Oklahoma City Blue

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.[3]

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.[4] Instead of the announced new franchise, the company purchased the Asheville Altitude in May 2005 and moved them to Tulsa.[3][5] Southwest had a name-the-team contest, which had 1,200 entries, with the winning name, the 66ers, announced on July 29, 2005.[4] 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.[5] On August 2, 2005, the team named Joey Meyer as the team's first head coach.[4] 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.[6]

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.[7] 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.[4] For the 2007–08 season, the Dallas Mavericks joined as the 66ers NBA affiliates while the Hornets were dropped.[8]

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.[4] The Seattle SuperSonics and the Bucks were assigned on June 12, 2008, as NBA affiliates for the 2008–09 season.[9] On July 31, 2008, the 66ers announced that Professional Basketball Club LLC, owner of the Oklahoma City Thunder (formally the Seattle SuperSonics), 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).[10]

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.[11]

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.[4]

For the 2010–11 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 reached the semifinals and faced off with Iowa before losing the series 0–2.[4]

In May 2012, the 66ers announced that they would return to the SpiritBank Event Center for the 2012–13 season.[12] 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.[13] 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.[4]

However, in June 2014, SpiritBank announced that it would no longer seek bookings or lease the arena space.[14] 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.[4]

After getting offers from four venues, Professional Basketball Club felt none were suitable and announced the 66ers would move to Oklahoma City and play in the Prairie Surf Studios (Which is directly across the street from the Chesapeake Energy Arena where parent club Oklahoma City Thunder plays.) starting with the 2014–15 season. The teams front offices are located in the Chesapeake Energy Arena along with the rest of the front office staff of the parent club Oklahoma City Thunder.[15] With the move, the team was rebranded from the 66ers to the Blue.[16][17] In the 2016–17 season, the team was the regular season Western Conference champion with 34 wins, a franchise record.[18]

• Oklahoma City Thunder (2014–present)

• Chicago Bulls (2005–2006)
• Dallas Mavericks (2007–2008)
• Indiana Pacers (2005–2006)
• Milwaukee Bucks (2005–2008)
• New Orleans Hornets (2005–2007)
• New York Knicks (2006–2008)
• Oklahoma City Thunder (2008–2014)

• None