Category Archives: OKC Thunder (NBA)

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The End of a Thunder-ous Era?

I’d be lying if I said I understood every aspect of the NBA’s free agency policy. I know there are unrestricted free agents and restricted ones, but I think ESPN writer Royce Young said it best earlier this week when he said “In the NBA today, everybody is a free agent at all times.”

Last week at the beginning of trade season, the Oklahoma City Thunder announced they were actively shopping Steven Adams. Adams was drafted by the Thunder in 2013, and has become not only an amazing player and a fan favorite, but a staple of the community. Last week, it seemed like losing Steven Adams would be the worst possible thing that could happen to the Thunder.

What a difference a week makes.

Today’s NBA is less about which team a superstar is going to play with, and more about which superstars are going to team up. A single superstar can no longer win a championship on his own. When LeBron James went to the Miami Heat in 2010, he teamed up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, and the three of them won two titles. Last year, a Lakers-led LeBron team with little supporting help didn’t even make it to the playoffs.

The big news at the beginning of the weekend was that Kevin Durant was leaving the Golden State Warriors for the Brooklyn Nets, where he would be joined by Kyrie Irving (from the Celtics) and DeAndre Jordan (from the Knicks). Durant parting with the Warriors was no surprise — there were rumors he felt the organization pressured him to retake the court too soon which led to his devastating Achilles injury, and rumors he didn’t feel appreciated by the GSW fans or even his own teammates — but where the surprise lay was multiple NBA players working deals on their own behind the scenes.

There were other big moves, too, like Anthony Davis (Pelicans) joining LeBron James on the Lakers. The big question was where Kawhi Leonard would go. After a controversial year where he mostly didn’t (and kind of refused to) play with the Spurs, Leonard was traded to the Raptors, who went on to win the title this past season. This allowed Leonard to essentially write his own ticket, and he did, signing a max deal with the Los Angeles Clippers…

…and then announcing that Paul George from the Oklahoma City Thunder would be joining him there.

Paul George’s departure from the Thunder feels different than when Durant left. Kevin Durant stood on stage in Oklahoma City and told tens of thousands of fans he would not leave Oklahoma City. The night before Durant announced he was going to Golden State, he had dinner with several of his teammates and told them he was not leaving the Thunder. The way Durant left Oklahoma City was shady and cowardly.

George, on the other hand, never promised to stay here forever, despite the mayor of Oklahoma City declaring July 7, 2018 as Paul George Day. The guy came, did his job, invested in the community, and gave us a good season. I’m still a little confused as how how a guy who signed a four-year deal last year can be traded away so easily, but I have to remember what Royce Young said. Anybody can go at any time.

It’s hard to say what lies ahead for the Thunder. The Thunder’s remaining superstar, Russell Westbrook, apparently met with the Thunder (along with his agent) about his future with the franchise. Many sports analysts are calling for the Thunder to blow up what remains of their roster, write off the next season, and come back with a new round of draft picks. Westbrook has been fiercely loyal to Oklahoma City, but he also has a reputation of being difficult to play with. Would I hate to see him go? Of course. Can Westbrook carry the Thunder to the playoffs on his own shoulders? No way.

All of a sudden, it doesn’t seem like Steven Adams leaving the Thunder is the worst thing that could happen.

OKC Thunder (NBA)

Durant’s Golden State Warriors now 0-1.

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As a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kevin Durant made me do a lot of things. Once, after dishing an alley oop to Russell Westbrook, he made me leap out of my chair in the cheap seats so hard I spilled $9 worth of beer. Another time after hitting a buzzer beating shot to win in the finals, he made me high-five a complete stranger. When he referred to his mother as “the real MVP” during his MVP acceptance speech, he made me cry.

And last night during his debut as a Golden State Warrior, Kevin Durant made me do something I never thought I would do: he made me cheer for the San Antonio Spurs.

The story of Kevin Durant’s departure from the Oklahoma City Thunder has been beaten to death. It’s been covered by so many angles that the stories are starting to conflict with one another. Kevin Durant said he would never leave Oklahoma, and then he did. Sometimes he says he left due to growing frustrations with Russell Westbrook; other times, Westbrook didn’t figure into his decision at all. Last month Kevin Durant said he and Westbrook were “still cool.” Westbrook, in response, says the two haven’t spoken since Durant left.

Strip all the “he said/she said” from the story and the fact remains that Kevin Durant left the team that put him in a pedestal for a team that made it to last year’s NBA finals. He left the team he was building for a team that he thought would bring him a championship. He broke his promise, and the heart of a city in the process.

In the film Superman II, Superman gives up his super powers to pursue a normal life with Lois Lane. In the next scene, a now mortal Clark Kent wanders into a diner and promptly gets his ass kicked by a truck driver named Rocky. By the end of the film Superman regains his powers, and one of the last things he does is return to the diner and beat up Rocky, this time as the Man of Steel.

This scene never sat right with me. As a nation, we love to win. We’re scrappers. But it’s also bred into us that punching up is okay and punching down is not. We cheer when a boxing underdog half the weight and height of his opponent pulls off a surprise upset, but rarely do we cheer when the situation is reversed and a bigger and stronger boxer pummels a weaker contender. Superman stands for “truth, justice, and the American way,” and beating up random truck drivers, whether they deserve it or not, is beneath him.

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Any good auto mechanic knows you can’t upgrade one component of an engine and simply expect the car to run better. It’s about balance — how the parts of an engine work together. It’s about testing and tuning, making sure each part fits and has been properly adjusted. Performance isn’t just about the guy who can throw the most money at an engine; it’s about the guy who can make the parts he has work together.

Last night, opening night of the 2016-2017 NBA season, the Golden State Warriors debuted their new engine to the world against the San Antonio Spurs, where it unceremoniously coughed, sputtered, and died on the court. In his debut as a Warrior Kevin Durant scored 27 points and had 10 rebounds, but toss a shiny new muffler on a previously well-balanced engine and see what happens. Last night, we saw.

The Golden State Warriors, who broke the record last year for the most number of wins in a regular season, are now 0-1 after losing by 29 points to the Spurs.

GSW now has three of the best shooters in the league, but as we saw in last year’s playoffs, if one of them has a bad night it can disrupt the entire offense. Draymond Green didn’t provide enough defense to cover for his sharpshooting teammates. Curry scored 26 points behind Durant’s 27, but nobody else scored much at all. The San Antonio Spurs, on the other hand, didn’t play like a bunch of hired guns. They played like a team.

It’s hard not to assume that eventually the millions and millions of dollars Golden State has invested in players will pay off. The engine will be fine tuned. When those guys start working together they will be tough to defeat.

Here’s to everyone trying.

OKC Thunder (NBA)

Kevin Durant’s Exit: My Two Cents

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The world needs another article about Kevin Durant’s decision to leave Oklahoma City for Golden State like the Warriors need another three-point shooter, but regardless, now that I’m back from vacation I feel compelled to write something.

As an adult in my forties, I don’t believe anything any celebrity says, ever. When you’ve watched the President of the United States lie to the entire country on television under oath about not having a sexual relationship with his intern, why should we believe anything anyone else has to say? Musicians routinely cancel concerts due to exhaustion (read: drug overdoses) and “happily married” Hollywood couples get divorced every day. I put as much stock in the evening news as I do the National Enquirer. Entertainment reporting has always been more about entertainment than reporting, and once you reach my age, it’s not even that entertaining.

Ever since the Thunder spectacularly imploded during this year’s playoff run (blowing a 3-1 game lead against the Golden State Warriors), rumors began to swirl that Kevin Durant — our hero — might leave Oklahoma City. These rumors sparked a lot of online speculation and local watercooler talk, but for me personally, it caused my two kids — one of whom has his entire bathroom decorated in Oklahoma City Thunder memorabilia — to ask me what Kevin Durant was going to do.

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Now of course I don’t own a crystal ball (and surprisingly my tweets to Number 35 went unanswered), but I did have some good information to go on. Based on what I know about Kevin Durant, what his teammates said about him during their exit interviews, and what I learned from watching the evening news, reading articles, and listening to podcasts, I was 99% sure Kevin Durant was staying put here in OKC.

On October 15, 2008, Susan and I attended the very first pre-season home game of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Back then the Thunder were ranked 30th out of 30 teams, dead last in the league. Despite being “nothing,” the Thunder never gave up, and only lost by two points to the Los Angeles Clippers (98-100). Durant may not have been the team’s de facto leader back then (Nick Collison, Nenad Krstic and Desmond Mason were all crowd favorites at the time), but the team went down swinging. They fought like hungry, scrappy dogs.

They weren’t quitters.

