It feels like this has happened in a flash. I still pinch myself knowing it only takes me seventeen minutes from my front door in Deer Creek, Oklahoma to get to the arena which has been one of the most vibrant venues to watch a game in the NBA these past ten years. It’s my Mystery, Alaska.
During this time, OKC has made it to four Western Conference Finals, one NBA Finals in 2012, and has only once missed post season since the 23-59 first season. Not once since that first season have the Thunder been a sub .500 team.
Kevin Durant won numerous scoring titles, had a 40-50-90 season, won that memorable regular season MVP and an All-Star Game MVP as well. Time will heal things with Durant and the city I’m almost certain, because in the end we know it all started for Kevin Durant right here in OKC and for us as well. It was here his game developed. We were the ones who saw a skinny kid who could barely bench press a hundred pounds turn into one of the very best players of his generation. That didn’t happen in Golden State, it happened in Oklahoma City. He’s one of the most complete two way players in the league. Kevin Durant can now play defense, but for those of us who were watching closely his defense improved every season in OKC. That didn’t just start with the Warriors. He can do it all. He started all this and was a major part of Oklahoma City’s growth. It’s why I will never boo Kevin Durant even though he broke my heart. I’m grateful I got to witness it firsthand.
There was James Harden. We saw him become the premier Sixth Man of the league. With his departure he’s become one of the top ten players in the entire league who now carries the Houston Rockets on his back. We saw both of these players begin their careers in Oklahoma City and accelerate their generational careers in the smallest market in the NBA. Green Bay may have Aaron Rodgers but they never had Aaron Rodgers, Barry Sanders, and Larry Fitzgerald all at the same time. Pause and think about what OKC had in those years with Durant, Westbrook, and Harden playing in Oklahoma City. Game 6 goes the other way and the Splash Brothers aren’t the dynasty they are today. History can be funny that way.
And of course, there’s Russell Westbrook from UCLA. The kid whose high school coach had to do some talking to get him an invite to an elite Atlanta high school camp. The kid who UCLA coach Ben Howland said would have to wait for an available scholarship to open. The same kid who the local ‘college’ media in OKC said would never be a legit point guard in the league. The Cali kid who stayed and will be the face of this franchise for at least the next six years.
So here we are entering the 10th season and Russell Westbrook just signed the richest deal in league history. He just finished an MVP season and the successful pursuit of Oscar Robertson’s triple double record. But this season, the first since Durant’s departure, Westbrook has some help on this roster with the additions of Paul George and Carmelo Anthony. This is a roster most rate as somewhere between the second or third best roster in the thirty team league. So entering the tenth season the notion of sustainability for the team in OKlahoma City is still a viable mantra.
There is much to be excited about as a Thunder fan. People who don’t live here don’t really understand the love affair this city/state has with the team. It’s more than just winning basketball games, it’s about what this franchise has meant to the city and why it’s good to always remember what made Oklahoma City such a unique destination for an NBA team. Why people here from every background have a place in their heart for the Thunder. Age, sex, race, religion, and politics are all weaved into one montage of community love for the team….kind of like the Green Bay Packers.
I still get goose bumps when I watch this video. You’d probably have to be from Oklahoma to understand, but it still touches me when I think back on how all this came to be in Oklahoma City. Truly a remarkable story. It defines what it means to be an Oklahoman. You get knocked down, then you and your community pull yourselves up, and that’s exactly what happened here.
Oklahoma City got knocked down as hard any city in American history can claim from an act of domestic terrorism, yet as one we pulled ourselves up. The work continues still. Additions to the river venues and the construction of a Central Park are taking place currently. Downtown Oklahoma City in no way resembles what it looked like before the bombing.
Make no mistake about it, this is an oil and gas city—but even through the downturns of the industry this city continues to evolve with the OKC Thunder being a central hub of what’s transpired here.
If you don’t live here you really can’t understand how much it meant to this city when Russell Westbrook recently extended his deal which now guarantees his place as the face of the franchise and in reality the city. This doesn’t happen much in cities across the NBA landscape that much anymore. There was Reggie Miller in Indiana. There were Stockton and Malone in Utah. Kobe in LA. Dirk is in Dallas.
It’s extremely special to us as a city that Russell Westbrook decided to continue his NBA career in Oklahoma City. It gives the city continued hope and it may sound corny to people from cities like LA, New York, Houston and Chicago, but love and hope is exactly what this basketball team infused into a city which needed both.
Remember your WC prediction list! Deadline is Tuesday 10/17 at 9:30pm CDT. 🙂