It’s the day every NBA basketball fan in Oklahoma City has been waiting for since Hurricane Katrina…NBA Championship Parade Day.
And even though the Thunder are only my second favorite team in the league…I am sure I will cry multiple times today processing what has taken place in Oklahoma City. What I think I’ve witnessed is the greatest and most inspirational season by an individual player in my lifetime. And make no mistake about what I’m claiming because in all candor I didn’t want the Thunder to get past ‘my’ Nuggets in the second round.
There is nothing here inspired by the genre of Little Nick Gallo in this post. As in none. If you want to read effeminate, passive submissive nonsense about the Thunder this is not your blog.
And let me also be clear…LeBron, Kobe, Kevin Durant, and Steph NEVER did what Shai just accomplished. That being, take a team which was commanded to intentionally lose by design for three straight seasons to the pinnacle in what was for the most part an organic process.
Kobe had the Buss Mafia Family money. Kevin Durant and Steph had the Lacob Basketball Trust Fund. Hell, in OKC…the basketball ownership group hasn’t even put up the appropriate share for the new arena.
This was not a Dream Team build.
This was Sam Presti making a private pledge that if Shai, Lu, and Kenrich would crawl through the three year shit process of the Shawshank sewage system there would be light at the end of the tunnel.
And, baby…there is light at the end of that tunnel on this Tuesday morning in downtown Oklahoma City.
Yeah, Presti did a get a little lucky with the JDub pick. But with the injury-proness of Chet there was no good fortune there. And, yes, somehow getting the Chicago Bulls to take Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso wasn’t organic..but who really gives a shitt the end of the day. Just win, baby.
Adding Isaiah Hartenstein through free agency was prescient…because if you know basketball every team needs a physical dude setting screens for their Shai, clogging up the lane on defense, rebounding like a doberman, and just basically giving these previously docile Thunder a little bit of snarl and nasty.
So this is Championship Parade Tuesday in Oklahoma City and there will be no talk from MJ about a dynasty or a repeat.
No. This is a day to marvel at what Shai and his group just pulled off in this historic NBA basketball season.
I’m already crying, but in a very good way.
Mike J