April 1, 2014 was Thunder Appreciation Day. Season ticket holders were invited to a special event at the Chesapeake Arena. Among other activities, my kids were invited to go down to the court and shoot a few baskets with Thunder players.

Here’s Morgan, shooting shots with with Russell Westbrook.

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And here’s Mason tossing up a wild two-handed shot after being fed the ball by Kevin Durant.

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After the fun and games were over, the team’s big four — Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka and Collison — took to the stage. The quartet was asked a series of questions through a panel moderator. The final question was a tough one. Someone asked Kevin Durant if he planned on staying in Oklahoma City or leaving.

Kevin picked up the microphone and said, slowly and deliberately, “I will retire as an Oklahoma City Thunder player.”

The crowd went wild.

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I know you can’t hear it, but this is a picture of Kevin Durant saying those words. I heard it, my kids heard it, and the 10,000 Thunder fans who came down to the Chesapeake Arena to support our local team heard it. So when my kids came to me and asked if Kevin Durant was going to stay in Oklahoma, I told them I knew he would.

Because he told us he would.

Kevin Durant’s decision to leave Oklahoma has affected more than just sports fans. Sure, Thunder fans were upset and disappointed that he chose to leave, but others were affected as well. Between volunteer work, donations, and community outreach, Kevin Durant has done a lot for Oklahoma off the court, too.

There’s an Oklahoma ethic that’s hard to define but easy to see. Drive around town and you’ll having complete strangers smiling, greeting, and waving at you. Walk into any restaurant or store and you’ll have someone hold the door for you. During times of crisis — the Murrah bombing and tornado destruction come to mind — Okies band together. They help one another. They rise to the occasion. They don’t quit, they don’t take the easy road, and they don’t walk away from a challenge.

“But Rob,” I hear you say, “Kevin Durant isn’t even from Oklahoma. He was born in D.C. and went to college in Austin, Texas. He’s not an Okie!”

Exactly.

While maintenance personnel was busy peeling posters of Kevin Durant’s face off the windows of Chesapeake Arena and whoever manages the social media accounts of KD’s restaurant were busy squelching sarcastic Yelp reviews and deleting hateful tweets, Tim Duncan announced his retirement from the San Antonio Spurs. Drafted in 1997 to the third worst team in the league, Duncan spent his entire career — nineteen straight years — in San Antonio, helping his team win a total of five NBA championships. Like anyone who spends two decades playing in the league Tim Duncan has accomplished a lot of amazing things, but perhaps the most amazing one is that he helped build a nearly last place team, and lead them to the finals every year. I wish he had shared with Kevin Durant what that felt like before he left.

Then again, comparing Tim Duncan and Kevin Durant is unfair. At 40 years old, Duncan, like me, is a member of Generation X. Durant, age 27, is Generation Y. According to Jason Dorsey, an expert on Millennials, here are three of the defining characteristics of Generation Y (people born between 1977 and 1995, like Durant):

– Gen Y often has a feeling of entitlement.

– Gen Y loves instant gratification.

– Gen Y is known for having big expectations but not always knowing or valuing the steps involved to reach those expectations.

When discussing Millennials and the workplace, Dorsey adds the following: “Gen Y is the only generation in the workforce that has never expected to work for one company their entire lives.”

Maybe I didn’t need a crystal ball, after all.

At the end of the day, “sports is sports.” Players (and sometimes franchises) come and go. Sometimes as fans, we feel like our loyalty to a team somehow translates to a player’s loyalty to that same team. It doesn’t. Players are frequently lured away by promises of mega-million-dollar deals and promises of championships. I’m not so delusional as to think hobnobbing with the rich and famous in Hollywood isn’t more fun than cow tipping in Oklahoma. While I can’t blame my kids for taking down their tributes to Kevin Durant, I hope he finds in California what Oklahoma couldn’t offer him.

I just hope he doesn’t tell anybody he’s an Okie.

OKC Thunder (NBA)

NBA 2015-16 Rundown

The 2015-16 NBA season was a good one for Oklahoma City Thunder fans. With first year NBA coach Billy Donovan at the helm, the Thunder finished the regular season with 55 wins and 27 losses, placing them third in the Western Conference. In the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Thunder muscled their way past two aging but solid Texas teams: the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs. In best of seven contests, the Thunder beat the Mavericks in five games and San Antonio in six to make their way to the Western Conference Finals to face the Golden State Warriors.

