Ranker

Anime Underground

Button Mash

Graveyard Shift

Total Nerd

Unspeakable Times

Weird History

Weird Nature

Weirdly Interesting

Sports

Music

Entertainment

Living

Culture

Food

Makeup

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Holidays

Watchworthy

HBO Max

Lists that rank the team's greatest players and coaches, now and throughout history. 

Basketball

Lenny Wilkens

Despite being a relatively new team, basketball fans must know who are the best&nbsp;Oklahoma City Thunder players of all time. Up until 2008, they were still known as the Seattle SuperSonics. To make things a bit more interesting, this list ranks the best Seattle SuperSonics and Oklahoma City Thunder players together. So vote below on who you think are the best SuperSonics and Thunder players of all time.With their formation in 1967, the Sonics won over fans in the Pacific Northwest with their exciting brand of basketball. By the mid-1970s, the Sonics were title contenders. With players like Gus Williams, Spencer Haywood, Jack Sikma and Dennis Johnson, the Sonics went far in the playoffs and eventually captured its first NBA title in 1979. After a down period in the early 1980s, the Sonics rebounded in at the end of the decade. Two of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-top-nba-players-of-all-time">greatest players in history</a>, Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton joined the team and turned the team into a powerhouse.When the team moved to Oklahoma City in 2008, the cupboard wasn't bare. The team had a superstar in place with Kevin Durant and after drafting Russell Westbrook and James Harden, the team was on its way. These are three of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/top-10-current-nba-players">best current NBA players</a> and the Thunder at one point had all three on its roster. The team went to the 2011 NBA Finals on the strength of these three stars. Durant is already considered one of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-top-nba-players-of-all-time?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">greatest players in NBA history</a> and still has much of his career ahead of him.&nbsp;This is a list of the best Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder of all time. If someone is missing from this list, feel free to add him. Vote or rerank according to who you think should be considered the greatest Sonics/Thunder player ever.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Big fan of OKC&nbsp;basketball? Then check out this list of Oklahoma City Thunder centers with photos and seasons played with the team.&nbsp;It includes almost every center from throughout Oklahoma City Thunder and <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/celebrity-supersonic-fans/sports-fans?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Seattle SuperSonics history</a>, including current centers and past ones. Featuring some of the&nbsp;<a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/greatest-centers-of-all-time?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">greatest NBA centers</a> of all time,&nbsp;the best Thunder&nbsp;Cs include Jack Sikma, Bob Rule, Michael Cage, and Chris Wilcox.In the 2017-18 NBA season, the current OKC&nbsp;Thunder starting Cs and backup Cs are Steven Adams and Dakari Johnson.&nbsp; Who are the best centers in Oklahoma City Thunder history? Here is every player who has ever held the position of Oklahoma City Thunder&nbsp;center.

Big fan of OKC&nbsp;basketball? Then check out this list of Oklahoma City Thunder point guards with photos and seasons played with the team.&nbsp;It includes almost every point guard from throughout Oklahoma City Thunder history and Seattle SuperSonics history, including current point guards and past ones. Featuring some of the&nbsp;<a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/greatest-point-guards-in-nba-history?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">greatest NBA point guards</a> of all time,&nbsp;the best Thunder&nbsp;PGs and Sonics PGs include Gary Payton, Nate McMillan, Fred Brown, and Gus Williams.In the 2017-18 NBA season, the current OKC Thunder&nbsp;starting PGs and backup PGs are Russell Westbrook, Raymond Felton, and PJ Dozier.&nbsp;Who are the best point guards in Oklahoma City Thunder history? Here is every player who has ever held the position of Oklahoma City Thunder&nbsp;point guard.

