Sometimes the basketball universe aligns in ways that feel too perfect to be coincidental. Kevin Durant — the player the Seattle SuperSonics drafted No. 2 overall in 2007, the player who won Rookie of the Year in the franchise's final season, the player who has said repeatedly that he wants to be part of the NBA's return to Seattle — will be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2028.
That is the exact summer before a new Seattle expansion franchise is targeted to begin play.
Durant's current contract with the Houston Rockets expires after the 2027–28 season. He will be 40 years old at the start of the 2028–29 campaign — the same age LeBron James was when he signed with the Philadelphia 76ers this July. And like James, Durant has shown no signs of slowing down: in the 2025–26 season, he averaged 25.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game while shooting 51.4% from the field and 40.2% from three-point range, earning his third consecutive All-Star selection.
"I think that's a wonderful thought, even if it's a one-year deal or whatever it has to be just to have the last piece essentially of Seattle professional men's basketball come back and maybe be a part of it," Fox Sports play-by-play voice Adam Amin told Seattle Sports 710 AM in March.
Durant has remained emotionally connected to Seattle throughout his career. When he played a preseason game for the Golden State Warriors in Seattle in 2018, he wore a throwback Shawn Kemp jersey during starting lineup introductions and took the microphone to address the crowd. He has stated on multiple occasions that he wants to be part of the NBA's return to Seattle — though he has typically framed that as an ownership role rather than a playing one.
He is one of only two active NBA players who played for the original SuperSonics. The other is 39-year-old Jeff Green, a fellow 2007 first-rounder who is now a bench player and will almost certainly have retired by the time of the Sonics' return.
Whether Durant plays for the new Sonics, invests in them, or simply attends their first home game, his connection to Seattle basketball is undeniable. The city drafted him. The city cheered him. The city lost him when Clay Bennett moved the team to Oklahoma City in 2008. If the basketball universe is truly aligning, the Sonics' first season back could begin with Kevin Durant — in some capacity — back where it all started.