The Golden State Warriors finished the 2015-16 regular season 73-9, besting the previous record held by Michael Jordan’s 1995-96 Chicago Bulls and claiming the best NBA regular season record of all time. The Warriors shattered the previous best undefeated streak of 15 wins by going 24-0 in the beginning of the season. Golden State shattered dozens of records this season, mostly in part to the “Splash Brothers,” Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Curry made 402 3-pointers in the regular season, smashing the previous season record of 286 (he held it). Thompson made 276 three-pointers (the second most in the league) and won the three-point contest held during the All-Star Weekend. This season Curry tied the record for the most three-pointers made in a single game (12) while Thompson broke the record for the most made in a playoff game (11).

Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and the rest of the Oklahoma City Thunder surprised sports fans by going up on the Warriors three games to one. When presented with the odds of coming back from being down 1 games to 3 in the conference finals, Warriors coach Steve Kerr replied, “I don’t think most of those teams were the defending champions.” He was right. Over the next three games, the Thunder imploded spectacularly on the world’s biggest basketball stage, losing three games in a row to end their season and send the defending champs back to the finals.

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Believe it or not, the biggest implosion of the finals was yet to come.

Not so quietly in the east, a legacy was brewing. In the summer of 2010, during a news broadcast so infamous it has its own Wikipedia entry, LeBron James left Cleveland and signed with the Miami Heat. While Cleveland fans were busy burning his jerseys, James won two titles with Miami before returning to Cleveland out of either remorse or obligation. James promised Cleveland fans a championship. “Get on my back,” he said, “and I will carry you.”

The Splash Brothers made early work of the Cavaliers, putting them in the same 1-3 position they themselves had been in against the Thunder. And then… Cleveland — and specifically, LeBron James — came to life.

Winning NBA teams have deep rosters these days. The days of winning a championship with only one superstar are over. Now, it takes two or three to get deep in the playoffs. Golden State’s bench is particularly deep with multiple guys they can count on to score, but one they didn’t count on was LeBron James and his promise to his city and the country.

The 2015-16 finals were strange in regards to fouls. At times it seems almost nothing was called; at others, the slightest grabs made by superstars were whistled. At the end of game six, Curry got so frustrated after fouling out that he threw his mouthpiece and hit a fan, which got him ejected (after he had already fouled out — the first time I can remember that happening). When the three-pointers were dropping, Curry and Thompson looked (to quote the Beastie Boys) “as cool as cucumbers in a bowl of hot sauce.” When they weren’t, the two pouted on the bench, unsure of what to do next.

No team has ever come back from a 1-3 game deficit in the NBA finals… until last night. With the game tied with less than a minute to do, a three-point shot by Kyrie Irving combined with a single free throw point by James put the Cavaliers up by 4 points. The Splash Brothers were helpless to come back, making only six three-pointers combined, tying Draymond Green’s own six from downtown.

As the buzzer sounded the end of the game and LeBron hit the floor crying, it was the shot of Curry sulking on the bench that told the story. After avoiding elimination three times in the Oklahoma City match-up, the Golden State Warriors — a team that broke records by raining down three-pointers and beating every other team in the league at least once during the regular season — couldn’t get it done.

The story this morning is the spectacular demise of Golden State. Soon, it will be the legacy of LeBron James, and how one man was able to lead a team into victory.

In ten days, the story for Oklahoma City Thunder fans will quickly become “is Kevin Durant staying in Oklahoma City?” We’ll find out around the time all the confetti has settled in Cleveland.

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Console Video Games, Mason and Morgan, OKC Thunder (NBA)

A Thunder Storm

Wednesday night for Mason’s birthday, Susan, the kids and I attended the Thunder vs. Hornets game. From the moment we found our seats and sat down I knew there were going to be problems. The people sitting directly behind us were already drunk and being loud and belligerent. This was 20 minutes before tip off.

You know you’re going to be dealing with obnoxious drunks when they shout “USA YEAH MAN WOO!” during the opening prayer, which is exactly what happened. A few minutes into the game, the two guys directly behind us began shouting “DE-FENSE! DE-FENSE!” That is a perfectly acceptable thing to do when your team — or any team, really — is on defense. It’s moronic to do so when the home team is shooting free throws. Later, during one of the timeouts, the Redneck Duo discussed whether or not they could hit a player from there with their hunting bow. The longer the game went on, the louder these two got.

