This may seem out of place, an OKC post. Sure, this is a DFW sports blog first and foremost, but I'd like to think this is just a sportsy blog as well. Add that to the fact the the NBA is my blood and tears and KA-BOOM: You have an Thunder post.
It also doesn't hurt that my post about how awesome Kevin Durant is granted me my first "national exposure" in Yahoo! Sports Ball Don't Lie NBA blog. So I gotta give them Thunder some props.
It ALSO doesn't hurt that last night's game between the Thunder and Lakers is exactly why I love the NBA. Did you listen to that crowd? During the TNT broadcast Craig Sager had a noise meter and said at one point the Ford Center was as loud as a jet engine. That's pretty special.
OKC is just a team you can't help but love. KD is the superstar with a great game and even better personality. He never gushes about his own play or even try to put himself along with the game's elite. He's just as amazed as we are when he goes for 40 and 10. Westbrook is sensational and making a case for superstar status. Of course it always helps when you have a corpse in a Derek Fisher jersey guarding him, but I digress.
This team has the best chemistry in the NBA by a mile. More like a million miles. Like however many miles it takes to get to the moon plus another infinity. That much. And there's nothing more fun than watching a team that absolutely loves to play with one another. It's basketball nirvana.
And folks, we might be seeing the best NBA home crowd this side of Golden State's "We Beleive" crowd of the 2007 playoffs (insert Maverick tears). The sea of blue, creating one big haze of fan pandemonium. I love it. Take a bow Oklahoma City, you deserve this win just as much as the players do.
But you won't see KD settled. Or Westboork. Or Serge "Dr. Nasty" Ibake. After all, why should they? It's just one win. They've got to go get one on Saturday. They need to even this series. Make the Lakers sweat a little more. Did you see the Thunder after the game was over? They walked off the court, like they've been there before. But guess what?
They haven't.
But OKC fans drink it in, it always goes down smooth. Then get ready for Saturday. I was going to post a cool line, something along the lines of "Loud City: Population 18,342" for the amount of fans inside the Ford Center last night. But I realized through the blogs, twitters, facebooks and more, that it's more than that. There are more people interested in this OKC team than that, including an entire state. Loud City has more people than that.
To give you a glimpse, here's a taste of how crazy the crowd gets, and how beautiful NBA playoff basketball is:
(Video courtesy of Royce Young and the excellent Daily Thunder blog)
Totally awesome. I'll be watching the Mavs tonight. But they've had a ton of moments. Let's have the Thunder and their faithful, enjoy theirs.
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good stuff again. that game was something else. the video tells it all. you could barely hear the announcers during the run. so different than normal games where the businessman dont really get into it til the final minutes IF and only if its close. they were standing for pretty much the entire 4th and those last minutes of the 3rd. awesome. sooooooo awesome
ReplyDeleteI fully support this post. And, Royce was our sports editor my freshman year. He started the Thunder blog as a hobby and look where it's taken him. It's possible, Josh!
ReplyDelete(PS...You misspelled believe :) )