Oklahoma City Thunder Trivia
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60 free Oklahoma City Thunder trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Oklahoma City Thunder trivia quiz covers the franchise from the 2008 move out of Seattle to the 2025 championship: the settlement that left the Sonics' banners behind, the Tornado Alley name, Kevin Durant's scoring titles, Russell Westbrook's triple-double MVP season, the Harden trade, the 2012 Finals, the Paul George and Chris Paul years, Sam Presti's mountain of draft picks, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's MVP run to Game 7 over Indiana. There are easy questions on the arena, the mascot and the biggest names, plenty of history for regular fans, and hard ones about the first game in Billings, the record 73-point loss and the cost of the Ford Center. Uniforms, the gold championship tab controversy and the new arena deal all get a turn. Every answer was checked against primary and encyclopaedic sources before it went in, so when you miss one you can trust the explanation. Play it solo or run it as a round at your next Thunder Up watch party. For the wider league, our NBA trivia page is the natural next stop.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What name did the Thunder's home arena adopt when its naming rights were sold in 2021?
Paycom Center
Paycom Center replaced Chesapeake Energy Arena after the energy company, fresh out of bankruptcy, cancelled its naming deal in April 2021. Paycom then signed on for 15 years.
Q 02Despite sitting next door to Texas, the Thunder play in which NBA division?
Northwest
Northwest: the NBA refused to realign when the team left Seattle, so Oklahoma City stayed grouped with Portland and Utah rather than joining its Texas neighbours in the Southwest.
Q 03Which coach led the Seattle SuperSonics to their only NBA championship, in 1979?
Lenny Wilkens
Lenny Wilkens took over a 5–17 team early in 1977–78 and reached the Finals that spring. A year later his Sonics beat the same Washington Bullets in five games.
Q 04Which Oklahoma City businessman led the group that bought the SuperSonics in 2006?
Clay Bennett
Clay Bennett's group pledged a good-faith effort to keep the team in Seattle; when no arena deal came by his October 2007 deadline, he told the NBA he would move it home.
Q 05Which former CEO sold the SuperSonics to the Oklahoma City group in 2006?
Howard Schultz of Starbucks
Howard Schultz of Starbucks sued in 2008 to undo the sale, claiming the buyers never meant to stay in Seattle, then dropped the case that August as unwinnable.
Q 06In 2008 the Thunder's owners paid Seattle $45 million to break their lease on which building?
KeyArena
KeyArena's lease ran through 2010, but the deal was struck hours before a federal judge was due to rule on whether the team had to stay.
Q 07Under the 2008 settlement, what happened to the SuperSonics name, colours and banners?
Kept in Seattle for a future team
Kept in Seattle for a future team: the name, logo and colours were shelved, and the banners and trophy went to a Seattle museum while Oklahoma City was allowed to make copies.
Q 08The 'Thunder' name references Tornado Alley and which US Army division long headquartered in Oklahoma City?
45th Infantry Division
The 45th Infantry Division, an Oklahoma National Guard outfit that fought in World War II and Korea, goes by the nickname Thunderbirds.
Q 09Which NBA team played two seasons in Oklahoma City before the Thunder arrived?
New Orleans Hornets
New Orleans Hornets, displaced by Hurricane Katrina, were such a success in Oklahoma City that the NBA commissioner put the city top of his list for any team that relocated; a year after they left, one did.
Q 10Which UCLA point guard did the SuperSonics take fourth overall in their final draft in 2008?
Russell Westbrook
Russell Westbrook was drafted on June 26, 2008, six days before the settlement that freed the team to leave, so he never played a game for Seattle.
Q 11Which player did the SuperSonics take second overall in 2007, a year before the move to Oklahoma City?
Kevin Durant
Kevin Durant went one pick after Greg Oden, who missed that whole season after knee surgery while Durant was Rookie of the Year in the Sonics' final Seattle campaign.
Q 12Where did the Thunder play their first-ever game, a 2008 preseason loss to Minnesota?
Billings, Montana
Billings, Montana counted as a Timberwolves home game: Minnesota hosted the exhibition at MetraPark and won 88–82, five weeks after the Thunder got their name.
Q 13Which coach did the Thunder fire in November 2008 after a 1–12 start, promoting Scott Brooks?
P. J. Carlesimo
Q 21Which team eliminated the Thunder in the 2016 conference finals after OKC led the series 3–1?
