EDITOR’S NOTE: Originally published on June 10, 2012 (two days before the start of an NBA Finals series matching the Thunder and Miami Heat), this Tulsa World report reflected on the circumstances that resulted in Oklahoma becoming an NBA market.
OKLAHOMA CITY — If someone had been asleep or in another universe for 10 years, imagine the reaction to this news:
Oklahoma City has an NBA team — the Thunder. Each of the last 63 home games was played before a sellout crowd of 18,203.
And if that didn’t elicit quite enough disbelief, imagine the reaction to this:
The Oklahoma City team has the world’s best offensive player — a skinny kid from the University of Texas named Kevin Durant — and has advanced to the NBA Finals.
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The team’s four most prominent members are no older than 23, but the Thunder is on course to win a championship.
Only 41 months ago, the Thunder staggered to a 3-29 start in the 2008-09 season — the team’s first in Oklahoma. Now, the entire state seems emotionally invested in a charismatic squad that eliminated defending champion Dallas in the first round of the playoffs, the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals and San Antonio in the Western Conference finals.
“To be here at the biggest stage in basketball is just a blessing,” Durant says.
Seven years after OKC Mayor Mick Cornett was told by NBA Commissioner David Stern that the city would be smarter to lobby the National Hockey League for a team than to wish for an NBA franchise, Oklahoma City’s Chesapeake Energy Arena is the site for Tuesday’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
“This exceeds the best-case scenario,” Cornett said. “When I’m in the arena, I meet people from all over the state. These young men (Thunder players) represent the state so well, and that’s why people gravitate toward them.”
Said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich: “As sad and disappointed as we are, you really have to think (that) it’s almost like a Hollywood script for OKC, in a sense.”
An improbable set of circumstances resulted in the transfer of the Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma City.
2005-12: A step-by-step review of OKC’s relationship with the NBA
While Stern initially was not optimistic about OKC as an NBA market, he was impressed by Cornett’s presentation in January 2005. Only a few weeks before the start of the 2005-06 season, the New Orleans Hornets were displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Cornett telephoned Stern and offered Oklahoma City as the Hornets’ home away from home. Days later, after having studied the viability of the OKC market, Stern announced that the Hornets would play in Oklahoma.
“(Stern) put his reputation on the line for us,” Cornett said. “The other owners, and the other people that work inside the NBA office in New York, were surprised to astonished at how strongly the commissioner felt like the New Orleans franchise should try its luck in Oklahoma City on a short-term basis.”
The Oklahoma response was overwhelming, both from fans and the corporate community. Fans knew the Hornets eventually would return to Louisiana, and still the 2005-06 attendance average was 17,880 (a figure that ranked 14th in the 30-team NBA).
In the league as a whole at that time, there were only three local team sponsors that were at the million-dollar level or beyond. OKC secured three such sponsorships.
“Corporate support was even stronger than fan support,” Cornett recalls. “And remember, we only had two or three weeks to gather those sponsors. We immediately won the league over.”
OKC THUNDER
Kevin Durant, center, pictured alongside TNT's Ernie Johnson, scored 34 points in the Thunder's series-clinching victory over the San Antonio Spurs in the 2012 Western Conference finals. Tulsa World Archive
The NBA-OKC relationship was supposed to end after one season, but the Hornets wound up spending two seasons in Oklahoma. Before the start of that second season, an Oklahoma City business leader — Clay Bennett — was the head of a group that purchased the SuperSonics for $350 million.
Bennett’s message to Seattle: If tax money is used to build a $500 million arena, the Sonics will stay.
When Seattle didn’t comply, the NBA approved Bennett’s move of the team to Oklahoma City. But while the team still was in Seattle, two key figures got involved: Sam Presti was hired as the general manager and Durant was selected with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2007 draft.
Presti also was responsible for drafting Russell Westbrook in 2008 and James Harden and Serge Ibaka in 2009. In November 2008, after P.J. Carlesimo was dismissed, Presti promoted assistant Scott Brooks to the Thunder’s head-coaching position.
The Thunder acquired a pair of defensive specialists: in 2009, Thabo Sefolosha from the Chicago Bulls; and in 2011, Kendrick Perkins from the Boston Celtics.
After the 3-29 start in 2008-09, that first Thunder team finished at 23-59. Even then, Westbrook says now, there was a collective confidence that “one day we’d be at this moment, and one day we’d have an opportunity to win a championship.”
During the 2009-10 season, there was tremendous improvement. There was a 50-32 record, an NBA Coach of the Year trophy for Brooks and a strong showing in a first-round playoff loss to the Lakers.
In 2010-11, the Thunder recorded 55 victories and surged to the Western Conference finals.
OKC THUNDER
With a Game 6 victory over San Antonio in the Western Conference finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder advanced to the 2012 NBA Finals. Pictured from left: OKC guards Russell Westbrook, Derek Fisher and James Harden. Tulsa World Archive
The 2011-12 season has been defined by achievement. At 23, Durant captured his third consecutive NBA scoring title, was an All-NBA first-team selection for the second consecutive year and scored 36 points in the All-Star Game.
Westbrook made his second consecutive All-Star Game appearance and was an All-NBA second-team selection.
Harden was voted the NBA Sixth Man of the Year. Ibaka was a member of the All-NBA defensive team.
“I’m thankful for our ownership,” Brooks said. “When we were 3-29, they still treated us as champions. Our players felt that. They felt that from day one, when we came into OKC. We’ve always felt we were treated like champions.
“Sam has done an incredible job of building this team from the ground up through the draft (and) important trades, and he’s given me players with high character, players that believe in work, players that believe in each other, and it’s a great group of guys to coach.
“I’m thankful that I have the guys that we have.”
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