[19] In June 2008, a lawsuit brought by the city of Seattle against Bennett due to his attempts to break the final two years of the Sonics' lease at KeyArena went to federal court.

[24][25][26] The SuperSonics' final NBA draft was in 2008, and they used the fourth overall pick to select Russell Westbrook, a young point guard from UCLA, who would become the team's franchise player.

The Thunder participated in the Orlando Pro Summer League featuring their second-year players, potential free agents and rookies.

The Thunder's temporary practice facility was the Sawyer Center at Southern Nazarene University, which had been used by the New Orleans Hornets when they relocated to Oklahoma City after Hurricane Katrina.

In December 2008, Forbes magazine estimated the team's franchise value at $300 million—a 12 percent increase from the previous year's $268 million, when the club was located in Seattle.

Road victories over the San Antonio Spurs, Utah Jazz, Miami Heat, Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks further enhanced their reputation.

Oklahoma City ranked twelfth in overall attendance in the NBA, and seventh in percentage of available seats occupied (98.9 percent, including 28 sellouts in 41 home games).

[38] In the wake of a fourth-seed versus fifth-seed match-up against the Denver Nuggets, Kevin Durant scored 41 points in game 1 to set a new career playoff high.

[39] The Thunder won the series four games to one and were set to face off against the Memphis Grizzlies who achieved an eight-seed upset over the San Antonio Spurs just days before.

In addition, the Thunder was the first to sweep their back-to-back-to-back games, winning a home-and-home series with the Houston Rockets, then routing the San Antonio Spurs.

In the 2012 NBA playoffs, the Thunder swept the defending champion Dallas Mavericks in the first round to advance and face off against their first-round foes from 2010, the Los Angeles Lakers.

In game two of the series, Russell Westbrook was struck by Rockets point guard Patrick Beverley, and fell down with an injury and missed the rest of the playoffs after having knee surgery.

During the opening game against the Portland Trail Blazers, Westbrook scored 38 points, but found himself sidelined due to a small fracture in his right hand.

However, despite the effort, the Thunder missed the playoffs due to a tiebreaker with the New Orleans Pelicans, and Westbrook fell short of the MVP award, finishing fourth in voting.

With Billy Donovan as the team's head coach the Thunder won the Northwest Division and clinched the third seed in the Western Conference.

The team reached the Western Conference Finals for the fourth time in a span of six seasons, but was eliminated by the Golden State Warriors in seven games, after blowing a 3–1 series lead.

[48] On July 7, Durant was officially introduced by the Warriors organization[49] and signed a two-year, $54.3 million contract,[50] with a player option after the first year.

[53] To further bolster the roster and improve Westbrook's supporting cast, the Thunder's front office made a series of aggressive moves to reshape the team.

[54] The team then signed veteran point guard Raymond Felton and sharp-shooting power forward Patrick Patterson in free agency on July 10.

[67] Additionally, the Thunder acquired center Nerlens Noel in free agency,[68] and traded for Abdel Nader from the Boston Celtics.

After the George trade, general manager Presti sensed that the future of the franchise was in jeopardy as the team could not seriously contend with Westbrook as the lone star.

[74] Before the start of the 2020–21 NBA season, Chris Paul was traded to the Phoenix Suns for Kelly Oubre Jr., Ricky Rubio, two additional players and a 2022 first-round draft pick.

[84] On August 25, 2022, it was announced that Holmgren would miss the entire 2022–23 NBA season due to a Lisfranc injury in his foot that occurred during a Pro-am game.

[105] On September 12, 2023, Oklahoma City announced they were planning on building a new downtown arena for the Thunder at the cost of at least $900 million and with an estimated 2029 opening.

[112]Simmons speculated that the Oklahoma City bombing played a major part in the team's culture, noting that Thunder general manager Sam Presti has every new Thunder player visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial, and encourages players to look into the stands and consider that many of the team's fans were personally affected by the event.

A white uniform with sleeves, it features the Thunder partial logo in the center of the chest, and the shorts showcase bolts in light blue and sunset colors.

[128] Moving to Nike in 2017, the Thunder kept their existing white ("Association") and blue ("Icon") uniforms almost intact with the exception of the "OKC" abbreviation on the beltline and truncated shoulder stripes.

[130] The Thunder also collaborated with Nike to produce annual "City" edition uniforms that intend to pay tribute to local cultures or team traditions.

The 2017–18 "City" uniform featured a grey base with sunset orange and blue lines that were inspired by the Thunder's uptempo style.

[137] For the Thunder's 2022–23 "City" uniform, they went with a black base, blue letters and red, orange and white accents in honor of the people of Oklahoma.