Big fan of Oklahoma City basketball? Then check out this list of Oklahoma City Thunder shooting guards with photos and seasons played with the team.&nbsp;It includes almost every shooting guard from throughout Oklahoma City Thunder and <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/celebrity-supersonic-fans/sports-fans?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Seattle SuperSonics history</a>, including current shooting guards and past ones. Featuring some of the&nbsp;greatest NBA shooting guards of all time,&nbsp;the best Thunder&nbsp;SGs include Ray Allen, James Harden, Ricky Pierce, and Fred Brown.In the 2017-18 NBA season, the current OKC&nbsp;Thunder starting SGs and backup SGs are Andre Roberson, Daniel Hamilton, Terrance Ferguson, and Alex Abrines.&nbsp; Who are the best shooting guards in Oklahoma City Thunder history? Here is every player who has ever held the position of Oklahoma City Thunder&nbsp;shooting guard.

Big fan of Oklahoma City basketball? Then check out this list of Oklahoma City Thunder power forwards with photos and seasons played with the team.&nbsp;It includes almost every power forward from throughout Oklahoma City Thunder and Seattle SuperSonics history, including current power forwards and past ones. Featuring some of the&nbsp;greatest NBA power forwards of all time,&nbsp;the best Thunder&nbsp;PFs include Serge Ibaka, Shawn Kemp, Tom Chambers, and Spencer Haywood.In the 2017-18 NBA season, the current OKC Thunder&nbsp;starting PFs and backup PFs are Carmelo Anthony, Patrick Patterson, Jerami Grant, and Nick Collison.&nbsp; Who are the <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-greatest-power-forwards-in-nba-history?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">best power forwards</a> in <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-oklahoma-city-thunder-point-guards/ranker-nba?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Oklahoma City Thunder history</a>? Here is every player who has ever held the position of Oklahoma City Thunder&nbsp;power forward.

Big fan of Oklahoma City basketball? Then check out this list of Oklahoma City Thunder small forwards with photos and seasons played with the team.&nbsp;It includes almost every small forward from throughout Oklahoma City Thunder and Seattle SuperSonics history, including current small forwards and past ones. Featuring some of the&nbsp;greatest <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-current-nba-small-forwards/ranker-nba?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">NBA small forwards</a> of all time,&nbsp;the best Thunder&nbsp;SFs include Kevin Durant, Dale Ellis, Rashard Lewis, and Detlef Schrempf.In the 2017-18 NBA season, the current OKC&nbsp;Thunder starting SFs and backup SFs are Paul George, Kyle Singler, and Josh Huestis.&nbsp; Who are the <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/top-10-small-forwards?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">best small forwards</a> in <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-oklahoma-city-thunder-point-guards/ranker-nba?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Oklahoma City Thunder history</a>? Here is every player who has ever held the position of Oklahoma City Thunder&nbsp;small forward.

Bob Hopkins

In their time as an NBA franchise, the Oklahoma City Thunder Coaches of All Time have gone through many different head coaches, all with different personalities and coaching styles. With that said, who is the best Oklahoma City Thunder Coaches of All Time coach of all time? We want to hear your thoughts, which is why we created this poll of the top Oklahoma City Thunder Coaches of All Time head coaches. Lenny Wilkens is the only coach to lead the organization to an NBA Finals championship. Wilkens won it all for the franchise is 1979. Scott Brooks successfully coached the franchise after it relocated from Seattle to Oklahoma City. Brooks won the 2009-10 <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/nba-2018-coach-of-the-year-predictions/ranker-nba?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">NBA Coach of the Year</a> award. If you love basketball and the Oklahoma City Thunder Coaches of All Time, then help us decide who the best Oklahoma City Thunder Coaches of All Time coach is by voting up your top picks. You don't have to vote for the winningest Oklahoma City Thunder Coaches of All Time coach, but it's hard to argue against solid numbers.

