NBA, Kevin Durant returning to Seattle for preseason game

The NBA is officially returning to Seattle for the first time in a decade -- for a preseason game.

And bringing with it the last Sonics star.

With the release of the NBA’s 2018 preseason schedule this week, a Sacramento Bee report from February was confirmed that Kevin Durant -- who played his rookie season for the Seattle SuperSonics -- and the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors will play the Sacramento Kings in a preseason game Oct. 5 at KeyArena. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. that day.

The contest will mark the first NBA game played in the city since the Sonics left after the 2007-08 season. Owner Clay Bennett moved the franchise to Oklahoma City and the team was renamed the Thunder.

Durant, drafted No. 2 overall out of Texas in the 2007 NBA draft, won Rookie of the Year honors for the Sonics after averaging 20.3 points and 4.3 rebounds in his debut season. Since leaving Seattle, he’s become a nine-team All-Star, four-time scoring champion, an MVP and a two-time NBA champion with the Warriors (claimed Finals MVP honors both times). Durant left the Thunder for Golden State in 2016.

October will mark Durant’s return to an NBA setting in the city he began his career, but he’s come back to Seattle on a few occasions.

He made an appearance in the Seattle ProAm back in 2013 -- the annual, summer basketball league put on by Rainier Beach basketball legend Jamal Crawford.

Durant also helped renovate a basketball court at Powell Barnett Park in the Central District in 2016.

The preseason game between the Warriors and Kings will be the last event at KeyArena before it undergoes its $600 million renovation, slated to begin at the end of this year.

There's been hope in recent months that an NBA franchise could return to Seattle with the renovation. The city hopes to open the revamped arena for an NHL expansion team by 2020.