It was then owned by Barry Ackerley until 2001, when it came under ownership of Basketball Club of Seattle, headed by Starbucks chairman emeritus, former president and CEO Howard Schultz.

Schulman was awarded American Basketball Association Rookie of the Year and MVP Spencer Haywood following a lengthy court battle.

The team, which featured Haywood, guards Fred Brown and Slick Watts, and rookie center Tommy Burleson, defeated the Detroit Pistons in a three-game mini-series before losing to the eventual champion Golden State Warriors in six games.

Guard Fred Brown, now in his fifth season, was selected to the 1976 NBA All-Star Game, and finished fifth in the league in scoring average and free-throw percentage.

Burleson's game continued to strengthen as Watts led the NBA in assists and steals, and was named to the All-NBA Defensive First Team.

Center Marvin Webster went to New York but the SuperSonics' roster stayed largely intact during the off-season, and they won their first division title in 1979.

In the 1988–89 season, Chambers had signed with Phoenix, Ellis improved his scoring average to 27.5 points per game and finished second in the league in three-point percentage.

The SuperSonics began setting a new foundation with the drafting of forward Shawn Kemp in 1989 and guard Gary Payton in 1990, and the trading of Dale Ellis and Xavier McDaniel to other teams during the 1990–91 season.

With the continued improvement of Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, the SuperSonics posted a 55–27 record in the 1992–93 season and took the Phoenix Suns to seven games in the Western Conference Finals.

The 2004–05 team won the organization's sixth-division title under the leadership of Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis, winning 52 games and defeating the Sacramento Kings to advance to the 2005 Western Conference Semifinals.

The SuperSonics lost in six games to the established trio of Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginóbili of the San Antonio Spurs, who subsequently defeated the Detroit Pistons in the 2005 NBA Finals.

With the Ray Allen trade, however, the SuperSonics had little talent with which to surround their rookie forward and lost their first eight games under coach P. J. Carlesimo to achieve a 3–14 record in the first month of the season.

[34] The judge rejected the request and Seattle sued Bennett's group to enforce the lease that required the team to play at KeyArena until 2010.

Before that, SuperSonics co-owner Aubrey McClendon told The Journal Record; "we didn't buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here", although Bennett denied knowledge of this.

[39] Seattle used these incidents to argue the owners failed to negotiate in good faith, prompting Schultz to file a lawsuit seeking to rescind the sale of the team and transfer the ownership to a court-appointed receiver.

On January 9, 2013, media reports regarding the imminent sale of majority ownership of Sacramento Kings to Hansen, Ballmer, the Nordstroms, and Walker for $500 million to relocate to Seattle as early as the 2013–14 NBA season emerged.

[51][52][53] On January 20, 2013, several sources reported the Maloof family had agreed to sell Hansen and Ballmer's ownership group their 53% majority stake in the Kings franchise, pending approval of the NBA's Board of Governors.

[54] The next day, the NBA, Hansen, and the Maloofs all released statements announcing the agreement, which also included the 12% minority stake of owner Robert Hernreich, and based the sale price on a team valuation of $525 million.

[55][56][57] David Stern, then NBA Commissioner, confirmed on February 6, 2013, that the Maloofs had filed paperwork with the league office to officially request relocation of the Kings from Sacramento to Seattle on behalf of the potential new ownership group.

[58] Johnson, with guidance from Stern and the NBA league office, began to assemble an alternative ownership group that would keep the Kings in Sacramento and aid in getting a new arena constructed.

On February 26, 2013, the Sacramento City Council voted to enter into negotiations with an unnamed group of investors revealed two days later to be headed by grocery magnate and developer Ron Burkle and Mark Mastrov, founder of 24 Hour Fitness.

[59] Burkle eventually left the group because of a conflict with other business interests, but offered to be primary developer of lands around the planned downtown location of the new arena to aid in city council passage of public funding for the project.

[60] Mastrov took a backseat to Vivek Ranadivé, founder and CEO of TIBCO and a minority owner of the Golden State Warriors, brought in to assemble a stronger group of investors.

[62] With the meeting of the Board of Governors to vote moved again to mid-May, the groups were asked to make another brief presentation to the full relocation committee on April 29, 2013.

[65] In September 2013, then-Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver announced that the Milwaukee Bucks would need to replace the aging BMO Harris Bradley Center because of its small size and lack of amenities.

[66] On April 16, 2014, it was announced owner Herb Kohl had agreed to sell the franchise to New York hedge-fund investors Marc Lasry and Wesley Edens for a record $550 million.

The deal included provisions for contributions of $100 million each from Kohl and the new ownership group towards the construction of what would eventually be the new Fiserv Forum arena.

[72] On May 2, 2016, Seattle City Council voted 5–4 against vacating a section of Occidental Avenue South that connected property purchased by Hansen and was deemed critical to the siting of a future arena.

On December 4, 2017, one day after the deal with Chris Hansen expired, Seattle City Council voted 7–1 to approve the renovation of KeyArena.

[83][84][85] The SuperSonics were rivals of the Los Angeles Lakers due to the teams' longstanding pairing in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference.