1979
Seattle SuperSonics
Series Flow
0
Wins
0
Losses
Regular Season
52–30
Win–Loss
Playoff Record
12–5
Win–Loss
Finals
0–0
vs Washington Bullets
Finals MVP
Johnson
Dennis
Seattle SuperSonics
52–30Washington Bullets
54–28The defending champion Washington Bullets — winners of the 1978 title over Seattle — came into the 1979 Finals as the team to beat. Led by Elvin Hayes, Bobby Dandridge, and veteran center Wes Unseld, the Bullets were a battle-tested franchise seeking back-to-back crowns. Seattle denied them emphatically.
Finals MVP
Dennis Johnson
#24 · Guard
23.6
PPG
5.0
RPG
3.4
APG
44.6
FG%
Dennis Johnson locked down the Washington Bullets on both ends, delivering the most complete Finals performance in SuperSonics history. His defense on Elvin Hayes and Bobby Dandridge was suffocating; his offensive aggression in the fourth quarters was relentless.
Only player in SuperSonics history to win Finals MVP
Held Washington opponents below their season scoring averages across the series
Would go on to earn 5 All-Star selections and a Hall of Fame career
How the Series Unfolded
The Champions
Jack Sikma
#43 · Center
18.6
PPG
12.4
RPG
1.8
BPG
The second-year center from Illinois Wesleyan anchored the frontcourt with elite rebounding and the distinctive behind-the-head jump shot that would become his signature. Sikma outplayed Wes Unseld in a battle of centers and announced himself as one of the league's premier big men.
Gus Williams
#1 · Guard
19.6
PPG
4.8
APG
2.4
SPG
The Wizard — explosive, fast, and fearless. Williams had missed half the regular season in a contract dispute but returned for the playoffs and was Seattle's primary offensive catalyst alongside Johnson.
Fred Brown
#32 · Guard
14.2
PPG
Pre-3pt era
3P%
"Downtown Freddie Brown" was Seattle's premier shooter — a deadly long-range scorer before the three-point line existed. His spacing and scoring punch off the bench gave the Sonics a reliable second-unit weapon throughout the series.
Lonnie Shelton
#33 · Forward
11.8
PPG
6.2
RPG
The bruising power forward provided the physical interior presence that allowed Sikma to operate freely. Shelton's toughness set the tone for Seattle's frontcourt identity throughout the postseason.
They Pushed Us to the Limit
The defending champion Washington Bullets — winners of the 1978 title over Seattle — came into the 1979 Finals as the team to beat. Led by Elvin Hayes, Bobby Dandridge, and veteran center Wes Unseld, the Bullets were a battle-tested franchise seeking back-to-back crowns. Seattle denied them emphatically.
Elvin Hayes
#11 · Forward
18.4
PPG
9.8
RPG
The Big E was contained far below his usual production by the Sonics' physical frontcourt defense led by Shelton and Sikma.
Bobby Dandridge
#15 · Forward
16.2
PPG
5.8
RPG
The hero of the 1978 Finals struggled to replicate his championship form as Dennis Johnson made his life difficult throughout the series.
History Written in 1979
Seattle SuperSonics
First and only NBA championship in franchise history
Dennis Johnson
First Finals MVP in franchise history — the only one to date
Lenny Wilkens
Became one of the few coaches to win an NBA title having also played in the league — later inducted into the Hall of Fame as both player and coach
Seattle SuperSonics
Avenged the 1978 Finals loss to Washington with a decisive 4–1 series win — redemption one year in the making
Jack Sikma
Second-year center outperformed future Hall of Famer Wes Unseld in the battle of centers
Beyond the Box Score
The 1979 NBA Finals was a rematch of the previous year's championship — a rarity in the modern NBA. Seattle had fallen to Washington in 1978, losing the decisive Game 7 on the road. That defeat forged the Sonics' hunger and identity heading into 1978-79, and they channeled that pain into a dominant 52-30 regular season under Lenny Wilkens.
The championship was built on defense and collective toughness rather than a single transcendent star. Dennis Johnson was the best player in the series, but the Sonics won because of a system — Wilkens' intelligent rotations, Sikma's emergence as a legitimate franchise center, and the electrifying playmaking of Gus Williams, who had returned from a contract dispute to reclaim his place as Seattle's offensive engine.
Gus Williams' story is one of the great playoff resurrections in NBA history. He had sat out a large portion of the regular season demanding a new contract, finally reaching agreement and returning in time for the postseason. Williams was arguably the team's best offensive player in the playoffs — a fact that made his regular-season absence all the more remarkable.
The 1979 championship remains the only title in this franchise's history — now carried forward by the Oklahoma City Thunder. While the relocation from Seattle to OKC in 2008 was a painful chapter for the Pacific Northwest, the championship legacy of the Seattle SuperSonics endures as the foundation of the franchise's identity. OKC's current generation, led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, carries that championship tradition forward.
The Full Story
After falling one win short in 1978, the Seattle SuperSonics returned to the NBA Finals with a singular purpose: to win the championship that had slipped away. Led by head coach Lenny Wilkens — one of basketball's greatest minds — the Sonics had spent a full season preparing for this moment. When the Finals began against the defending champion Washington Bullets, there was no question Seattle were ready.
The series was decided by Dennis Johnson. In five games, DJ was unplayable — defending Bobby Dandridge and Elvin Hayes into submission on one end while averaging 23.6 points on the other. His Finals MVP performance was the embodiment of two-way basketball at its finest, a campaign that cemented his legacy even before he would go on to win two more championships with Boston alongside Larry Bird.
Jack Sikma was the series' other revelation. The lanky center with the unusual behind-the-head shot had been largely unknown outside Seattle when the Finals began. Five games later, he had outplayed Wes Unseld and established himself as one of the league's premier big men — a status he would maintain for the next 14 years before earning Hall of Fame induction.
When Gus Williams dribbled out the final seconds in Game 5 and the Seattle Center Coliseum erupted, a city that had waited years for this moment finally exhaled. The SuperSonics were NBA champions — the only time in franchise history. The banner has traveled with the franchise, a reminder that what was built in Seattle belongs to the entire lineage of the team that now calls Oklahoma City home.
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