It’s been 17 years since the Thunder arrived in Oklahoma City. The team’s departure from Seattle was messy, but once they arrived in Oklahoma they became the Oklahoma City Thunder and that was the end of that as far as everyone here was concerned. That first year we welcomed players to Oklahoma like Jeff Green, crowd favorites like Nick Collison and Desmond Mason, and a tall lanky guy named Kevin Durant along with a speedy point guard named Russel Westbrook. That first season the Thunder won 23 games and lost 59, and nobody in Oklahoma City cared about their record. We were just happy to finally have a professional sports team to call our own.
In the 1990s during the Chicago Bulls’ dynasty I dreamed of attending an NBA game. Now, first with the temporarily hosted New Orleans Hornets (2005-2006 and 2006-2007) followed by the Thunder, I finally coul. Tickets were $10 — $5 sometimes if you caught a deal, and lots of times, free. A hot dog and a drink cost more than tickets to a game. Multiple years I split season tickets with a group of coworkers, sometimes attending as many as 15 games in a season. In 2009 we attended a game on New Year’s Eve and sat only a few rows behind the broadcasters’ table. We beat the Utah Jazz that night, 87-86. Such great memories.
What a difference a few years make. In 2014, the Thunder roster still included Westbrook and Durant, but also included names like James Harden, Derek Fisher, Serge Ibaka, Kendrick Perkins, Thabo Sefolosha, Reggie Jackson, and Steven Adams. The Thunder even made it to the finals and it seemed like a trophy was within reach… and then it wasn’t. And then they left. Like, every member of the Thunder, one by one, left.
And the Thunder went back to being pretty bad. Three years ago, the Thunder won only 24 games — pretty much like the first season. We got an entire new roster full of names that were hard to remember like Ousmane Dieng, Isaiah Hartenstein, Chet Holmgren, and Nikola Topic. We also got two guys named Jalen Williams and Jaylin Williams, and a rising star named Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with a last name so tough for broadcasters to pronounce that they started calling him “SGA”.
This rag-tag team of kids has an average age of 25 years old, and it’s only that high because of Alex Caruso, who’s 31. Nikola Topic on the other hand is 19 years old; he was born in 2005. Half the team’s starting lineup were born after my 10 year high school reunion.
Like I said before, what a difference a couple of years makes. In 2022 the Thunder only won 24 games and in 2024, they ended the season with the best record in the Western Conference. They beat the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round of the playoffs but ran into a Dallas Mavericks team led by Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic and were defeated.
There was a feeling in this city that 2025 would be our year. And in the end, it was.
Once again the Thunder finished the season first in the Western Conference. They swept the first round of the playoffs and something felt different this year. When the Thunder is firing on all cylinders, they are unstoppable. It’s not just our offense but a swarming defense that causes teams to turn over the ball. The Thunder set multiple records this year regarding points on turnovers.
In this year’s finals the Thunder faced the Indiana Pacers. The teams were evenly matched. The Thunder lost game one, but won a second game at home. We also split games in Indiana, returning to OKC with a 2-2 record. Then we won one, then they won one. That led us to last night — the 20th ever NBA Finals game seven in NBA history — in Oklahoma City.
Right before the game started, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle discovered and showed his team a meme that showed busses in Oklahoma City already wrapped with the words “NBA Champions.” Everybody knows that winning merch and parades are prepared in advance of a final game, but Indiana felt it was an insult and came out swining.
Tragically, Indiana’s star player Tyrese Haliburton exited the game with an serious injury in the first quarter and while it seemed like this would be an advantage for the Thunder, we entered the half down by one point. Would the Pacers rally behind their fallen star, or would the Thunder enter the second half with the energy they’ve been known to do? Well, if you saw the game you know it was the latter. Despite a heroic effort by TJ McConnell, the Thunder kicked it into overdrive, swarmed the Pacers on defense, and went up by 20 points. Depite a dry shooting spell in the fourth quarter, the Thunder were able to hang on to their lead and won the series 103-91.
During a post-game interview, Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt ranked the win as one of Oklahoma City’s top 5 moments of all time. On Tuesday, a downtown parade is expected to drawn upwards of 700,000 people. When the Thunder arrived in Oklahoma City, it validated our state and city. There are only 30 teams in the NBA and we feel proud to have them. Our stadium earned the nickname “Loud City” — we have the loudest cheering fans in all of basketball. Winning a championship seals all of that. It puts a pin in this moment and says right here, right now, Oklahoma City has the best baskbetball team in the world.
Congratulations to the 2025 NBA Champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder!