalties. But not as steep in the current financial climate. Buy a franchise for $4 billion, what’s another billion to give an owner complete freedom on where to take the franchise?
So there will be trepidation if the Thunder ever is owned by someone not from Oklahoma.
But Oklahoma City has laid the groundwork to make itself attractive even to outside ownership. OKC has become a model franchise, and the new arena, with its financial streams, should mean it makes sense to keep the Thunder here no matter who owns the franchise.
Nothing lasts forever. The Thunder is going to undergo an ownership change sooner or later. Probably sooner, which means it’s good that Oklahoma City didn’t coast with its old, cheap arena. It has taken care of business for the day when Oklahomans might not own the Thunder, and that day likely is not far away.
berry.tramel@tulsaworld.com
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