Golden State Warriors
Golden State Warriors won three straight, the turn coming in Game 6 in Oklahoma City, where Klay Thompson hit a then-playoff-record 11 three-pointers and scored 41.
Q 22Where did the Thunder's superstar forward publish his 2016 announcement that he was leaving Oklahoma City?
The Players' Tribune
The Players' Tribune ran his essay 'My Next Chapter' on Independence Day 2016; he was joining the very team that had knocked the Thunder out five weeks earlier.
Q 23In 2016–17 the Thunder's MVP broke whose 55-year-old record for triple-doubles in a season?
Oscar Robertson
P. J. Carlesimo was dismissed after the loss that made it 1–12; his interim replacement, Scott Brooks, was named NBA Coach of the Year at the end of the next season.
Q 14Whom did the Thunder draft third overall in 2009 to complete their young Big Three?
James Harden
James Harden started just seven games in three Oklahoma City seasons, winning Sixth Man of the Year in 2012, and became a league MVP only after leaving.
Q 15In 2009–10 a 21-year-old Thunder forward became the youngest player ever to lead the NBA in what?
Scoring
Scoring: his 30.1 points a game edged LeBron James by 0.4, and the Thunder, winners of 23 games a year earlier, won 50 and reached the playoffs.
Q 16Which team eliminated the Thunder in the 2011 Western Conference finals on the way to the title?
Dallas Mavericks
Dallas Mavericks won in five, erasing a 15-point Thunder lead in the final five minutes of Game 4 behind 40 points from Dirk Nowitzki.
Q 17Which team beat the Thunder in the 2012 NBA Finals?
Miami Heat
Miami Heat lost the opener in Oklahoma City, then won four straight to hand LeBron James his first championship.
Q 18Which guard headlined the package the Thunder received in October 2012 for their reigning Sixth Man of the Year?
Kevin Martin
Kevin Martin filled the bench-scorer role for a single season before leaving; Jeremy Lamb, two first-round picks and a second-rounder also came back in the deal.
Q 19Whose lunge for a steal in the 2013 playoffs tore the Thunder point guard's meniscus and ended his season?
Patrick Beverley
Patrick Beverley, then a rookie, crashed into his knee in Game 2 of the first round; until that night the guard had never missed a game in five NBA seasons.
Q 20The Thunder's 2014 first-round matchup with Memphis set an NBA playoff record for what?
Four straight overtime games
Four straight overtime games, from Game 2 through Game 5, had never happened in a playoff series; Memphis won three of them, yet the Thunder survived in seven.
Oscar Robertson's 41 had stood since 1961–62. The 42nd arrived in a 50-point game that ended on a 36-foot buzzer-beater, which also knocked the opponent out of the playoff race.
Q 24Which All-Star forward did the Thunder land in July 2017 for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis?
Paul George
Paul George had made no secret of wanting to play for his hometown Lakers; a year later he re-signed for four years without even meeting them, then was traded to the Clippers in 2019.
Q 25Whom did the Thunder get from the Knicks in September 2017 for Enes Kanter and Doug McDermott?
Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Anthony, a ten-time All-Star, averaged 16.2 points in his lone Thunder season, eight below his career mark, then was dealt to Atlanta and bought out within a week.
Q 26Which young guard came to Oklahoma City from the Clippers in July 2019 along with five first-round picks?
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had played one NBA season, averaging 10.8 points as a Clippers rookie. Six years later he was league MVP and Finals MVP in the same season.
Q 27Whom did the Thunder receive from Houston when they traded their franchise point guard in July 2019?
Chris Paul
Paul made his 10th All-Star team in OKC before being flipped to Phoenix a year later.
Q 28Which Thunder defender went undrafted in 2019 yet made the NBA All-Defensive First Team in 2025?
Luguentz Dort
Luguentz Dort began on a two-way contract, the league's lowest rung. In his sixth season he finished fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting for the champions.
Q 29The Thunder suffered the largest defeat in NBA history, 152–79, in December 2021 against which team?
Memphis Grizzlies
Memphis Grizzlies won by 73 with their star Ja Morant out injured, breaking a 68-point record that had stood for 30 years.
Q 30Whom did the Thunder select second overall in the 2022 draft?
Chet Holmgren
Chet Holmgren hurt his foot that August defending LeBron James on a fast break in a summer pro-am game, and missed his entire first season.