At the end of the first quarter, one of the guys left to go buy three beers even though the venue is only supposed to sell you two at a time. When he returned, he told the stranger next to him how he had defeated the system by buying two beers, setting them down, getting back in line, and buying a third. When he returned to buy the third beer, the vendor said, “damn, that was fast!” When his other buddy returned behind us, he told him how he had defeated the system by buying two beers, setting them down, getting back in line, and buying a third. When he returned to buy the third beer, the vendor said, “damn, that was fast!” Then when his girlfriend returned to her seat, he told her how he had defeated the system by buying two beers, setting them down, getting back in line, and buying a third. When he returned to buy the third beer, the vendor said, “damn, that was fast!” During the third telling of the story, we all chimed in and did the punch line with him — “damn, that was fast!” Annoying.

Right after those three beers is then the f-bombs started. F this game, F the Hornets, F everybody. I finally turned around and told them to watch the F-bombs. Then they returned to yelling “DE-FENSE! DE-FENSE!” and whistling so loud that every time they did it Morgan would jump and plug her ears with her fingers. Don’t get me wrong; I have no problem with people enjoying a game, but a modicum of self-control in public is expected. Shortly after asking them to refrain from using the F-word, I heard them say, “F them, we paid our $10!”

When Susan had had enough she texted guest services. At the beginning of every game, fans are told that if someone is being unruly, you can text a number and they will send someone over to address the issue. So she did, and the response she got back was, “go find an usher.” This was during the middle of the second quarter and we were sitting in seats 14, 15, 16 and 17 in the nosebleed section. Finding an usher is not the easiest thing to do at that point.

And so with about a minute left in the first half, we decided to leave. For the record, this is when *I* began dropping f-bombs, out of the range of my children’s ears (I hope). When I stood up and turned around … let’s just say, words were exchanged. The drunker of the two told me what he thought about me and I told him what I was about to do to him. After a long stare down Susan began pulling me in one direction and this drunk buffoon continued yelling about his “19 and 0 record,” which could have only referred to cow tipping.

Out in the hallway Susan found a vendor and complained about the people to him. The man said he couldn’t leave his station, but began actively looking for an usher. We had already received that advice, via text. After 5 minutes of standing around, we did eventually find an usher, who asked where the group was sitting. Susan then asked if we could be relocated somewhere else and the usher shook his head no. And then we left, with one kid (Morgan) confused and the other one crying because we had just left the game on his birthday. On the way home we stopped by Cold Stone Creamery and had some ice cream. When that didn’t cheer him up, we stopped by GameStop and bought him a copy of NBA2K13 for the PS3. Thank god that cheered him up because I was about to go broke.

When CiCi’s Pizza first opened their doors they charged $2.99 for their all you can eat pizza buffet. What I dislike most about CiCi’s isn’t their pizza (although it can be pretty bad) — it’s being around people that can only afford $2.99 pizza. (It really is the dearth of humanity.) I now feel the same way about the nosebleed section at Chesapeake Arena. The problem with buying $10 tickets is that you end up sitting by people who can only afford $10 tickets. (At our last game, it was a row of Hispanic kids who spent half the game kicking our chairs, and the other half kicking me in the head.) It’s a shame because I don’t think you should have to expect to put up with things like that. I don’t think that “comes with the territory” just because you bought cheaper seats.

Susan sent a follow up message to the Thunder organization, so we’ll see what if anything comes of that. We have tickets to three more games and we’re debating on whether to hang on to them or sell them. I’d rather buy one or two pairs of semi-expensive tickets next year than half a dozen pairs of cheap ones and have to deal with this again. Unacceptable.

Mason and Morgan, OKC Thunder (NBA)

A Basketball Birthday for Mason

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Mason was four or five years old when he attended his first NBA game, sometime during those two seasons when the New Orleans Hornets temporarily relocated to Oklahoma City during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Back then Mason was more into the food and halftime antics than he was the game, but there was something about basketball that stuck with him. Since then he’s played one season of soccer and took a couple of month’s worth of karate, but all along he’s said what he really wanted to do was play basketball.

When we moved into our old house we inherited a mounted-in-concrete basketball goal that faced the street. Because you had to stand out in the street to use the goal and because he was so little, Susan and I would take turns out in the street with Mason while he shot baskets. Long before he was physically capable of launching the ball high enough to send it through the hoop, he was out there trying. A crack in the street was designated as the free throw line; the opposite curb marked three-point range. Mason was as happy as a clam standing out in the street shooting baskets, sometimes hours on end.

