Game #96- Oklahoma City Thunder

Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Los Angeles Lakers Chesapeake Arena February 24, 2017 I haven’t been to Oklahoma City in about 8-9 years, nothing has really changed. The first time I made my way out it was for one of my best friend’s engagement party with his soon to be wife’s family. They live in the area and were throwing a huge party. The flights and hotel were cheap so we headed out for a weekend of partying. During that time we were able to check out Bricktown but only shortly because it was pouring rain and, as you can imagine, thunder (OKC team name) and lightning everywhere. This time around, coming home from a work trip, the weather was much nicer. Although extremely chilly outside (around 45 degrees), there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. So before the Thunder game I decided to run the canal that goes through Bricktown in order to take some pictures of the buildings, the baseball stadium, the Centennial Land Run Monument, as well as the Oklahoma River. It’s a very unique area and the brick buildings remind me of the Three Little Pigs, the tornados in the area can huff and puff but won’t blow these bad boys down. After the run I headed back to the hotel to get ready for the game. I chose to come out here to knock off a game but also because the Lakers were in town. Although my home team is awful (again) this year, it was good to dust off the old purple and gold jersey to cheer on the Lake Show in person. I fully anticipated a steamrolling by the Thunder with their high power office lead by Russell Westbrook, the home crowd, and a lackluster LA team hitting the floor…suffice to say I wasn’t disappointed. In the first 5 minutes of the game OKC controlled the ball, the boards, and three’s. The building was rocking every time the Thunder shot and made a basket which happened a lot in the first half. By the end of the night Westbrook had his 28th triple double of the season (65th of his career) while the only highlight from the LA squad was D’Angelo Russel’s 29 hard fought points in the paint. The Lakers were blown out 110 to 93 without much fanfare at the end of the game.

OKC is a fairly new franchise, spawning from the old Seattle Supersonics, so they don’t have much in terms of fanfare displays as you can imagine. Also the arena is really new, so as in all of these types of buildings, there isn’t much to look at except the lightning machine over head in the rafters. So the highlight of the game for me was that Magic Johnson was in the building. Everywhere he walked people were trying to take pictures/selfies with him. At his seat fans were consistently attempting to bypass the security to get to him (never worked), except one person. Wouldn’t you know a beautiful, big chested woman asked to take a picture with MJ and when security went to push her away you could see Magic saying “No, no, no man. It’s cool…” Oh to be a celebrity. Ha!