Oklahoma City Thunder Then and Now

The Oklahoma City Thunder are headed to the NBA Finals after knocking out the San Antonio Spurs last night, the franchise's first trip to the Finals since 1996 back when they were still the Seattle Supersonics. Just for kicks let's look at the Starting 5's for both teams taking the lineup Seattle trotted out for Game 6 against the Bulls in 1996 and what the Thunder used in Game 6 against the Spurs yesterday (regular season stats for that season in parentheses):

Center - Frank Brickowski (5.4 ppg, 2.4 rpg) / Kendrick Perkins (5.1 ppg, 6.6 rpg)

Photo Credits: spokeo.com / bostonsportslife.com

Power Forward - Shawn Kemp (19.6 ppg, 11.4 rpg) / Serge Ibaka (9.1 ppg, 7.5 rpg)

Photo Credits: outsidethepressbox.com / nbaoffseason.com

Small Forward - Detlef Schrempf (17.1 ppg, 5.2 rpg) / Kevin Durant (28.0 ppg, 8.0 rpg)

Photo Credit: pul.se / mimajo.myddns.com

Shooting Guard - Hersey Hawkins (15.6 ppg, 2.7 apg) / Thabo Sefolosha (4.8 ppg, 3.0 rpg)

Photo Credit: newshopper.sulekha.com / zimbio.com

Point Guard - Gary Payton (19.3 ppg, 7.5 apg) / Russell Westbrook (23.6 ppg, 5.5 apg)

Photo Credit: bleacherreport.com / zimbio.com