The Sneaker Legends of the Seattle SuperSonics

Good times could be on the way for fans of the Seattle SuperSonics. After leaving in 2008 for Oklahoma City, Seattle has been starved for a return. Whenever a different team has threatened to leave their city, Seattle is often the first place that gets brought up as a potential landing spot. Despite not being in a major market, the city’s passion for basketball has never wavered, and now it might be on the verge of being rewarded for never giving up hope.

This week, the NBA Board of Governors approved an exploration into adding two new franchises. While it’s no guarantee that the league will grow to 32 in a few years, the two most likely locations of these new teams will be Las Vegas and Seattle. It could finally be the payoff of a decades-long wait for Sonics fans, who lost their team in sketchy circumstances.

While the NBA’s desire to get the Sonics back in Seattle has been evident ever since they left, the sneaker community would definitely benefit from the return as well. The Sonics were home to some of the most colorful characters to play in the NBA, and the sneakers they wore reflected that vibe. Here’s a look back at the stars who suited up for the Emerald City and the sneakers they wore.

Early Days

As one of the original dynamic backcourt duos in NBA history, Seattle’s Dennis Johnson and Gus Williams led the team to back-to-back appearances in the NBA Finals in the late 1970s, culminating with the only championship in franchise history in 1979. Old school Nike fans will no doubt remember their iconic “DJ and Gus” poster where they are both rocking the Nike Blazer. While both stars are no longer with us - Johnson passed away in 2007, while we lost Williams in 2025 - their legacy in the city lives on and will no doubt be renewed when the Sonics return to the NBA.

Other 80s Sonics All-Stars who wore Nike include Paul Westphal and Tom Chambers, although most fans would recognize them more for their time with the Phoenix Suns. Another player from that 1979 championship squad was future Hall of Famer Jack Sikma, owner of one of the most influential post moves (the Sikma Move) and hairstyles (the mullet perm) in NBA history. Oh, and he wore the Converse Weapon at the height of the brand’s popularity in basketball.

Kendall Gill

Years before Jordan Brand would become a reality, Kendall Gill was a proto-Jordan athlete. When Michael Jordan retired from the game of basketball for the first time in 1993, Nike was in flux as to who exactly would continue the signature shoe line. Gill, along with Mitch Richmond, Penny Hardaway and a few others, were among the selected few to wear the Air Jordan 9 during the 1993-94 season. Since Gill was in Seattle by this time, he got to wear the Air Jordan 9 with green accents instead of the Chicago Bulls red. Gill’s Jordan duties would continue the following year when he wore the Air Jordan 10 Seattle as part of the regional exclusive City Series.

Detlef Schrempf

Three-time NBA All-Star Detlef Schrempf is often overlooked by the wider media whenever the Sonics are brought up after the team left, but there’s no doubt he’s a folk hero in the Pacific Northwest (he also played college in Washington where his jersey is retired). His game was not as flashy as his two larger-than-life teammates, but he was a critical part of those ‘90s Sonics teams that were in contention for the best in the West. One of the most memorable sneakers that he wore during his Sonics days was an adidas Top Ten 2000 PE that finally got a retail release in 2023.

Shawn Kemp

Old man take: Basketball was never cooler than when Shawn Kemp was catching lob passes from Gary Payton. From Payton’s nonchalant style of throwing the ball up in the air in places that you don’t expect someone to ever catch let alone throw it down for a vicious dunk, Kemp always found a way to do it in the most exhilarating way possible. While Reebok never gave him a true signature shoe with his name on it, Shawn Kemp is the only player in league history who could have carried a line with the chaotic energy of the Kamikaze. With the last wave of retros for the silhouette taking place in 2022, it would not be shocking to hear news of what’s next, especially as the return of the Sonics inches closer to reality.

Gary Payton

The greatest player in the history of the Sonics franchise is also one of Nike’s most versatile athletes. Prior to receiving his own signature shoe line, GP wore Nike Basketball’s best like the Air Thrill Flight and Zoom Hawk Flight. His signature Air Zoom Flight The Glove managed to stand out from a crowded market with its stunning shrouded appearance and even more audacious look when they unzipped.

