Seattle Sonics legend and Basketball Hall of Fame member Gary Payton was back in the Emerald City on Tuesday night, throwing out the first pitch before the Mariners’ game against the Detroit Tigers at T-Mobile Park.
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After he tossed a strike right down the middle to M’s shortstop J.P. Crawford, “The Glove” eventually made his way to the broadcast booth. And as you might expect, the conversation turned to the potential of a Sonics return as an NBA expansion franchise.
Payton remains not just optimistic but sure that the Sonics will once again take the court at the arena in Seattle Center.
“Are we going to get the Sonics back real soon?” asked Rick Rizzs, the longtime radio voice of the Mariners on Seattle Sports.
“Absolutely. We’ve gotta be patient,” Payton said. “We shouldn’t have ever lost our Sonics, and it was bad. But this is an organization and a business. It has to be the right moment and right situation.”
It’s always an honor to have The Glove himself at the ballpark!
Thanks for joining us tonight, @GaryPayton! pic.twitter.com/W8mET3vWm4
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) April 2, 2025
Payton then took some time to praise Adam Silver, who took over as NBA commissioner in 2014 as the successor to David Stern, who oversaw the original Sonics franchise’s move from Seattle to Oklahoma City.
“I think Adam Silver is doing a great job – the greatest commissioner in sports right now and I just think that he’s doing a great job,” Payton said. “He will get us back. Don’t worry about that. There will be a SuperSonics team back here.”
What’s going on with Seattle Sonics expansion?
The NBA expanding from 30 teams to 32 has long been speculated, with Seattle and Las Vegas the most likely landing spots for the league. And it seemed everything was on track when the league completed a massive new media rights deal last summer, which was believed to be the last hurdle that needed to be cleared before expansion.
And then another one suddenly appeared: the 2024 NBA champion Boston Celtics were put up for sale.
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That presumably gave the NBA the opportunity to reset the market for any expansion franchises. But while it was announced last month that the Celtics are being sold for a record initial valuation of $6.1 billion, Silver didn’t tip his hand last week when he spoke to reporters at an NBA Board of Governors meeting when he was asked about expansion, saying there were “no new developments.”
That’s not stopping Payton from making plans for a Sonics return.
When Mariners broadcaster Gary Hill Jr. addressed Payton’s own No. 20 eventually being retired by a new Sonics team, he turned the spotlight instead to a pair of former All-Star teammates.
“I’m gonna be a big part of it when it comes back, and my first thing I’m gonna do is I’m gonna retire Detlef Schrempf and Shawn Kemp’s numbers,” Payton said. “You guys know about me and everything and that’ll be a big moment and a big thing, but I really want to get these guys really, really straight, because they were a big part of that. There was no Gary Payton if there wasn’t Detlef Schrempf and Shawn Kemp.”
Rizzs then brought up legendary former Sonics play-by-play announcer Kevin Calabro, who was also an original host on Seattle Sports 710 AM when it first turned to all-sports radio format in 2009 as 710 ESPN Seattle.
“We’ve gotta get his microphone up there (on a banner alongside retired Sonics jerseys),” Payton said. “Kevin Calabro, with all the great things that he said, we have to get him up there too.”
Find the whole conversation with Payton in the Mariners radio booth in the video at the top of this post.
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