You’ve earned the right to dream again.

Perhaps you never stopped believing. For seventeen years you followed every rumor with the particular faith of people who have been abandoned but refuse to acknowledge it. You watched city council meetings. You parsed commissioner comments for hidden meaning, scouring them for any morsel of hope. You told yourself that loyalty mattered, that caring mattered, that the universe rewards persistence.

Or maybe you stopped believing. Maybe you discovered what heartbreak teaches: that the things we love do not always love us back. Maybe you put away the jerseys and turned off the notifications and practiced the small death of not caring. Maybe you understood that hope, unchecked, becomes its own kind of violence.

But for the first time since 2008, the return of the Sonics isn’t just hope anymore. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has put expansion on the official agenda. Climate Pledge Arena is built for basketball and ready to go.  The ownership group is ready. All the structural problems that led to the Sonics leaving have been solved.

This deserves more than rumors and speculation. You deserve coverage that understands what this means.

Our mission

Our sister site, Davy Jones’ Locker Room is a leading independent Seattle Kraken news site. Our writers have covered the NHL for major events such as the Winter Classic and the NHL Draft and some are members of the Pro Hockey Writers Association.

We love hockey. But we also love basketball just as much.

We have a team of credentialed sports journalists ready to cover Seattle professional sports at the highest level. Through our investigative skills and key sources, we can’t wait to bring you the NBA-related news you actually want to read.

Fan loyalty and solidarity is compelling. Fan activism matters. Nostalgia is fun. But there’s also a need for in-depth reporting on how the business actually works, what the ownership group is thinking, and how the expansion process will unfold. That’s where we come in. We understand that good reporting can help people make sense of what’s happening and why it matters.

What we’ll cover

Rain City Rebound will be your source for everything related to the return of NBA basketball to Seattle. That means:

• News and analysis on the expansion process
• Reporting on ownership, arena operations, and league politics
• Historical context connecting the Sonics’ past to their future
• Community stories about the fans, organizations, and advocates working to bring the team back
• Coverage of Seattle’s broader basketball ecosystem: Seattle basketball is much more than the Sonics
• When the team returns, comprehensive game coverage, analysis, and team news

We’re not just here to aggregate other people’s reporting or speculate wildly. We’re here to break news, provide informed analysis, and tell the stories that matter to Seattle basketball fans.

We believe in honesty and integrity, both in how we run our organization and how we report the news. We’re not here to farm clicks through gossip.  We’re here to report the news just as we would want to read it: celebrate the ups and report honestly about the downs.

The Sonics’ return will be the biggest sports story in Seattle history. When it happens, you’ll want coverage from people who understand the business, respect the history, love our city, and care as much as you do about getting this right. That’s what Rain City Rebound is here to provide.

We’ve been waiting 17 years for this opportunity. We’re not going to waste it.