Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving full of awkward family photos and food babies. Now that it is *officially* time to start celebrating Christmas, here’s a short video to get you in the holiday spirit. Russell Westbrook has always been my favorite and now I understand why.

More props to Westbrook who spent Tuesday night hosting a thanksgiving dinner for the boys and girls club kids and their families. Best quote from Russ- “Growing up, we always was blessed to have a thanksgiving. I know everybody wants a thanksgiving to eat well and eat good and today’s one of those days where you can feed different families.”

Luckily Westbrook was only responsible for serving food and acting as a role model and not for giving English lessons.

If you’re feeling inspired by Westbrook’s acts of kindness, Maisha released one of their fantastic new videos this weekend and it’s all about feeding the hungry.

The big pot that they are stirring in the video was actually donated to the organization by a good friend of mine. It is awesome seeing the difference that something as simple as a larger pot makes to feeding lots of kids quickly. Even small donations can help purchase needed things like pots, pans and food.

 

Let’s go Thunder!

Getting ready for tonight’s game (hopefully better than last night…) and looking forward to the energy and excitement downtown.

If they can play as well together as they do in this commercial, we are definitely going to win. Thunder up!

THE OLYMPICS ARE COMING

As most of you know there are few things that I like even close to as much as I like Christmas. Fortunately, the Olympics is one of those things and they START NEXT WEEK!!! Not only is this year a summer olympics year (clearly superior to the winter olympics) but Oklahoma is already pretty much dominating. 13 current or former Sooners will head to London to represent the US of A. A few to look out for – Jake Dalton on the men’s gymnastic team, Jared Frayer on the men’s wrestling team, Tia Brooks for women’s shot put and Brittany Borman for the javelin throw. Also the OKC Thunder are the first team in US history to send 3 players to the olympics. BAM. That’s how you help America be awesome in the olympics. Kevin Durant, James Harden, Russel Westbrook and some college kids who are good at throwing stuff and balancing on things.

PLUS, this year’s olympics combines several of my most favorite things.

1. LONDON

Thanks for the picture Alex!

Best city ever (after Oklahoma City of course).

Although I do question their choice of logo.

Seriously? Thousands of years of history and culture and this is the best you can come up with…

2. Thunder basketball.

Well, this is the whole team but you get the picture.

3. AMERICA.

4. Race walking.

Yep, this is actually an event. In case you need a refresher on WALKING, here are the race walking standards.

Also, here is the real description from the Olympics website (you can’t make this stuff up):

In Race Walk events, an athlete must (to the human eye) be in contact with the ground at all times, unlike in running events, where both feet are momentarily off the ground. The leading leg must be straight from the moment it is first in contact with the ground, and the technique looks very different to ordinary walking. Athletes must be incredibly disciplined to fight the urge to break into a run for extra speed.

Yes, it takes incredible discipline to remain in the realm of not-a-real-sport. Next thing you know, CrossFit is going to be in the Olympics. And not that I don’t love CrossFit as much as the next guy but the sport of fitness is still not a real sport.

Since we have now opened the flood gates for events designed for stay-at-home moms and couch potatoes, I’ve decided that the next olympics needs to include the following:

• Speedy Swiffering
• Toddler lifts
• Race dog walking (all four dog paws must remain in contact with the ground at all times)

In all seriousness though, I’m sure that this event is extremely difficult. It just happens to also be extremely funny, therefore, I will be watching and making fun of those participating while also admiring their athletic prowess.

Good luck America. GO SOONERS and THUNDER UP!

A little love for the Thunder

I want to take this opportunity to give the Thunder the slow clap. Scott Brooks said it best- they may not be champions but they played like champions. And that’s what matters isn’t it? A team we can be proud of.

Most of Oklahoma City would agree since over 4,000 people stood at the airport to give the team a standing ovation when they arrived from Miami. In the past two weeks, the Thunder have done more for OKC than anyone could have hoped. The rest of the country rooted for us (except Florida and Washington, sorry Seattle) and Oklahoma City became one step closer to being one of the mythical “cool” cities that people want to move to or visit. So thank you Kevin and Russell and Nick and James and Serge and Kendrick and Thabo and the rest of the guys, you all deserve a long slow clap for your excellence on the court and off. Thank you for getting OKC to the finals. Thank you for not getting arrested for dog fighting or picking up teenagers or doing drugs. Thank you for making the city look great and for being excellent role models for our city’s kids.

Most of all, thank you to Scott Brooks. You took an immature, young team and made them into a well oiled machine. You managed to walk a fine line between one member of the team out shining the others and all members rising to the occasion. In emphasizing each players strengths, they became a more cohesive team, filling in the gaps each time they took the court. As a city, we love them for the way they play together but also for their uniqueness and individuality. The giant beard on that building on Western and the “Every day I’m Russelin” tees show just how much each player means to the city. I don’t know if we’ll make it to the finals next year or if we’ll even have all the same players but for this moment in time, the city is behind you. Thank you for an excellent season.

I’ll be counting the days to next year. Thunder up!

THUNDER FROM DOWN UNDER

We may be down but we aren’t dead yet! Saw these pictures online today and they reinvigorated me for tonight’s game (especially that last one – sorry Seattle).

THUNDER UP.

THUNDER UP

Everyone should make sure they do the following before tonight.