Oklahoma City Thunder

pageType

safe_grapeshot

edit_update_annually

cb_oklahoma-city-thunder

longtail_search

scale_cleanup

srch

cb_ranking-the-top-nba-coaches

Ranking the Top NBA Coaches

Ranking Every Oklahoma City Thunder Coach Best to Worst

Best Oklahoma City Thunder Coaches of All Time

Best Athletes Lists, Top 10 Athletes- Find any Athlete List at Ranker

Person In Sports

Best Rankings of Sports Teams and Players, Interesting Sports Facts, and Moments in Sports

sports

Ranker NBA

Gender

Women

Gen Zs

Millenials

Gen Xers

Baby Boomers

Region

West Coast US

Mountain US

Midwest US

Southern US

Northeastern US

International

Billy Donovan

William John Donovan Jr. (born May 30, 1965) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA), a position he took in September 2020. Donovan had been the head coach of the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder from 2015 until 2020, and previously spent 19 seasons as the head basketball coach at the University of Florida, where he became the program's all-time leader in coaching wins. His Florida Gator teams won back-to-back NCAA championships in 2006 and 2007, and Donovan led the Gators to more NCAA tournament appearances, NCAA tournament wins, and Southeastern Conference (SEC) championships than all other Florida coaches combined.

Leonard Randolph Wilkens (born October 28, 1937) is an American former basketball player and coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been inducted three times into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, first in 1989 as a player, as a coach in 1998, and in 2010 as part of the 1992 United States Olympic "Dream Team", for which he was an assistant coach.  He is also a 2006 inductee into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.
Wilkens was a combined 13-time NBA All-Star as a player (nine times) and as a head coach (four times), was the 1993 NBA Coach of the Year, won the 1979 NBA Championship as the head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics, and an Olympic gold medal as the head coach of the 1996 U.S. men's basketball team.
During the 1994–95 season, Wilkens set the record for most coaching wins in NBA history, a record he held when he retired with 1,332 victories.  Wilkens is now second on the list behind Don Nelson, who broke it in 2010. He won the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award for the 2010–11 NBA season. Wilkens is also the most prolific coach in NBA history, at 2,487 regular season games, 89 more games than Nelson, and over 400 more than any other coach, and has more losses than any other coach in NBA history, at 1,155.

George Karl

George Matthew Karl (born May 12, 1951) is an American former professional basketball coach and former player. He is one of 9 coaches in NBA history to have won 1,000 NBA games, though he never won a championship.

Bill Russell

William Felton Russell (born February 12, 1934) is an American retired professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. A five-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a twelve-time All-Star, he was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won eleven NBA championships during his thirteen-year career. Russell and Henri Richard of the National Hockey League are tied for the record of the most championships won by an athlete in a North American sports league. Russell led the University of San Francisco to two consecutive NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956, and he captained the gold-medal winning U.S. national basketball team at the 1956 Summer Olympics.Bill Russell is regarded by many as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He is 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) tall, with a 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m) wingspan. His shot-blocking and man-to-man defense were major reasons for the Celtics' domination of the NBA during his career. Russell was equally notable for his rebounding abilities. He led the NBA in rebounds four times, had a dozen consecutive seasons of 1,000 or more rebounds, and remains second all-time in both total rebounds and rebounds per game. He is one of just two NBA players (the other being prominent rival Wilt Chamberlain) to have grabbed more than 50 rebounds in a game. Russell was never the focal point of the Celtics' offense, but he did score 14,522 career points and provided effective passing.
Russell played in the wake of black pioneers Earl Lloyd, Chuck Cooper, and Sweetwater Clifton, and he was the first black player to achieve superstar status in the NBA. He also served a three-season (1966–69) stint as player-coach for the Celtics, becoming the first black coach in North American professional sports and the first to win a championship. In 2011, Barack Obama awarded Russell the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his accomplishments on the court and in the Civil Rights Movement.Russell is one of seven players in history to win an NCAA Championship, an NBA Championship, and an Olympic gold medal. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. He was selected into the NBA 25th Anniversary Team in 1971 and the NBA 35th Anniversary Team in 1980, and named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996, one of only four players to receive all three honors. In 2007, he was enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame. In Russell's honor the NBA renamed the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player trophy in 2009: it is now the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award.

