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.

 

A Basketball Fairy Tale in Middle America

So there was this amazing article in New York Magazine yesterday that is essentially Oklahoma and Thunder propaganda. Nice job NY Magazine! The only draw back is that it is REA-lly long, like longer than the line at the DMV long. So for those of you who don’t have time to read 11 pages (even though it really is worth reading all 11 pages), I took one for the team and got reading. I managed to focus my immeasurably short attention span for all eleven pages (okay, I did have to take a couple breaks to check my email) just so I could pull out all the best parts for you.

“…Oklahoma – a state known for its citizens’ kindness, levelheadedness, work ethic, community spirit and, above all, humility. (The mayor of Oklahoma City told me that he thinks Oklahomans are humble because of their proximity to Texans, who will never stop bragging about anything.)”

“Everyone soon became familiar with the Presti buzzwords: process, system, patience, sustainability. He made a habit of promoting people within the organization so that, from top to bottom, the Thunder became very young and tightly knit. He stressed community outreach to an unusual degree. He devoted extra resources to the development of the young Thunder players and, on the marketing side, refused to call attention to any single player apart from his teammates, even Durant, who was quickly becoming an international superstar….Among basketball fans, Presti has become a mythic braniac legend, the managerial equivalent of Kevin Durant: young, focused, dominant and improbably humble.”

“Coyne believes that the Thunder transcend the limits of their confusing sport — that they channel the energy of the whole community in a way that resonates across the world. Using a variety of accents, he told me stories about people in Germany and Switzerland and Sweden — places where he never used to hear about his hometown — all of a sudden talking to him about how much they love the Thunder.”

“This, then, is part of the city’s love affair with the Thunder. It’s more than just a basketball team: it’s the culmination of 20 years of civic reinvention, and the promise of more to come.”

Thank you New York Magazine, Oklahoma salutes you.

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!

Get Your Thunder On

Obviously the most important thing to ask yourself when purchasing a ticket to attend one of this year’s Thunder play off games is – but what will I wear??  As a result, I thought I would provide a quick run down of some of the more magical Thunder shirts I have found in the last few months. So ditch last season’s Jeff Green jersey and treat yo’self to a Thunder-ific t-shirt.

*photo courtesy of DNA Galleries

The above tee is from DNA Galleries in the Plaza district. They actually have a bunch of awesome Thunder shirts which you can purchase online as well as in their store on 16th Street. PLUS they totally take the Keep it Local card (10% discount) and even though you can’t use it on Thunder gear :(, you might as well pick up one of these SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER shirts and show your Oklahoma pride.

Don’t know what is sadder, that I once again got excited that I knew the name of this bird or that I am actually planning on purchasing this t-shirt the next time I go to the Plaza district… *photo courtesy of DNA Galleries

Also fantastic from DNA Galleries is their let’s rumble underwear. So even though no one else will know you’re wearing it, you’ll know that you’re the most dedicated fan out there.

*photo courtesy of DNA Galleries

I’ve heard blue seven has some good tees as well. This was my favorite from last year and I hope they still carry it. They are located on May and Grande.

*photo courtesy of Blue Seven

My favorite Harden shirt has to be this one:

*photo courtesy of Tree & Leaf

But unfortunately it looks like they are all sold out for now. In order to appreciate the ingeniousness of this t-shirt you have to see the instructions.

If you want one I would keep checking their site and maybe email them to see if they will have more soon.

Lastly, a more subtle look from Shop Good (on 9th by Iguana and S&B) for those who don’t want to scream OKC THUNDER.

*photo courtesy of Shop Good

I kept this post to local OKC companies which wasn’t too hard since the OK companies clearly had the most awesome t-shirts. If you’re just looking for a Durant jersey (lame) you can always get one downtown at the NBA Thunder store.

As I was writing this post I found a bunch more badass Oklahoma Tees – including more Scissor-tailed Flycatcher ones (!!!) so I am going to have to save those for a later post.