The 66ers are owned by the Thunder and play in the D-League, a development league for players trying to rise to the NBA. The Thunder often would assign players to Tulsa and recall them from Tulsa during the season.

The minor-league team’s move to Oklahoma City doesn’t reflect a change in the Thunder’s commitment to Tulsa or northeast Oklahoma, Mahoney said.

“This doesn’t change that at all,” said Dan Mahoney, the Thunder’s vice president for communications and community relations, in a telephone interview. “We had no choice. We would have loved to stay in Bixby.”

Mahoney said Thunder officials have not decided whether the D-League team’s name will be changed.

The Thunder has a preseason game scheduled for Oct. 19 in the BOK Center against Minnesota. It will be the team’s sixth preseason game in Tulsa, and the BOK Center was sold out each of the last two years. Their lease with Chesapeake Arena, however, prevents the Thunder from playing regular-season games away from Oklahoma City.

“We have great support in Tulsa,” Mahoney said. “We know that through TV ratings, through ticket sales, through merchandise sales and through social media following.”