Sunday, May 29, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Rise Together...from the OKC Bombing to the Western Conference Finals
...and here is the link to the article:
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
THUNDER UP!
So, I have a new favorite team. The people who know me best know the University of Oklahoma Sooners have always been number one...not any more. The Oklahoma City Thunder have captured the hearts of not only yours truly, but the entire state of Oklahoma. Forget what the team has done to this point in the playoffs; if the Thunder go on a Playoff drought for the next 45 years, I will still Thunder Up as loud as humanly possible.
See to understand my love, we must first look back to the 1990s. I’ll try to limit my emotional nostalgia, but most of my childhood was spent watching the Chicago Bulls--more importantly, his Airness, Michael Jordan--with my ever-youthful, single mother. Every night the UnbelievaBulls played you had better believe our massive, 27-inch TV was tuned in to WGN. It wasn’t about a team for me, I was awestruck by a singular entity. Michael Jordan meant the world to me, and I would never find another athlete who rose to his Airness. Or so I thought...
...instead of finding a new player, I found a team. The now three-years-removed Seattle Supersonics (who also played the Bulls in the 1996 Finals) became my new love. I will proclaim right now: I have never loved anything as much as this team. The way they work with the community, give maximum effort every game, and carry themselves with complete humility trumps everything I’ve come to expect from a sports team.
But for a minute, let’s take a short look at the three years they have been in our community--wait, even more importantly, let’s retrace our steps to one of the most tragic attacks on American soil. On April 19, 1995, 168 lives were unjustly taken in downtown Oklahoma City. Since this fateful day (and yes I’ve chosen my words carefully), our city has been on the rise. No team, or city projects, will ever replace the lives lost. Yet somehow fate has brought our city to this climactic juncture. Yes it is just a sport where men shoot an orange ball into a hoop...but maybe--just maybe--it’s more than that.
I read an article at the beginning of this season in Sports Illustrated which detailed the initiation process of new Thunder recruits. Royal Ivey was acquired in the offseason and was also the focal point of this story...
“Now every new player is taken to the memorial, usually in the weeks leading up to training camp, and sometimes more than once. When guard Royal Ivey came to Oklahoma City for his free-agent visit this summer, he asked Presti about the crowd at the Ford Center, how such a small market generates the most noise in the NBA...Presti ushered Ivey to the memorial. ‘It took my breath away, Ivey says. ‘After that I called my agent. I wanted to be a part of this.’”
This may seem ridiculous to non-sports fans, but this team has corralled OU and OSU fans into a single arena, they’ve relocated big-businesses to downtown OKC, and they’ve brought financial support to a once-suffering downtown. Wins and losses may seem important, but when 50+ fans show up at 3:30 am to suport the team after a triple-overtime win in Memphis, I would say this team means more than winning a gold trophy.
At this point, I’ve been lucky enough to attend five of the eight playoff games witnessed in our hometown over the past three years. I’ve seen us lose to the defending-champion Lakers in Game 6, trump the Denver Nuggets in five games, and struggle against a battle-hardened Memphis Grizzly squad sifting through their own recent catastrophe. Yet, still I find myself expecting more. I know this team can do even greater things for this city. I don’t expect a championship--hell I don’t know what to expect at this point, but the potential of our hometown Thunder is if nothing else, optimistic. But I do know one thing; the Thunder will be here for years to come, and I will always be here to support them. In short, THUNDER UP!
-jh
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