This tremendous story landed in my inbox earlier this week. And it’s just another tremendous example of the stellar franchise we are lucky enough to root for. Reader Martin shares a wonderful Thunder fan experience.
Now the playoffs are done for the Thunder I thought I’d share a story that pretty much reinforces the classy franchise that Oklahoma City has become.
My girlfriend and I are big Oklahoma City fans from the UK and we recently wanted to incorporate a five-day holiday with an Oklahoma City NBA game. So we settled on Portland (12th April) and five days in Seattle, so we drove down and entered the arena about 50 minutes early to take some pictures and see the team warm up. I got talking to one guy who claimed to know Scott Brooks and before I knew it the coach walks off court and begins talking to his friend. Next thing I know Scott Brooks approaches us thanking us for traveling all the way to the game and spends a few moments with us for pictures, etc. Meanwhile he sends an assistant coach back to the locker room and before I know it he returns and passes over two after game passes to meet the players! Read more…
Friday Fan
(Let me hear you Thunder fans… SOMEBODY SCREEEEEEAM! I mean, send in an email if you’ve got something to share/say (dailythunder@gmail.com). This week, we hear from reader Lefty. And let me say, some of the comparisons were so spot on, it’s kind of creepy.)
So, this is the article where I let my inner geek loose.
I am the type of person that, when people get to know me, they are always surprised I am a sports fan. Like really, really surprised. Like “Wait, you like sports? For serious? Cause I would have never imagined that from you” kind of surprised. I understand it. On the surface, I don’t seem like the kind of person that would be a sports fan.
A few weeks ago when the Thunder were in Boston, I was there too, but, not for the Thunder game – I was there for PAX East. I can frequently be found at New World Comics in OKC, or browsing the Barnes and Noble graphic novel section. I listen to indie rock almost exclusively. On Tuesday nights, I host a Dungeons and Dragons game, for crying out loud.
I mean, in middle school, I played sports, but I was never fast or strong or aggressive enough (though, I was pretty decent at baseball). So, why is it I love the Thunder so much? It took me a while to figure it out exactly, but finally, I was able to pinpoint it – and it made a lot of sense to me, considering my other interests: team-building. Read more…
Friday Fan
(Your turn. Any thoughts, comments or stories? Send it in. dailythunder@gmail.com. Today’s insight comes from reader Jay.)
A lot is made of the advantage the Lakers have inside against the Thunder, and its an obvious and valid point to make. There aren’t honestly any teams in the league that can match up with Bynum and Gasol physically, but with the Thunder it does a real number on them because Jeff Green is so important to what they do and he just doesn’t have any chance against Gasol.
This is what led Brooks to try the big lineup in the 4th quarter of the first two games. I honestly thought it was a great idea at the time…get one of your premier players (and possibly your best big-moment guy) on the court in crunch time without having to get mauled every time down the court. I thought it was the kind of thing you have to do in the playoffs…change your rotations to match your opponent and also to acknowledge how different the fourth quarter of playoff games are. But sometimes you try to solve one problem and create another one. Read more…
Friday Fan
Playoffs
(Your turn. Anything you want to share? Send it in to dailythunder@gmail.com. Today’s feature comes from Rosie in Norman.)
Full disclosure: I might be considered a “New England sports fan.” You know, one of those East Coasters who expects the sports world to revolve around her teams. Someone who is actually happy that it’s Yankees-Red Sox for the game of the week. Someone who is spoiled by Sports Success! But, actually I grew up in northern Connecticut during the 1970s, and was only really interested in the Sawx (Dewey Evans was my fave!) and the UConn Huskies (from the pre-Calhoun/pre-Auriemma years! Hey! I remember when Dom Perno was the coach of the men’s team). Oh, the Celtics were there. But, I only really tuned into the Celtics during the years of the Lakers-Celtics rivalry, and by then, I was a teenager who rooted against the Celtics just to annoy my Dad.
I moved to Oklahoma about 14 years ago, when I got a job at OU. Since then, I’ve been busy teaching and raising three children. One of the joys of parenthood is passing on your fandom to your kids. By age seven, my daughter was a sports junkie who watched Sports Center, first thing in the morning. Read more…
Friday Fan
(Want to make your Internet voice heard? Whatever it is, send it in to dailythunder@gmail.com. Today’s fan piece comes from reader Girlballer.)
Greetings DT’ers!! I wanted to share with you my recent fan “experience” at the hallowed halls of the Boston Garden. If baseball stadiums are cathedrals of sports religion, then hardwood floors are the altars, and no altar is more holy than the parquet of the Garden, (and in Boston it is “the GAAAAAHDEN!!!” taking at least a full three count to pronounce it correctly). Sorry to break it to you CP3 but the truth is, the Celtics were my first NBA love.