A couple of years ago I did one of those things that as a parent you should never do. When Mason told me he was going to grow up and be a professional basketball player, I told him that was pretty unlikely. At that point he kind of stopped playing basketball. It took us a couple of weeks to put two and two together. When we did, I did one of those backtracking things (“What I meant to say was …”) and he began playing basketball again. So, parental lesson learned.

When we moved to our new house in 2011, one of the things Mason said he was sad about was losing his basketball goal. Last spring, my friend Howard gave us his old goal that needed a backboard, and my friend Andy gave us his backboard that needed a goal. A few screws and zip ties later and the two were united.

That brings us to last month, when we discovered that the YMCA near our home has youth league basketball. After much pleading from Mason, we signed him up for the 8-10 year old league. To be honest I didn’t think he would enjoy it much. I know Mason likes shooting baskets, but I was unsure how much he would enjoy attending practice, and dribbling, and playing defense, and running laps. Turns out, he loves it all. Every last bit of it. He loves being on the court.

After only two practices, Mason’s team — the OKC Celtics — played their first game. I was pretty nervous before the game, and I told Mason the truth: I didn’t care if his team won or lost, I just cared that he got to play and that he had a good time.

None of us knew this was going to happen, but Mason was chosen to perform the opening tip off for his team. I guess there’s something I’ve left out of this story up until this point — Mason’s tall. He’s the tallest kid in his class (“except for the kid that got held back,” he always says), he’s the tallest kid on his team, and except for the referees, he was the tallest kid on the court. (And, in full disclose, because of his birth date, he was probably also one of the oldest kids on the floor.) When the referee threw the ball up, Mason sailed way above his opponent, swatting the ball down toward his teammate. Game ON.

Although Mason’s team has only had two practices, I guess they learned what their positions are. I guess I shouldn’t call them positions at this point; it’s more like, “where to stand.” Mason’s spot to stand is underneath the goal. After the tip off, Mason ran to his spot. One of his teammates launched a bounce pass to him. Mason threw up a layup and it went in. The score was 2-0, and the crowd went wild.

As the Celtic’s opponents began to come back down court, they lost control of the ball. One of Mason’s teammates grabbed the ball. The kids ran to their spots. Someone passed it to Mason, and he threw the ball through the hoop. 4-0. One of Mason’s teammates scored, making it 6-0. On their next possession they went back to “Operation Mason” and he threw another ball through the hoop, making it 8-0 with Mason scoring six of the eight and shooting 100%.

Mason got pulled out during the second quarter, partially because the YMCA has a rule that every kid gets to play at least half the game (a rule we support 100%) and partially because due to Mason’s bright red face and a misunderstanding, they thought he was over-exerted. He wasn’t, and was dying to get back on the court. He eventually did, playing all of the third quarter and half of the fourth. Mason ended up scoring a couple more times, including the last bucket of the game. The final score was 20-5, I think. (In many youth leagues they stop keeping score if one team gets too far ahead of the other, which is what happened during this game.)

Mason’s a lot like me in the fact that he has more interests than time. He’s got school, he’s got reading, he’s got his video games and gadgets and now he’s got basketball. Maybe he’ll play high school ball or college ball or professional ball and maybe he won’t. It doesn’t matter to me at all. What matters to me the most is that Mason’s doing what he wants to do, and for right now, that’s basketball. Thunder up, Mason, and Happy Birthday son.

OKC Thunder (NBA)

And the Thunder Rolls … Over.

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Rarely can a person determine the outcome of a professional basketball game by a single shot, much less the first one. But in Game 5 of the NBA finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Miami Heat, when LeBron James (as he has done before) waltzed through a crowd of defenders and threw down a monstrous dunk, I turned to Mason and said, “It’s over.” The score was 2-0, Miami.

Of course we, the Thunder fans, had to endure two-and-a-half more hours of pummeling before facing the inevitable truth; at least this year, the Thunder had no answer to LeBron James’ Miami Heat. After winning game one, it felt like the Thunder were not only a step, but an entire game behind the Heat. Miami adjusted their attack in game two and overcame the Thunder. In game three, it felt like we were doing what we should have done in game two. In game four, we were playing game three. And in game five … hell, in game five, there were times when it felt like we weren’t playing at all. I’m sure the Thunder learned a lot of lessons during their 2012 playoff run, but if there was one thing we all learned, it’s that you can’t spot a team (much less the Eastern Conference Champions) 20+ points and expect to come back.

