It is time to celebrate in the Thunder nation. For the second straight year, the Oklahoma City Thunder are headed to the Western Conference Finals of the National Basketball Association.
They will face the San Antonio Spurs, the #1 seed in the Western Conference who are fresh off a sweep of the Los Angelese Clippers. Win the series, the Thunder advance to the NBA Finals with the chance to become World Champions.
It is cause to celebrate, to be sure. Since major league sports is still in it's novelty stage here in the Sooner State, our antics in Oklahoma are undoubtedly odd to those cities who have major league sports. Indeed, it is raising the ire of an out-of-state sports columnist in Minnesota who has decided to put his stubby fingers to his keyboard and croak out a column being critical of the way Thunderfan has been conducting his or herself.
The writer's name is Jim Souhan and he writes for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. He opened his latest column with this paragraph:
The Timberwolves teased us this winter, threatening for months to qualify for a mysterious tournament of undecipherable origins that people in other cities call "the postseason.''
After watching the Oklahoma City Thunder eliminate the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night, we now know how not to act if the NBA playoffs ever return to Target Center.
In short, don't act like an Okie.
It starts out being a slam at the Minnesota Timberwolves who did not make the NBA Playoffs, (and haven't for a while), and ends up a slam of Thunderfan. Now I can understand being frustrated in a team's inability to make the playoffs but if your team at home is a bunch of incompetent morons who can't dribble a basketball, why in the hell take it out on a team that's there...for the second time in as many years, or their fans?
Far as I'm aware, there's no code of conduct that a Thunder fan is supposed to follow when it comes to cheering their team.
Souhan then launches into a spate of "rules", which he intends for Timberwolves fans to use if they ever make it back to the NBA post season. Again, it is a veiled attempt to disparage the Wolves but it comes down on OKC fans pretty hard. Everything from the music played in the arena to the t-shirts given to the fans, nothing was spared. I'm quite sure that Souhan's readers, who doubtlessly think that there are still teepees on the plains got a good giggle out of this one.
It's not surprising that a columnist who follows a team like the Timberwolves would need to pick on the Thunder fans. I'm sure there are less mouthy columnists around the country who are ho-ho-hoing right along with them, but are unmoved to write about it. That said, when you cry about how we are acting like a bunch of hicks cheering for our team remember that in terms of professional sports, you need to back a better horse than a team whose last playoff success was 18-odd years ago.
Having said all that, one thing keeps popping into my mind reading the drivel this guy wrote:
Jealousy is an ugly thing.
Link to the article: http://www.startribune.com/sports/wolves/152804215.html
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