By the time he was on the way out of Seattle, he was transitioning over to Jordan Brand where he became one of the athletes tasked with carrying the Air Jordan 19 in commercials. Who could have seen that coming after Payton’s battles with Michael Jordan a few years prior in the NBA Finals? But those are just a few examples of Payton’s importance to Nike and even Jordan Brand. Now if we can just get a proper retro of those dark pine green and white Zoom Hawk Flights…

Vin Baker

In 1997, Seattle sent Shawn Kemp to the Cleveland Cavaliers as part of a three-team trade that landed Vin Baker in Seattle. The move coincided with the launch of Jordan Brand, four years after Kendall Gill wore Air Jordan 9s in Sonics colors. Baker was not the high-energy force of nature that Kemp was, but he delivered the goods during his first few years in Seattle. Baker was Jordan Brand’s big man, and his sneakers reflected the shift from (Jumpman Pro) Quick to (Jumpman Pro) Strong. Baker even received his own Jordan signature shoe with the underrated Jordan Vindicate.

Ray Allen

Several years after Vin Baker was sent to Seattle from Milwaukee, Ray Allen would make his way to the Sonics in exchange for Gary Payton. A multiple-time All-Star and one of the purest shooters in NBA history, Allen put up big numbers in Seattle and wore some of the most legendary Air Jordan player exclusives. The problem was that not a lot of people saw them as the Sonics only made the playoffs once in Allen’s tenure. Sneaker highlights from Ray’s Sonics collection include the Air Jordan 5, Air Jordan 12, Air Jordan 20, and the Air Jordan 21. Yes, Ray Allen managed to make the Air Jordan 21 interesting. He’s a two-time champion and one of the greatest shooters ever, but his PE game might surpass those accomplishments.

Kevin Durant

With the second pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, Seattle drafted an all-timer in Kevin Durant. Unfortunately, KD’s time lasted all of one season as this was the Sonics last dance before moving to Oklahoma City. Durant made a lasting impression however, showing flashes of the MVP and legendary bucket getter he would become in the player exclusives Nike Air Flight School. The Nike KD line would not begin until his sophomore campaign in OKC, but Seattle would not be forgotten as Nike released a KD 1 in Sonics colors. Durant has proven to be far from sentimental as he moves from team to team, but maybe it’s because he never got over Seattle as they are the only team that still occasionally gets new Nike KD colorways.

Seattle Storm

While the pain of the Sonics leaving acrimoniously still lingers nearly 20 years later, the WNBA’s Seattle Storm picked up some of the slack and filled the void in the hearts of the hoops-loving city. Led by one of the league’s GOATs in Sue Bird, the Storm won four championships with three coming after the Sonics left. Bird is a Nike lifer between her time at UConn and in Seattle and she was the recipient of amazing player-exclusive colorways of the Nike Zoom Huarache 2K4 and Nike LeBron Soldiers. Later in her career, superfan Kyrie Irving made sure Sue was kept fresh with dedicated colorways of Nike Kyries.

Other Storm legends with notable sneaker games include the “Gold Mamba” Jewell Lloyd with her various Kobe PEs that were an homage to her mentor the late Kobe Bryant, Hall of Famer Lauren Jackson, who frequently wore similarly themed Huaraches and Zoom Soldiers like Sue Bird, and Breanna Stewart, who debuted her signature Puma Stewie line during her final season in Seattle.

What If? (Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander)

Sonics fans might not want to keep reading. Imagine an alternate timeline where Russell Westbrook actually wore the Sonics jersey he raised up during the 2008 NBA Draft. Seattle was robbed of a KD/Russ/James Harden that faced the Miami Heat in the 2012 NBA Finals, Jordan Why Nots in green and yellow, and an NBA championship courtesy of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his green Converse Shai 001s.

Conversely, they also don’t face the frustration of trading Harden away for pennies on the dollar, the heartbreak of Kevin Durant leaving just as the team was on the cusp of reaching Finals again, and the dark days of post-Russ and pre-Shai era. Then again, that lull was basically a blip on what has mostly been a charmed existence by Thunder fans. Something tells me this is the timeline that Sonics would rather have instead of this nearly 20-year wait for another team to call their own.

Juan Martinez

From video game journalism to veteran of the sneaker blog era to podcasting about well, everything, Juan is smiling through it all and can't believe this is his life. After recently getting into Formula 1, he now has hot takes about who the greatest driver of all time is. Email: juan@soleretriever.com