Nate McMillan

Nathaniel McMillan (born August 3, 1964) is an American basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He coached the Seattle SuperSonics from 2000 to 2005, and the Portland Trail Blazers from 2005 to 2012.

Scott Brooks

Scott William Brooks (born July 31, 1965) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played point guard at San Joaquin Delta College and Texas Christian University before playing his last two years at the University of California, Irvine. He was inducted into UCI's Hall of Fame in 2001.

K. C. Jones

K. C. Jones (born May 25, 1932) is an American retired professional basketball player and coach. He is best known for his association with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA), with whom he won eleven of his twelve NBA championships (eight as a player, one as an assistant coach, and two as a head coach).  As a player, he is tied for third for most NBA championships in a career, and is one of three NBA players with an 8-0 record in NBA Finals series. He is the only African-American non-player head coach to win multiple NBA championships. Jones was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1989.

Robert M. Hopkins (November 3, 1934 – May 15, 2015) was an American basketball player and coach.  He played college basketball at Grambling State University, where he scored 3,759 points (averaging 29.8 points per game for his career), and then played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for four seasons with the Syracuse Nationals.  He later coached the Seattle SuperSonics of the NBA during part of the 1977–78 season, posting a 5–17 record before being fired midseason.  He was replaced by Lenny Wilkens, who led the Sonics to the NBA Finals that season and the following, winning the NBA championship in 1979. He died of heart and kidney failure on May 15, 2015.

Bernie Bickerstaff

Bernard Tyrone Bickerstaff (born February 11, 1944) is an American basketball coach and front office executive, currently serving as the Senior Basketball Advisor for the Cleveland Cavaliers. As a coach, he previously worked as the head coach for the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics, Denver Nuggets, Washington Bullets/Wizards, Charlotte Bobcats, and Los Angeles Lakers. He has also been an assistant for the Portland Trail Blazers, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, and Cavaliers. He has served in numerous other NBA front office positions, and has been a consultant for the Harlem Globetrotters.

Bob Weiss

Robert William Weiss (born May 7, 1942) is an American professional basketball coach and former professional basketball player and coach.

Bucky Buckwalter

Morris "Bucky" Buckwalter (born November 22, 1933) is a former National Basketball Association coach and executive, as well as a former coach in the American Basketball Association.
Buckwalter grew up in La Grande, Oregon, and played high school basketball at La Grande High School. Buckwalter played college basketball at Utah, where his team advanced to the quarterfinals of the 1956 NCAA basketball tournament before losing to the eventual champions, the Bill Russell-led San Francsco Dons.He served briefly as head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics in 1972 (on an interim basis), and later served as the head coach of the Utah Stars of the ABA, replacing Joe Mullaney.While with the Stars, Buckwalter was known for signing Moses Malone out of high school.  He was a scout for the Portland Trail Blazers when the team passed on Michael Jordan and selected Kentucky's Sam Bowie as the second pick in the 1984 NBA draft. He served as Vice-President of Basketball Operations for the Portland Trail Blazers. In 1991, he won the NBA Executive of the Year Award, as the Blazers posted a league-best 63-19 record. He retired from the Blazers in 1997.

Al Bianchi

Alfred A. "Al" Bianchi (born March 26, 1932) is a former professional basketball player, coach, general manager, consultant and scout.
Nicknamed "Blinky", he attended P.S. 4 elementary school, and graduated from Long Island City High School in 1950. A 1954 graduate of Bowling Green State University, he was voted to the "All-Ohio Team" and received honorable mention as a basketball All-American.  He served in the U.S. Army Medical Corp from 1954 to 1956. Starting in 1956, he played for the Syracuse Nationals of the NBA.  He moved with the team to Philadelphia when it became the 76ers for the 1963–64 season.  He was one of the last proponents in the NBA of the two-handed set shot.

