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Thunder fans: Enjoy the ride while it lasts, but don't expect any joy from the Northwest
Published: 6/8/2012 7:34 PM
Last Modified: 6/8/2012 7:34 PM

There is little better as a professional sports fan than when your team is winning.

As the old saying goes, "Winning cures everything." The phrase is usually used in the context of a team's internal conflicts. But the same can be said for a team's fandom as well.

Oklahoma is a tight-knit state, so it should be no surprise it has rallied around its only major league franchise with such vigor.

It's been refreshing to see local fans experiencing the joy of unexpected success (Although I knew the Thunder would reach the finals all along. Please ignore my prediction of San Antonio in six games as simply motivation).

But take it from someone who grew up a fan of teams in a suffering pro sports market: Enjoy the ride while it lasts.

I can still remember sitting in my apartment, clinging to the edge of my couch the night the Houston Rockets won their first NBA championship in 1994 -- the first major sports championship of any kind for the city of Houston.

I didn't cry that night. But I know some who did, and I wouldn't have been ashamed either way.

The feeling of joy and relief was hard to explain. Finally, after years of crushing defeats, near misses and teams that never had a chance, your team was No. 1.

The Rockets won again in 1995. I covered Games 3 and 4 of that sweep of Orlando and can still remember the sound of honking horns and the fans who hung out their car windows in standstill traffic. There were no strangers on the streets of Houston that night. Everyone was a Rockets fan.

Les Alexander bought the Rockets in 1993. His first two seasons as owner ended with NBA championships. He once joked, that after those first two years, he thought owning a team was easy.

Success, however, isn't forever. The Rockets have only won four playoff series and made just one Western Conference final in the almost 20 years since.

Franchises aren't forever, either. And in that regard, OKC fans should feel a little sympathy for their jilted counterparts in Seattle.

Although some Houston Oilers fans followed the team to Tennessee in spirit, I wasn't one of them. And I surely wasn't cheering for the Titans when they played St. Louis in the Super Bowl.

So if you're a big Thunder fan, enjoy this feeling while it lasts. It won't get better -- at least not until OKC wins the NBA title -- and it definitely won't last forever.

And don't get too mad at the team's former fans in Seattle. Just think what would happen if you knew you'd never have this feeling again.

Reader Comments

5 Total

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HRR (8 months ago)

Yikes!

903690 (8 months ago)

just wish we could figure a way of sending them back to um!

103648 (8 months ago)

stop pretending everyone loves the Thunder in Tulsa. It's Oklahoma City's team, not a statewide team. They chose the name Oklahoma City, no Oklahoma - unlike the franchises in Indiana, Minnesota, Utah and "Golden State." Just wait for the national media contrasts between glamarous Miami and cowtown.

203741 (8 months ago)

What does Tulsa bring to the party?? You mean a bickering, self-important remnant of a 100 year-old boom that has its own river but can't do anything with it while their neighbor city constructs one, welcomes businesses, expands in all directions, has a friendly municipal government and doesn't accept excuses?? BTW, I'd love it to be the "Oklahoma" Thunder, but get real.

Tulsa World Sports Editor Michael Peters (8 months ago)

I don't think everyone in Tulsa loves the Thunder. There does seem to be a small percentage of fans who will never embrace the team because it has Oklahoma City across its chest. But if you believe TV ratings, Thunder games in Tulsa are starting to reach Bedlam football levels. That means there is a lot of interest. How much of it is love? I would guess quite a bit.

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The Editor's Desk

Tulsa World Sports Editor Michael Peters has nearly 20 years of daily newspaper experience. A 1993 graduate of Texas A&M, he worked at papers in Bryan-College Station, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, and Galveston, Texas, before joining the Houston Chronicle as High School Sports Editor in 2008. While in Houston, he coordinated coverage of the 2008 Texas Class 5A state football championships and the 2011 NCAA Men's Final Four.

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