Without going into a long, boring, (anonymity destroying) bio here, I do need to confess that I have only been to a total of two NBA arenas in my life. So my experience is obviously limited, but I think I gained some worthwhile tips from the good people of Boston for us as Thunder fans, and it confirmed (at least to me) what we are doing RIGHT, and what the rest of the league might learn from us! (side note* after I started writing this, I caught a segment on NBATV titled, “Who will be the NEXT OKC?!?!” blew my mind that we might already be old news…but I digress, I was telling you guys about Boston) Read more…
Friday Fan
Boston Celtics
(Want to make your voice heard? Want to speak to the billions upon trillions of Thunder fans? Send in your story to dailythunder@gmail.com. Today’s guest lecture comes from reader Thunder Tim.)
An NBA fan is born
I would consider myself a bit of a sports junkie. I love the passion of the players, the competition of the teams and the tension of the unknown. As far as entertainment goes, sporting events take the cake. I’ve lived most of my life in Wichita and Tulsa and, as a kid, I fell in love with the Kansas City Royals, the University of Kansas basketball program and the Denver Broncos. Since I didn’t have a local NBA team to cheer for (I didn’t even know Denver had a team until a few years ago!), I never got into the NBA. Sure, I had a love affair with the Bulls when MJ was doing his thing and with the Knicks when John Starks (from Tulsa & OSU) was there (I still Hate the Rockets, and, yes, I appreciate the irony of Coach Brooks being on that team), but the NBA remained a mystery to me.
I understood college basketball because it looked a lot like the kind of ball I played – kids playing their hearts out on offense AND defense, jacking up shots, boxing out, diving on the floor, throwing everything they have at the game, every game. And then I’d watch an occasional NBA game and they, well, hardly looked like they were even trying. They were all huge, they beat each other up (picture somebody driving against Anthony “the thug” Mason of the Knicks back in the day) and it was just generally not an enjoyable game. In my mind, the only redeeming factor of the NBA was that the playoffs were 2 months long and the players looked like they were actually trying in the playoffs, so it made it much more enjoyable. But heck, even hockey is kind of exciting in the playoffs, but I wasn’t about to get all emotionally invested in either one of those lame sports, especially when I had pro baseball, pro football and college basketball to cheer for. Read more…
Friday Fan
Have something you want to share/rant about? Send it in: dailythunder@gmail.com. Today reader profsearcy brings us some “knowledge”.
When I heard about Russell Westbrook’s celebrity bowling tournament the first thing that popped in my head was the film The Big Lebowski. My wife would argue that whenever I hear about lots of things, my first thought wanders to the film, but that’s missing the point.
Lebowski is simply put, my favorite movie ever made. One of the great things about favorites is that they don’t have to make logical sense. I took a film class as an undergrad so I know that Citizen Kane is probably the best film ever made, but it isn’t my favorite. I know that the best James Bond was Sean Connery but I would be lying if I didn’t say that Daniel Craig was growing on me. I know that Superman is the Man of Steel, but I only have one superhero logo tattooed on my body and it’s a Flash lightning bolt. Lastly I know that Bohemian Rhapsody is more popular but Don’t Stop Me Now is my favorite Queen song. Favorites are yours and not subject to the whims of popularity or critical subjection. Read more…
Friday Fan
James Harden
(There hasn’t been that great of a response to this, so who knows if it’ll continue. But if you just want to share something, anything, email it in. It doesn’t have to be a 1,500-word essay. Just whatever you feel is unique to your Thunder fan experience. Or something about how the bathrooms smell in Loud City. Whatever. This week’s comes from reader Justin.)
I remember the exact date. It was July 26th, 1996. On that day, my Seattle Supersonics (reigning Western Conference Champions) signed Washington Bullets reserve center Jim McIlvaine to a reprehensible seven year, $35 million contract. Jim McIlvaine was going to make more in 1997 than Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone, Mitch Richmond, and yes, our very own Shawn Kemp – our rising star who was just a couple months removed from thoroughly dominating the 1996 playoffs.
Many Sonics fans remember this signing because it was effectively the end of an era. Even most NBA fans know what happened next: Shawn Kemp, insulted that his contract was not restructured after his dominant season (arguably the best PF in the league in 1995-1996, certainly in the playoffs), was traded for Vin Baker. After one decent year, Baker spiraled into alcoholism. Read more…
Friday Fan
(This is a new feature we’re trying out. Basically, it’s all about you, the reader. We’re all fans. We all love the team. And we all share experiences that only fans know about. Have a story about something crazy that happened after a game? Send it in. Want to rant about a guy that sits behind you and yells way to much at home games? Send it in. Are you an out-of-state fan that’s following the team from a distance and want to share what that’s like? Send it in. Want to talk about what it’s like battling the wife for the remote on game nights? Send. It. In. You get the idea. Reader MastrMatt kicks this thing off.)
Being a Thunder fan is fun. It was even fun last year.
Maybe that is my rookie-level basketball fandom speaking, but I’ve had a great time being a Thunder fan since the trucks rolled into town. Even in the face of last year’s 23 win season and being the doormat of league, I wore my Thunder shirts with pride. It wasn’t because I knew what kind of players this group would emerge as this year, but because it was my team. Even before the guys arrived it was exciting to debate what our team’s name, color scheme and logo should be. We were building this thing from the ground up and I was happy to be a part of it. Read more…
Friday Fan
