{"id":543141,"date":"2026-03-24T22:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/543141\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T22:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:27:09","slug":"mohai-says-5000-sonics-artifacts-would-go-to-new-seattle-nba-owners-if-team-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/543141\/","title":{"rendered":"MOHAI says 5,000 Sonics artifacts would go to new Seattle NBA owners if team returns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MOHAI holds more than 5,000 Sonics artifacts, but are stored away until basketball returns to Seattle.<\/p>\n<p>SEATTLE \u2014 MOHAI is holding thousands of Seattle SuperSonics artifacts in storage, including the team\u2019s 1979 NBA championship trophy, according to information provided by the museum and contract language tied to the team\u2019s 2008 move.<\/p>\n<p>The Museum of History and Industry says it is the official steward of a collection of Sonics memorabilia and historic materials that will remain with the museum until a basketball team or franchise returns to Seattle.<\/p>\n<p>Museum officials said the collection is stored in a climate-controlled warehouse and is not accessible to the public.<\/p>\n<p>MOHAI said several items from the collection are on display at the museum, including the 1979 championship trophy, a pennant and a pair of training shoes.<\/p>\n<p>The museum also said some Sonics materials from multiple sources can be viewed <a href=\"https:\/\/mohai.org\/collections-and-research\/search\/?searchQuery=sonics&amp;modules%255B0%255D=allCollections&amp;modules%255B1%255D=collections&amp;modules%255B2%255D=item&amp;modules%255B3%255D=library&amp;pageNum=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">through its online database<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>    SuperSonics artifacts at MOHAI<\/p>\n<p>According to the museum, the Sonics collection includes more than 5,000 items such as banners, framed jerseys, trophies, uniforms and shoes, photos, slides, posters, promotional items, marketing materials, DVDs, game reels, Beta and VHS tapes, and other materials.<\/p>\n<p>MOHAI said the collection takes up about 20 shelves alongside its permanent collection.<\/p>\n<p>Museum officials said they consider the championship trophy one of the most treasured items in their current exhibits and said they look for chances to highlight Sonics history in future displays.<\/p>\n<p>The museum said it does not have Squatch, the team\u2019s former mascot costume, and does not know where it is.<\/p>\n<p>According to the museum, the person who performed as Squatch did not return it when they were supposed to.<\/p>\n<p>Contract language from the 2008 agreement over the franchise\u2019s relocation says the Oklahoma City ownership group could not use the Seattle Sonics or SuperSonics name, logos, colors or other team identity markers for its NBA team after the move.<\/p>\n<p>                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"photo__main\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/af8f904c-1b31-4ac1-9e1f-893b57af82db_1140x641.jpg\"  alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The 2008 agreement also says that if the NBA approves a new team in Seattle and other conditions are met, those intellectual property rights would be transferred at no cost to the new Seattle team owner, subject to NBA rules and approvals.<\/p>\n<p>That same contract language says banners, trophies, retired jerseys and other agreed-upon memorabilia would remain in Seattle in the custody of MOHAI.<\/p>\n<p>It also says those items would be transferred at no cost to a new Seattle team owner upon request, while allowing Oklahoma City ownership to retain the right to create and display duplicate copies because the memorabilia reflects a \u201cshared history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So for now, most of the Sonics collection remains out of public view, preserved in storage until the future of NBA basketball in Seattle is decided.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MOHAI holds more than 5,000 Sonics artifacts, but are stored away until basketball returns to Seattle. SEATTLE \u2014&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-543141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}