The life of every human organism, whether individual or collective, is linear temporally but the life line is rarely straight. The hair-pin turns and obstacles that must needs be negotiated, avoided or overcome if the life is to continue, certainly if it is to be a successful life.
The NBA Oklahoma City franchise is fifty-eight years old. One of those hair pin turns occurred in the life of this organism in 2006. That was the year that a 47-year old venture capitalist named Clay Bennett bought the Seattle "Supersonics". The "Supersonics" won one NBA title, in 1979. In 2008 Bennett made the audacious business decision to relocate the franchise 2,000 miles south and east, from the 15th-largest metropolitan area to the 42nd, the third-smallest market in the NBA; moved the franchise to the middle of nowhere, leastwise to the City of Oklahoma City, and renamed them the "Thunder."
NBA players do not want to play and live in Oklahoma City. When they are forced to by draft or trade they get out as soon as possible. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Carmelo Anthony, James Harden, Chris Paul, Al Horford, Kemba Walker: all played for Oklahoma City, all left by desire. The "Thunder" have been to one NBA Final, in 2012, which they lost
The present iteration of the "Thunder" began in 2019 when the team received, inter alia, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander from the Los Angeles "Clippers" in the Paul George trade. There were lean years to follow, bottoming out at 22 wins in 2020/21. But last season, in 2023/24, the "Thunder" made a great leap: from 40 wins to 57. They lost at just this place in last season's playoffs, in the Conference semi-finals, to Dallas. This season, they are the youngest team in the Association, they leapt higher still to 68 wins, the best record in the league.
There are not many teams, whatever their experience level, who ever have played in so big a game, in such a bizarre a game, in an extremely hostile away arena, as this young "Thunder" team just did. And they WON. This iteration DID grow up in this one in a single bound. They TOOK the game from the wily, grizzled ex-champions with a courageous 29-18 4Q finish and held on. They took back home court advantage. They took back the favorite's role in the series, for if they had lost this game, they surely would have been underdogs to win three of four and likely would not have. The "Thunder" have won nothing yet, of course, but this was a dark, blind alley they navigated today. They could not lose this game and they didn't. The entire Oklahoma City franchise has stood up.
