Oklahoma City Blue

Oklahoma City Blue
League NBA G League
Founded 2001
History Asheville Altitude
2001–2005
Tulsa 66ers
2005–2014
Oklahoma City Blue
2014–present
Arena Cox Convention Center
Arena Capacity 2,610
Location Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Team colors Blue, sunset, yellow, dark blue[1][2]
                   
Head coach Mark Daigneault
Ownership Professional Basketball Club LLC
Affiliation(s) Oklahoma City Thunder
Championships 2 (2003, 2004)
Conference titles 2 (2004, 2017)
Division titles 2 (2003, 2017)
Website www.nba.com/dleague/oklahomacity/

The Oklahoma City Blue are an NBA G League team based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and the minor league affiliate of the Oklahoma City Thunder. The franchise began as the Asheville Altitude in 2001, before moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2005 and becoming the Tulsa 66ers. After nine seasons in Tulsa, the franchise moved to Oklahoma City in 2014 and were subsequently renamed the Oklahoma City Blue.

Franchise history

The Asheville Altitude were a founding team of the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) in 2001. They played at the Asheville Civic Center in Asheville, North Carolina, where they won back-to-back championships in 2004 and 2005.[3]

Tulsa 66ers

Southwest Basketball, LLC, headed by former Indiana Pacers general manager David Kahn, was awarded four National Basketball Development League franchises in March 2005. One of the Southwest Basketball franchises was for Tulsa. The Tulsa team agreed to play for three years at the Expo Square Pavilion.[4] Instead of the announced new franchise, the company purchase the Asheville Altitude in May 2005 and moved them to Tulsa.[3][5] Southwest had a name the name-the-team contest, which had 1,200 entries, with the winning name being the 66ers announced on July 29, 2005.[4] The 66ers name comes from U.S. Route 66, which runs through state of Oklahoma and Tulsa and is a mile south of Expo Square Pavilion.[5] On August 2, 2005, the team named Joey Meyer as the team's first head coach.[4] For their inaugural season and under a new affiliation system, the 66ers were directly affiliated with four NBA teams: the Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks and New Orleans Hornets.[6]

For its second season 2006-07, the team's assigned NBA affiliated teams the Bulls and the Pacer were dropped while adding the New York Knicks.[7] local businessman Jono Helmerich's group purchased 20 percent stake in the franchise from Southwest Basketball, while Helmerich is name team president on February 5, 2007.[4] For the 2007-2008 season, the Dallas Mavericks join as a 66er's NBA affiliates while the Hornets were dropped.[8]

The 66ers indicated on February 12, 2008 that for the 2008-09 season that the team would start playing at the new SpiritBank Event Center in Bixby.[4] Seattle SuperSonics and the Bucks were assigned on June 12, 2008 as NBA affiliates for the 2008-2009 season.[9] On July 31, 2008, the 66ers announced that Professional Basketball Club LLC (owner of the Oklahoma City Thunder) had purchased the 66ers, marking the third D-League team to be owned by an NBA team (the first two were the Los Angeles D-Fenders and the Austin Toros, owned by the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs, respectively).[10]

The one-season relationship with the arena ended with a lawsuit regarding more than $100,000 the team claimed it owed. The 66ers filed a lawsuit seeking more than $200,000 in compensatory damages from SpiritBank Center's ownership group. The team subsequently moved to the Tulsa Convention Center in downtown Tulsa for the 2009–10 season.[11]

In April 2010, the Tulsa 66ers reach the playoffs for the first time. The team won two postseason series to reach the D-League finals. Facing the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the team lose the final by zero games to two games.[4]

For the 2010-2011 season, the 66ers coached by Nate Tibbetts set a team record of 33-17 while also having a 14-game winning streak. In the playoff, the team reaches the semifinals facing Iowa losing the series 0-2.[4]

In May 2012, the 66ers announced that they would return to the SpiritBank Event Center for the 2012–13 season.[12] Before September 2013 when the OKC Thunder add the station to its Thunder Radio Network, KAKC 1300 AM was already the 66ers' radio broadcasting partner.[13] Making the playoffs again, Tulsa won a first round series against Canton but was swept again in the semi-final this time by Rio Grande Valley.[4]

However, in June 2014, SpiritBank announced that it would no longer seek bookings or lease the arena space.[14] The 66ers played its last game at Sioux Falls for a 107-105 loss on April 5, 2014. The team finished 24-26 just short of making the playoffs.[4]

Oklahoma City Blue

After getting offers from four venues, Professional Basketball Club felt none were suitable by July 18, 2014 thus announcing the 66ers would move to Oklahoma City starting with the 2014-2015 season.[15] With the move, the team was rebranded from the 66ers to the Blue.[16][17] For the 2016-2017 season, the team was the regular season Western Conference Champions with 34 wins, a franchise-record.[18]

