Oklahoma City's NBA team to be called Thunder

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Thunder can be heard from miles away, an early warning that a storm is about to arrive. So perhaps it's only fitting that the name of Oklahoma City's NBA team didn't sneak up on anyone.

Six weeks after the name first surfaced, team officials officially announced Wednesday that the team formerly known as the Seattle SuperSonics would be known as the Oklahoma City Thunder.

"It's hard to keep a secret," team chairman Clay Bennett said after stepping to a podium on the ground floor of the downtown office building where the team is headquartered.

The announcement had long been anticipated, but everyone knew what was coming.

The local ABC affiliate reported in mid-July that Thunder had been chosen as the nickname. Then the NBA Web site listed nba.com/thunder as a link to the Oklahoma City team's page. Then the Orlando Magic's site listed games against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Even the logo and colors leaked out over the weekend. Then, before the 5 p.m. announcement, Thunder merchandise started showing up on the NBA's online store.

"I thought it was great fun. Maybe I have a warped sense of things," Bennett said. "I thought it was a lot of fun. I was disappointed in the image being released."

That left Bennett somewhat surprised that hundreds of people still showed up in the atrium of Leadership Square, watched from their office windows or leaned over a second-floor walkway to hear it for sure.

"My family talked about wanting to come down, and I said, 'Well, I don't think it's that big a deal. Everybody seems to know the name already,"' Bennett said.

To unveil the logo, six children joined players Desmond Mason and Damien Wilkins to pull down a curtain as the AC/DC song "Thunderstruck" blared over the loudspeaker. What was revealed was a large blue banner with the logo in the middle, and splashes of yellow at the top and reddish-orange at the bottom.

Bennett said the light blue color coincides with the state flag to represent the inclusion of all Oklahomans, the yellow refers to the sun and the reddish-orange color to the sunset. With the University of Oklahoma featuring crimson as its primary color, and Oklahoma State using orange, Bennett said it was "not too red and not too orange."

The team name had been the most evident -- and talked about -- element missing after Bennett announced July 2 that the SuperSonics would be moving to Oklahoma City.