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Video: Russell Westbrook knows his Oklahoma towns

I always get a little jealous when I see players on other teams doing low-budget commercials for local businesses. Like some random ad with J.J. Barea and Shawn Marion talking about a carwash in Dallas. The production is mediocre and the players can barely spit out their lines, but something about it is so wonderful.

To this point, we haven’t seen very many local commercials featuring Thunder players. All we ever get is the soft acoustic stylings of MidFirst, Devon Energy and every other corporate sponsor of the Thunder that just has a commercial with a quiet riff played over some hands doing something.

Really, these little commercials are one of the big reasons players look at bigger markets. When you go to Chicago, New York, Los Angeles or Miami, there are a lot more opportunities for local companies to pay you to be in some little 30 second spot. In Oklahoma City, there isn’t as much opportunity because there aren’t as many businesses with the bank account to do it. In OKC it’s way better to be a classical guitarist than a famous basketball player I guess.

But BancFirst just dropped a new spot featuring Russell Westbrook spitting out just about every Oklahoma town you can think of. It’s like the worst version of “I’ve Been Everywhere” you’ve ever heard. He even slipped in Coweta and Konawa in there. That’s good random Oklahoma town hustle. I bet Gary England is jealous that Westbrook got to say all those great small towns. That’s like a dream night for him.

Now of course the big national commercials like the Hyperizers spot, the 2K11 ads or new NBA one with KD are entirely awesome, but there’s just a little extra charm to the local ads. And this one with Russ definitely has plenty of that.

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That was seriously awesome.

@chris

It's probably bc every wife, girlfriend and single girl has a soft spot for Russ...and Russ coaching kids with lisps and missing teeth? Swoon.

Ha! This is great.

@Loud City Jimmy
The other good one is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dH8Zl2Va90&feature=related

Way he shot in the second half you'd think he was playing with the scuba gear on >.<

@justin
that is spectacular

The Thunder should make commercials like this with Nenad Krstic in them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIVBsd_p6cA

@David
pssh, I'm not exactly in love with you either. Also, Russ can give up on being a coach after his playing days if his lineups are just based on alphabetical order like they are in this video. RW's strategy would be have a starting line up of Cook, Durant, Green, Aldrich and Collison.

@James Church
Loved that.

Is Simmons now calling OKC the Superfreaks?

"I am a whore for quality basketball. I will take it any way I can get it. Right now, there is NOTHING like Wade and LeBron in fifth gear … well, except for Blake Griffin. Throw in Rose's brilliance and the Superfreaks -- Durant, Westbrook and Serge Ibaka, each of whom brings things to the table athletically that we haven't seen on a basketball court before"

Russ's commercial has way greater production value than those commercials you're talking about with other teams, especially here in Dallas. I think the commercial is great. I think the feel that you're talking about has more to do with the target audience than the production value. It's cheesy because they want to reach a demographic that enjoys that kind of message.

@James Church
hahaha I never saw that one.

This commercial was cute. I like it.

This is still the best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18EKpiMg37A&feature=player_embedded

@chris
If KD and Russ didn't play basketball, let's say they were used car salesmen. Who do you think would sell my cars? I'm betting Westbrook. Durant may be our superstar (they both are!), but Russ has a lot better on camera personality and charm in my opinion.

@Grolgar
I was too lazy to register. When something note worthy came to mind, I'd just use the anon handle because it was easy. I didn't like being associated with some of the trolls, so it's a good change.

Russ also had an ad with an air conditioning company a while back that had the awesome low production value. Kinda weird that he's getting these spots and not KD.

@DR THUNDER
Why would you be anonymous when you have an awesome nameless like Dr. Thunder?!?

Very nice. It should have been more authentic though... "Edmond, Jenks, go change out of those generic, overpriced sneakers. Moore, quit choosing Randy Terrill as your captain. He won't let minorities play. Midwest City, quit roughing up the other kids..." And so on...

Anonymous posters really frustrated me

First time poster, long time anon. Can not believe they took that feature off the site, well that's a lie. I saw it coming.

We all know Westbrook is the fastest player on the team, and now we know he's the best actor!

I love this commercial! Congrats to Russ for getting this done! He has made a name for himself with the 2k11 commercials! Now he is doing some local stuff! Thats a great things to see!

Ah! I LOVE it!

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  1. [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Royce , OK City Thunder Buzz. OK City Thunder Buzz said: Daily Thunder >> Video: Russell Westbrook knows his Oklahoma towns http://buzztap.com/-Z1cXKG [...]

  2. [...] • Russell Westbrook does an old-school local TV ad. [...]

  3. [...] of Russell Westbrook trying to say some kind of promo in Spanish. It’s slightly humorous. Not as good as his new commercial, but still, decent. In other news, what was the official verdict on his hair? Is this something we [...]

  4. [...] Just when I got through talking about local commercials and how much I like them but it doesn’t seem like Thunder players ever do them, boom, here’s another one. [...]