Season-by-season

Season Division Regular season Playoffs
Finish Wins Losses Pct.
Asheville Altitude
2001–02 6th 26 30 .464
2002–03 7th 22 28 .440
2003–04 1st 28 18 .609 Won Semifinals (Fayetteville) 116–111
Won NBDL Finals (Huntsville) 108–106
2004–05 2nd 27 21 .563 Won Semifinals (Huntsville) 90–86
Won NBDL Finals (Columbus) 90–67
Tulsa 66ers
2005–06 7th 24 24 .500
2006–07 Eastern 4th 21 29 .420
2007–08 Southwestern 3rd 26 24 .520
2008–09 Southwestern 5th 15 35 .300
2009–10 Western 5th 27 23 .540 Won First Round (Sioux Falls) 2–1
Won Semifinals (Iowa) 2–1
Lost D-League Finals (Rio Grande Valley) 0–2
2010–11 Western 3rd 33 17 .660 Won First Round (Texas) 2–1
Lost Semifinals (Iowa) 0–2
2011–12 Western 6th 23 27 .460
2012–13 Central 3rd 27 23 .540 Won First Round (Canton) 2–1
Lost Semifinals (Rio Grande Valley) 0–2
2013–14 Central 5th 24 26 .480
Oklahoma City Blue
2014–15 Southwest 2nd 28 22 .560 Lost First Round (Santa Cruz) 0–2
2015–16 Southwest 4th 19 31 .380
2016–17 Southwest 1st 34 16 .680 Won First Round (Santa Cruz) 2–1
Conf. Finals (Rio Grande Valley) 1-2[18]
Regular season 405 393 .508 2001–2017
Playoffs 13 11 .542 2001–2017

Current roster

Oklahoma City Blue roster
Players Coaches
Pos. No. Name Height Weight DOB (YYYY-MM-DD) From
G/F 25 Hamilton, Daniel (TW) 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 197 lb (89 kg) 1995–08–08 Connecticut
F 4 Henry, Myke 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 210 lb (95 kg) 1992–12–23 DePaul
G/F 7 Henry, Xavier 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 220 lb (100 kg) 1991–03–15 Kansas
F/C 12 Jones, Solomon 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 245 lb (111 kg) 1984–07–16 South Florida
G/F 1 Moungoro, Boubacar 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 190 lb (86 kg) 1994–09–20 IMG Academy HS (FL)
G 14 Ward, Karrington 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 189 lb (86 kg) 1993–03–14 Eastern Michigan
G/F 55 Williams, Reggie 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 210 lb (95 kg) 1986–10–14 VMI
F 31 Woods, Kameron 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 200 lb (91 kg) 1993–04–22 Butler
F 33 Wright, Chris 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 225 lb (102 kg) 1988–09–30 Dayton
Head coach
  • Mark Daigneault
Assistant coach(es)
  • David Akinyooye
  • Jarrell Christian
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • (DP) Unsigned draft pick
  • (FA) Free agent
  • (S) Suspended
  • (NBA) On assignment from NBA affiliate
  • (TW) Two-way affiliate player
  • (I) Inactive
  • Injured

Roster • Transactions
Last transaction: 2017–04–01

Head coaches

# Head coach Term Regular season Playoffs Achievements
G W L Win% G W L Win%
1 Meyer, JoeyJoey Meyer 2005–08 148 71 77 .480 –
2 Woolpert, PaulPaul Woolpert 2008–09 50 15 35 .300 –
3 Nate Tibbetts 2009–11 100 60 40 .600 13 6 7 .462
4 Dale Osbourne 2011–12 50 23 27 .460 –
5 Darko Rajakovic 2012–14 100 51 49 .510 5 2 3 .400
6 Mark Daigneault 2014–16, 2017– 150 81 69 .540 8 3 5 .375

Affiliates

References

  1. ↑ "2016-17 Quick Facts" (PDF). 2016-17 Oklahoma City Blue Media Guide. NBA Properties, Inc. Retrieved July 14, 2017.
  2. ↑ "Oklahoma City Blue Reproduction Guideline Sheet". NBA Properties, Inc. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Altitude leaving Asheville". Blue Ridge Now. May 4, 2005.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Lewis, Barry (July 19, 2014). "66ers in Tulsa: A timeline". Tulsa World. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  5. 1 2 "Tulsa 66ers set for 9th season". Tulsa Today. November 1, 2013.
  6. ↑ Tramel, Jimmie (September 20, 2005). "66ers get NBA parents". Tulsa World. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  7. ↑ Strain, Mike (June 9, 2006). "NBA D-league: 66ers get affiliates for 2006-07 season". Tulsa World. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  8. ↑ Staff, Tulsa Business (July 6, 2007). "66ers Announce 2007 NBA Affiliations". Tulsa World. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  9. ↑ Staff, Tulsa Business (June 12, 2008). "Tulsa 66ers Align With Seattle SuperSonics". Tulsa World. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  10. ↑ "Oklahoma City NBA group has purchased Tulsa 66ers basketball franchise". Tulsa World. July 31, 2008. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  11. ↑ "66ers moving to Convention Center". Tulsa World. August 14, 2009. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  12. ↑ "66ers Welcome". Bixby Breeze. GTR Newspapers. May 22, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  13. ↑ Reports, Staff (September 10, 2013). "Thunder gets new Tulsa radio affiliate". Tulsa World. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  14. ↑ Robert, Evatt (June 9, 2014). "Big events no longer scheduled at SpiritBank Event Center in Bixby". Tulsa World. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  15. ↑ "Thunder moving 66ers from Tulsa to Oklahoma City". Tulsa World. July 19, 2014. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  16. ↑ "Thunder Reveals New Name for Development Team". Oklahoma City Thunder. September 24, 2014. Retrieved July 14, 2017.
  17. ↑ Mannix, Chris (November 7, 2014). "Thunder eye panic button, Paul Pierce reminisces and more". Sports Illustrated. Time, Inc. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  18. 1 2 Kemp, Adam (20 April 2017). "OKC Blue season ends after playoff loss to Vipers". NewsOK.com. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
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