Mark Twain, who lived in Buffalo 100 years before the Buffalo Braves were born, once wrote: "Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work."
The observation does not apply to the NBA Finals, where the Oklahoma City Thunder are clear favorites against the Indiana Pacers, beginning with tonight's Game One.
Thunder Timberwolves Basketball (copy)
Oklahoma City Thunder players and coaches celebrate after Game 5 of the Western Conference finals of the NBA basketball playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in Oklahoma City. Nate Billings - FR171660 AP
Folks in Seattle are taking it hard. The Thunder, of course, were originally the Supersonics. Old fans of the Braves – and what other kind is there? – have not had to suffer in the same way.
The Braves morphed into the Clippers, first in San Diego, and then in Los Angeles. And the forlorn Clips have never so much as made it to the NBA Finals, let alone win them. They've gotten by the first round of the playoffs only six times in their 47 years since leaving Buffalo.
Author Tim Wendel (copy)
Author Tim Wendel. Photo courtesy of Jacqueline Salmon
Tim Wendel is the author of "Buffalo, Home of the Braves," the definitive book on the team's eight seasons here. He can't imagine what it would feel like to see the Clippers win it all some day.
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"That would be awful," he says. "I'm trying to wrap my mind around that."
Mike Gastineau, a retired sports radio host in Seattle, told the Washington Post what it would feel like to see the Thunder win it all: "It's like you went through a bitter divorce, and now they're making you watch your ex get married."
The Sonics reached the Finals for the first time in 1978, which happened to be the Braves' last season in Buffalo. Seattle would lose in seven games to the Washington Bullets, though the next season they would beat the Bullets in five for their only NBA championship.
That title is sure to be mentioned on the broadcasts as the OKC/Seattle franchise strives to win a second championship.
"It's like we're a part of someone else's story," Gastineau said. "That's the hardest part."
The Sonics fled Seattle in 2008, 30 years after the Braves deserted Buffalo, so the wound is far fresher there. Even so, when the Clippers wear their Buffalo throwback uniforms, it is hard to know whether to feel good that our Braves are remembered – or bad about our hijacked history.
It so happens that the Braves and Sonics met at the Aud in 1971 on a memorable opening night of the Braves' second season. Buffalo trailed by 7 at the half, but Seattle then rolled to a 123-90 victory. Braves owner Paul Snyder hurried past press row to the locker room at the final horn.
"His face was beet-red, and he obviously wasn't happy with what had just transpired," Wendel wrote in his Braves book. "Soon word filtered out: One game into the regular season, (Dolph) Schayes was gone as Braves coach."
The Braves and Sonics would meet for the last time in Buffalo on Valentine's Day 1978. The Braves won only 27 games in their final season, while the Sonics, as we know, were Finals bound. That night, though, the Braves hung with them.
Randy Smith (copy)
Randy Smith, in his high-flying prime, as a Buffalo Brave. Buffalo News file photo
Randy Smith, Buffalo State's great gift to the Braves, hit a pair of free throws with four seconds left for a 101-98 lead. Then, Sonics guard Gus Williams hit a twisting corner jumper to come within 101-100. (Three-pointers were not yet a thing in the NBA.)
Two seconds remained. All the Braves needed was to get the ball in play smoothly. Then, Billy Knight's inbounds pass was intercepted by Freddy Brown. The longtime Braves nemesis was open for a hurried 20-footer at the buzzer.
It hit iron.
"If Freddy's shot had gone in, it would have killed us," Smith told the Courier-Express. "I was standing a couple of feet away and wouldn't dare foul him. All I could do was put up my hands and pray."
Phil Ranallo's column on the same Courier sports front told of how Braves management was already speaking openly about the possibility of the team leaving town.
"They keep telling us, in one way or another," Ranallo wrote, "that the Buffalo Braves, like love and life, are not forever."
Neither, in the end, were the Sonics. Washington Post columnist Jerry Brewer blames "a perfect storm of villainy, carelessness and incompetence" for their departure.
We know of such things in Buffalo. The particulars of the Braves' demise were different, but the broad outlines much the same. Villainy, indeed.
All happy franchises are alike. Each unhappy one is unhappy in its own way.
That's Tolstoy, not Twain, though it so happens that Leo Tolstoy wrote of thunder, too, in his novel "Boyhood."
"Next came a terrible sound which, rising higher and higher, and spreading further and further, increased until it reached its climax in a deafening thunderclap that made us tremble and hold our breaths."
They'll be holding their breath in Seattle tonight.
May the Clippers never make us hold ours.
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