THE Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder (and the Seattle Supersonics earlier than them) have 51 jersey numbers worn by the gamers who’ve carried the franchise since its creation in the beginning of the 1967-68 season. To commemorate the gamers who wore these numbers, Thunder Wire covers your complete historical past of jersey numbers and the gamers who wore them because the staff’s inception.
And whereas these Supersonics jerseys will not be a part of the franchise’s historical past if a brand new staff was created in Seattle, as was the case with the return of the Charlotte Hornets, right this moment they’re a part of the historical past of the Thunder. For this text, we proceed with the seventh jersey quantity within the sequence, jersey No. 5, with 10 gamers in complete having donned the jersey within the historical past of the franchise.
The primary of those 10 gamers to put on quantity 5 did so throughout his Seattle SuperSonics days, Seattle middle Vladimir Stepania. A local of Tbilisi, Georgia, Stepania started his skilled profession abroad enjoying for Slovenian golf equipment Slovan and Union Olimpija earlier than being chosen twenty seventh general within the 1998 NBA Draft by the SuperSonics.
The 7-foot large man solely performed a complete of 53 video games in his first two seasons within the league with Seattle earlier than being traded for Lazaro Borrell and Vernon Maxwell in a four-team commerce which allowed Patrick Ewing’s Sonics to win the title. twilight of his Corridor of Fame profession.
Throughout that stretch with Seattle, Stepania averaged 3.8 factors and a couple of.3 rebounds per recreation.
This text was initially printed on Celtics Wire: Historical past of the Thunder jersey n°5 – Vladimir Stepania (1998-2000)