It appeared that the Thunder’s game plan was to not let LeBron James beat them. To that end, they double teamed him every time he was within half a mile of the paint. This left Miller and Battier open outside the arc, which the Heat reminded the Thunder of by dropping 14 3-point shot in Game 5. That’s not just incredible, it’s a playoff record. By focusing on James’ layups, they forgot about his passing ability; in a sense, their efforts to stop James from beating them allowed James to beat them.

There was a lot of talk of bad calls in the finals, calls that went in James’ favor. And not just talk by Thunder fans (let’s face it, that’s what sports fans do). CBS News recently ran an article titled In an NBA Finals full of 50-50 calls, LeBron is winning 100 percent of the time. Even the ABC commentators during the game repeatedly made reference to “phantom fouls,” calls that went in the Heat’s favor that even using slow-motion replay, they could not spot. I try not to let sports-based conspiracy theories cloud my enjoyment of the game, but there were definitely times throughout the series when it felt like the league had already decided that this was James’ year to win the title and they weren’t going to let actually playing the games get in the way of that. Late in Game 5, Derek Fisher grabbed LeBron James, committing a hard foul to prevent the shot. Fisher walked away with a Flagrant One foul; how dare he stop the (self-proclaimed) “king” from dunking on him?

Derek Fisher is 6’1″ and weighs 210 pounds. LeBron James is 6’8″, and 250 pounds. I sure hope LeBron James is okay.

The most disappointing part of losing the Finals isn’t losing; it’s that, while on a national stage, the people I’ve been raving about the Thunder to didn’t get a chance to see how good our team is. Based on their performance against the Heat, people (and rightly so) have begun questioning how the Thunder made it to the Finals and what they were doing there.

All I can say is the Thunder is a great team. They’ve given us, Oklahoma, a reason to be proud. And, they’re young. Durant and Westbrook, both of whom have signed for 5 years, are 23 years old. Harden, the NBA’s 6th Man of the Year, is just 22.

Here’s a picture of me when I was 22:

In my defense I was running around the house pretending to be a homeless garbage collector. Still, point taken.

The thing is, when you’re an Okie — and make no mistake, the Thunder players are Okies — you play with style and class, even when you’re losing. Other than Fisher’s horrible mistake of trying to block James from dunking, there were no hard or flagrant fouls, no technical fouls out of frustration. The Thunder continued to play. Even when they were losing, even when all legitimate hope was lost, they continued to play with dignity.

Can the same be said for the Whore of Akron? With three minutes left in the game the Heat’s starters stood on the sidelines, laughing and clapping and cheering. Whoever said “money can’t buy happiness” isn’t a fan of professional sports.

“It’s about damn time,” LeBron James said, in regards to the victory. Yes, the victory that was owed to “the king.” After watching LeBron James on the basketball court, I can tell you that he is definitely one of the most talented guys I’ve ever seen on the court. It’s too bad a championship ring still can’t make the guy likable.

So now all the ex-Seattle fans can be happy we lost, and all the Cleveland fans can stay mad that LeBron got what he wanted by abandoning them. Seems like a lot of negativity to me. Me, I’m going to focus on the positive, what what the Thunder did this year. Their third year in the league (last year), they made it to the playoffs. Their fourth year in the league (this year), they made it to the finals. To get there, they beat the returning champions (the Dallas Mavericks) in round one, Kobe Bryant and the Lakers in round two, and the team with the best record in the west and undefeated (at that point) in the playoffs, the San Antonio Spurs. The Thunder had an amazing run, are an amazing team, and we look forward to a rematch next year against the Miami Heat in next year’s finals (that is, assuming that a healthy Chicago doesn’t squash them).

Thanks for an amazing year, Thunder. See you in 2013.

OKC Thunder (NBA)

Lakers Level Thunder

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“Daddy, who is number 24?” Mason asked me last night in reference to the sea of purple and yellow Kobe Bryant jerseys roaming around the Ford Center. A few minutes later, Mason, me, and the other eighteen thousand people in attendance were shown, in person, just who number 24 was and what he does. Coming off a decisive win over the Minnesota Timberwolves and last week’s surprise victory over the San Antonio Spurs, there was a buzz in the Ford Center, a little bit of hope that maybe — just maybe — the Thunder had a chance of holding their own against the Lakers.