P. J. Carlesimo

Peter John Carlesimo (born May 30, 1949) is an American basketball coach, who coached in both the National Basketball Association (NBA) and college basketball for nearly 40 years. He is also a television broadcaster, having worked with ESPN, The NBA on TNT, Westwood One, Fox Sports Southwest, Pac-12 Network, The NBA on NBC and CSN New England.
Carlesimo served as head coach of four different NBA teams, and was named Seton Hall University's "Coach of the Century." He was an assistant coach for the United States men's Olympic basketball team ("The Dream Team") that won the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics. He was also an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs team that won three championships between 2003 and 2007.

Paul Westphal

Paul Douglas Westphal (born November 30, 1950 - January 2, 2021) was an American retired basketball player and a former head coach with several National Basketball Association (NBA) and college teams.  Westphal has had a storied career in the NBA, both as a player and as a coach. As a player, he won an NBA championship with the Boston Celtics in the 1974 NBA Finals. In addition to being a five-time All-Star selection, from 1977 to 1981, Westphal earned three All-NBA First Team selections and one Second Team honor. Later, he returned to the Finals in 1993 as head coach of the Phoenix Suns. He was also head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics and the Sacramento Kings. He returned to his home state of California when he was the men's basketball head coach at Pepperdine University from 2001 to 2006. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.

Bob Kloppenburg

Robert G. "Bob" Kloppenburg (born July 28, 1927) is an American professional basketball coach, who served as an interim head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the early 1980s.  Kloppenburg later served as an assistant coach for the Seattle SuperSonics, Denver Nuggets and Toronto Raptors.  While with the Seattle SuperSonics (1985–1996), Kloppenburg was the assistant coach for the NBA West All-Star team in 1994. He contributed to Seattle's three 60 win seasons in the 90's. His NAIA small college coaching career saw him win five district championships in twenty years for an overall record of 369-161. Widely regarded as the innovator of the SOS Defensive System, a system known for its ability to create turnovers because of "contact switching" on every screen and intense ball pressure with trapping principles. Kloppenburg is, together with Ernie Woods, the co-founder of  basketball coaching website HoopTactics.com.
Kloppenburg played college ball at the University of Southern California with the famous proponent of the modern Triangle offense, Tex Winter. SOS Defensive System is used worldwide. Bob Kloppenburg has coached and taught other the "how to's" of the game for four decades at the entry level from high school to the pros. His defensive oriented teams have been consistent winners, and his reputation as an outstanding defensive coach and teacher, both at home and abroad, has taken him to 14+ countries around the globe to teach his system of defense. Now retired from active coaching, he is still effectively teaching his "SOS" defensive strategies to coaches with his same patent vim, vigor, and vitality. Kloppenburg has been married for over 60 years to Gayle Kloppenburg. Together they have two children, Gary and Kim. They also have six grandchildren: Sonja, Ian, Carlotta, Paige, Gabe, and Tess as well as two great grandchildren: Kyson and Kameron.
He attended John Marshall High School in Los Angeles, leading his basketball team to the Los Angeles City Championship, in a season in which he was named the Southern California High School Player of the Year.  He was named to the charter class of the school's basketball Hall of Fame, and was inducted in its first ever Athletic Hall of Fame on June 15, 2012.
Kloppenburg also spent some time in Europe, coaching for Nationale Nederlanden Donar in the Netherlands during the 1976-1977 season.



Tom Nissalke

Thomas Edward Nissalke (July 7, 1932 – August 22, 2019) was an American professional basketball coach in the National Basketball Association and American Basketball Association.  He coached several teams in both leagues, and had an overall coaching record of 371–508.

Bob Hill

Robert W. Hill (born November 24, 1948) is an American basketball coach. Hill grew up in Mount Sterling, Ohio, moving to Worthington, Ohio for high school. Hill attended Bowling Green State University.

In their time as an NBA franchise, the Oklahoma City Thunder Coaches of All Time have gone through many different head coaches, all with different ...