First, get a new Thunder T-Shirt from Shop Good.

Shop Good.

Then, eat a delicious THUNDER cupcake from Cuppies & Joe.

Then watch this a few times. And then a  few more times.

Then check out the sweet tees for the game tonight.

Thank you Thunder Gods for your generous gift of white and blue t-shirts.

Then read this article. If you don’t have time to read the whole article then just read this quote.

“When you only follow one professional sports team, everything gets magnified, everything gets heightened, everything means more … basically, you lose your minds. If you’re from a four-team city, or even a three-team city, imagine grouping your passion/angst/affection for those teams into one mega-team. How would you handle it? For instance, how would I have handled the Celtics’ collapse in the Miami series if that was my only team? Would I still be wearing the same clothes from Saturday? Would I be passed out drunk or in a coma? Would I be writing my fourth straight “Woe is me” column?”

Proud to be an Oklahoma City Thunder fan.

Let’s get ready to RUMBLE

The Thunder are ready to rumble, but the question remains, with who?

Miami and Boston are getting ready for the final game of their series which will determine who will ultimately lose to the Thunder in the NBA finals. In the meantime I decided I would take a look at which team I would prefer to host in OKC on Tuesday and thus which team I will be rooting for tonight.

Miami

Pros

• Seeing LeBron cry tears of unfathomable sadness.
• I know this might anger some Thunder fans but I totally like Dwyane Wade. How can you not like a guy who bought his mom a church after she overcame a drug addiction and became a Baptist minister. Talk about supporting your family…
• If the Thunder play the Heat in the playoffs it will be the first time EVER that two teams have played in any major sporting finals without an “s” at the end of one team’s name. This factoid came from my dad who spends way too much time reading the Wall Street Journal. I have no idea if it’s true but it sounds cool.

Cons

• I don’t know any Miami fans so it would be difficult to rub this in anyone’s face when we win.
• That Will Smith song is going to be stuck in my head for the entire series and let’s be honest, it’s not his best song. Obviously Men In Black is.

Celtics

Pros

• Two words, JEFF GREEN. JG was one of my favorite players before he was traded. Even though he didn’t play this season I still love him.
• Watching how Perkins interacts with his old team would be interesting and hopefully amusing. Maybe he will actually make a basket or two.

Cons

• They are old.
• If we win people will say that we didn’t really win because the Heat would have been a tougher team to beat.

So I guess when all is said and done, I would rather play the Thunder play Miami next Tuesday. It should make for an interesting series either way and either we are more than ready.

Welcome to OKC.

Now we just need a giant backpack on the Devon tower and we will be READY FOR THE NBA FINALS.

Don’t know if you’ve heard…

…but our NBA team is pretty awesome.

*Photo courtesy of Downtown OKC. Thanks for being awesome Downtown OKC.

Not only did the Thunder win the NBA Western Conference Finals BUT the awesomeness of the thunder and the incredible persuasiveness of my blog have finally convinced SOMEONE TO COME VISIT. That’s correct, I received notification this morning of MY VERY FIRST OKLAHOMA LOVE blog induced vistors! Two of them! I’m choosing to believe that it was mostly me that did the convincing and not the Thunder but I’ll give the Thunder a little bit of credit as well. They did come back from a 18 point deficit last night….

I think this is pretty much the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back and now 1,000s of you will flock to Oklahoma to sample our delicious cuisine and enjoy our comfortable, mild weather. I was worried that my letter last week may have scared some of you away, but luckily we only had the good kind of Thunder last night (not the evil, hailing kind that sneaks up on you while driving) and just like that OKLAHOMA IS BACK BABY.

Plus, if you come visit in the next few weeks I might even consider buying you one of these Thunder shirts (if I don’t buy them all for myself first).

Tees will be on sale @ Collected Thread in the Plaza District.

Shirt from Blue 7.

Don’t let me down here people. It’s time for a visit to good old Oklahoma.

I’ll leave you with this super cool video. No pressure.

That was fast.

Didn’t take Oklahoma long to start hating on LA. In only two days we’ve managed to design and print a couple tees dedicated to round two of the playoffs. Not quite as good as our usual shirts, but hey, we only had two days to get these ready.

End world peace.

Shirt from Fishwater Tees in Norman

If only we could get the arena shirts to be as interesting as the ones above. Last night’s tees said “One Team”. Weak sauce Thunder promo team, weak sauce.

I didn’t think it was possible to have a slogan worse than “Team is One”. I was wrong.

Despite the embarrassingly bad shirts, the Thunder still managed to destrominate the Lakers in a 119 to 90 win. Thunder up!

Congrats OKC Thunder!

After purchasing an awesome Let’s Rumble t-shirt from Shop Good (and then almost missing part of the game because I wanted to stay and shop) we got to enjoy the Thunder crushing the Mavs last night from the comfort of S&B Burger.

Pre-Game psyched about my new t-shirt

Despite the fact that we were at a burger joint, everyone was watching the game and went crazy when the Thunder pulled out a 4-0 win. I took a video of the win and even though my video skills were pretty terrible, you can still get an idea of what happened (make sure you have the sound on). If you’re prone to sea sickness you might want to stop the video after 13 seconds.

Obviously we had to go out and celebrate afterwards and luckily I had my mexican hat and violin handy.

Post game celebration

YAY THUNDER!