For the Thunder, it was a Cinderella story come true. Unfortunately it wasn’t the part where Cinderella meets her Fairy Godmother and has her wishes granted, but the part where everybody is mean to her and treats her like the stepchild she is. The Lakers made the first bucket of the game and held on to the lead the entire evening. By the end of the first quarter the team from L.A. had established who was in charge by leading by 17. From there things went downhill, and by half time the Lakers were ahead 62-38.

That’s not to say that the Thunder didn’t have their share of good plays. We had pretty good success with a bounce-pass-to-baseline play multiple times, pulled off several dunks and even handed out a couple of aerial rejections that had the crowd on their feet. Unfortunately, the Lakers had answers to all of those things, and we had none in turn for their starting line up who was able to penetrate our defense with ease, sink free throw after free throw, and, when dared, drop three pointers at will.

Being a school night and with the game well out of hand, Mason and I slipped out in the fourth and beat the parking garage traffic while listening to the final nails being driven into the Thunder’s coffin on the radio. Final score, 89-107, Lakers win.

The highlight of Mason’s night wasn’t the game, but the opportunity to meet all the Thunder Girls and have his game book autographed by them. The highlight of Daddy’s night was taking pictures with his cell phone of this event.

OKC Thunder (NBA)

Thunder Pound 76ers

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Earlier tonight the 25th-ranked OKC Thunder took on the 18th-ranked Philadelphia 76ers. It was my 12th Thunder game to attend in person this season, and my and Mason’s first since the team adopted their new mascot, Rumble the Bison.

The Thunder came out strong and led by 8 early in the first (13-5) and held the lead for much of the first half, which is pretty amazing considering our two best scorers (Durant and Green) are out due to injuries. After taking the lead the Thunder did the same thing they always do — they blew it while forgetting how to play defense. The 76ers performed dunk after dunk while the Thunder just stood around, picking their noses. On one play I watched one of the 76ers waltz through three Thunder defenders and dunk it hard while our guys just stood around flat-footed, looking at one another.

For almost a solid quarter Loud City screamed at the Thunder to do something right. The 76ers stole the ball practically at will and dunked so many times I lost count. But at the beginning of the second quarter the Thunder went on a 20-2 run, which pretty much sealed the deal early in the game. NBA veteran Malik Rose and Nenad Krstic combined for 34 points, close to half of the Thunder’s total score, 89-74.

Earlier in the season I bet my buddy Tim Dog lunch that the Thunder wouldn’t win 18 games this season (this was back when they were on par to win about 9). Tonight’s win brings the total to 17 wins. I hope Tim Dog likes spit sandwiches …

(Mason wanted me to add that tonight was glow-stick night and the first 5,000 kids got free glow-sticks. He also said that the corn dog he ate was very good.)

OKC Thunder (NBA)

Thundershock!

The surprising part of tonight’s game against the Utah Jazz wasn’t that the game ended with a twenty-one point difference; the surprise came in the fact that the Thunder were the ones that were twenty-one points ahead!

The Jazz came into tonight’s game with a simple plan — shoot lots of shots from the three-point line (or darn close to it), and occasionally drive to the hoop. It seemed like the Jazz missed almost every shot from the outside, and the Thunder were defenseless against them every time they went inside. Based on that you would have thought the Jazz would have simply continued to run straight to the basket on ever possession. They didn’t; instead they continued to shoot from the outside as if John Stockton and Jeff Hornacek were still on the team.

The Thunder on the other hand actually looked — dare I say — good? Offensive plays were run successfully and there were several successful defense plays (including one that broke up a potential alley-oop). New center Nenad Krstic earned his keep tonight by dropping three buckets in a row and constantly competing for rebounds at both ends of the floor. I didn’t notice this until tonight but the Thunder’s free throws look 10x better than the last time I saw them in person. I suspect the team has been shooting an awful lot of them in practice lately. The Thunder were able to keep the number of turnovers in the fourth (relatively) low, and although we appeared defenseless every single time the Jazz drove to the rim, for some reason they didn’t do it enough. Plus, having three players (Westbrook, Durant and Green) all score 20+ doesn’t hurt your odds of winning either. Thunder wins it, 114-93.

We’ll see if this is the start of something or just a fluke this weekend as the Thunder take on Detroit on Friday and Miami on Sunday.