Oklahoma City Blue

JaMychal Green's Double-Double (19 points, 13 rebounds) vs ...

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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.

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Franchise history

Asheville Altitude

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.

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. Instead of the announced new franchise, the company purchased the Asheville Altitude in May 2005 and moved them to Tulsa. Southwest had a name-the-team contest, which had 1,200 entries, with the winning name, the 66ers, announced on July 29, 2005. 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. On August 2, 2005, the team named Joey Meyer as the team's first head coach. 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.

For its second season, 2006-07, the team's assigned NBA affiliated teams the Bulls and the Pacers were dropped while the New York Knicks were added. Local businessman Jono Helmerich's group purchased a 20% stake in the franchise from Southwest Basketball, while Helmerich was named team president on February 5, 2007. For the 2007-2008 season, the Dallas Mavericks joined as the 66ers NBA affiliates while the Hornets were dropped.

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 the suburb of Bixby. Seattle SuperSonics and the Bucks were assigned on June 12, 2008 as NBA affiliates for the 2008-2009 season. 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).

The one-season relationship with the arena ended with a lawsuit regarding more than $100,000 the team claimed it was 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.

In April 2010, the Tulsa 66ers reached 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.

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.

In May 2012, the 66ers announced that they would return to the SpiritBank Event Center for the 2012-13 season. 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. 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.

However, in June 2014, SpiritBank announced that it would no longer seek bookings or lease the arena space. 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.