Game 2 tips off in just a few hours, and our fans are already showing their Thunder pride. A few more fan pix to get you ready for the game – remember to tag your photos on Twitter and Instagram with #thunderfanpix!
- Karina Henderson
Are you ready?
May 16th, 2012A sea of _______
May 16th, 2012Thanks to the support of our great business partners, the Thunder has been able to provide a T-shirt for every fan attending a playoff game at Chesapeake Energy Arena. How this goes from an idea to a sea of white or blue – or whatever color it may be – is a story that represents a microcosm of our organization.
At the Thunder, no person or department works alone, something that’s especially true when it comes to the T-shirts. No fewer than six departments are directly involved in the T-shirt creation and distribution:
- Our Business Development staff works with our partners to secure sponsorship of the shirts
- The Marketing department works on T-shirt designs
- When the shirts are printed, our Events and Entertainment crew starts putting out the boxes
- Volunteers contacted by our Community Relations department disperse the shirts
- Corporate Communications staff spreads the word on the shirt color on the day of the game
- The Guest Relations department helps any fans who may need larger sizes or have other issues with the shirts
In all of that, the folks who make the real magic happen by transforming the arena before the game are our volunteers. As many as 150 volunteers are needed each game, and it takes about five hours to get a shirt on every seat.
Be sure to check our Twitter and Facebook feeds to see if there will be shirts tonight!
- Karina Henderson
The science of loud
May 14th, 2012This morning, the Tulsa World published a story previewing tonight’s game and noting what anyone who’s been to Chesapeake Energy Arena for a Thunder game already knows: This place is loud.
Among the Oklahoma City Thunder’s milestones was the crowd-noise measurement – 109 decibels – recorded by TNT sideline analyst Craig Sager in April 2010 during Game 3 of the Thunder-Los Angeles Lakers first-round playoff series.
According to noise experts, the 90- to 95-decibel range of noise is “the level at which sustained exposure may result in hearing loss.”
After reading that, I decided to do some research of my own. It’s a little less scientific and perhaps a little different from my view at the very top of the arena, slightly removed from the crowd’s din. But when the team took the floor tonight, this was the noise level my iPhone registered:
According to one website, that puts our crowd’s noise level somewhere between a newspaper press and a garbage truck at close range (but oddly enough, still well shy of an actual thunderclap). And that was before the game even began.
Safe to say, it’s just plain loud in here.
- Karina Henderson
#thunderfanpix
May 14th, 2012We love seeing how our fans get geared up for the Playoffs and get ready for Thunder games! Last week we started encouraging fans to send us photos of them showing Thunder pride and, even though we didn’t have any games last week, plenty of you were still sporting blue.
A few of our favorites:
We’ll be posting more in the coming days – in the meantime, keep putting your photos on Twitter and Instagram and tag them #thunderfanpix!
- Karina Henderson
It’s the little things
May 14th, 2012
From around the office …
Are we busy getting ready for tonight’s game? Yes, we are.
Too busy to enjoy some of the simple things in life? No, we are not.
So far this morning, we’ve had a staff breakfast (a playoff game-day tradition), a visit from a three-month-old staff baby (Tiana’s little girl Bella, pictured at the right) and a visit from a newly acquired staff puppy (Brittani’s new puggle).
Jennifer, our office manager, has already declared it the “best day ever.”
Doesn’t take much to amuse us …
- Karina Henderson
News travels fast
May 10th, 2012
Like most offices, news travels fast around here.
As the press conference announcing James Harden winning the Kia NBA Sixth Man Award began on NBATV, Thunder staffers started to gather in our reception area to watch the announcement.
Pretty soon, the ladies at our front desk were commenting on having a full house as we all watched, smiling over the recognition of our team and pointing out our co-workers as they were caught on camera.
We were also excited to learn that Harden is donating his Kia Sorento to the Oklahoma City YWCA, an organization both Harden and the Thunder have supported in the past.
Congrats to our team, and GO Thunder!
- Karina Henderson
Hooked
May 10th, 2012Since the Thunder finished its first-round series against the Mavericks on Saturday, no fewer than 20 of our fans have commented via Twitter about experiencing “withdrawals” from Thunder Basketball.
If you’re looking for a fix, go check out these two features on our website:
- CALLS OF THE SERIES: Some of the best calls from Brian Davis and Matt Pinto from Round 1. You can even vote on your favorite.
- 2011-12 REGULAR-SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: This video gives you eight non-stop minutes of Thunder Basketball from this past season.
Still anxious for the next game? Well, take comfort in knowing that the second round is closer than ever (with each passing minute, in fact) …
- Karina Henderson
Ranchwood ThundersUP!
May 9th, 2012Sometimes in the craziness that is the NBA regular season and playoffs, we forget how wide and deep the love and support of our fans really is. Thunder fans come in all shapes, sizes and certainly….ages.
At Ranchwood Nursing Center in Yukon today they were celebrating Nursing Home Week. They chose to do it by ThunderingUP the center. More than 100 residents joined family members for Thunder Day, put together by the dedicated staff. The residents enjoyed Thunder decorations, a special national anthem and halftime singer and a day of full-court wheelchair Thunder basketball games. It was even complete with their own version of the Thunder Girls.
At our offices, we heard about Thunder Day and took them up on their offer to come out. We brought some Thunder t-shirts to toss, along with hats, pins and pennants. There were lots of smiles, pictures, and special moments that brought joy to the residents of the center. We love our fans!
-Dan Mahoney
Down time?
May 7th, 2012It’s been a while since Thunder fans have had to go this long without a basketball fix.
Not even over the All-Star break did fans have to go a week or longer without the anticipation and excitement of a game night, and even then, they could count the days and zero in on the next opponent.
Going from the full-steam-ahead mode of the condensed season and of the first round of the Playoffs to today’s wait-and-see approach has thrown our staff for a loop, as well. We know what we need to do to host the first two games of Round 2, and some of our contingency plans for an extended first round can translate pretty smoothly into the early second round.
But for a staff that’s been pushing ourselves through deadlines and quick turn-arounds since the season began, waiting patiently is not necessarily our strong suit.
Don’t worry, there’s no thumb-twiddling going on here. We’re making every list to plan for Round 2 and checking it twice, thinking through every scenario that an ever-changing playoff schedule could present and even looking ahead to how we can prepare for next season.
But, just like our fans, we also keep looking anxiously at our calendars, waiting until we can start marking down game nights and start counting the days.
Hang in there, Thunder fans – and keep showing your Thunder pride. After all, sometimes it’s best to be mindful of the lesson from the tortoise and the hare: Slow and steady wins the race.
Photo by Jenniffer Chaney, via Facebook
- Karina Henderson
Is we is, or is we are?
May 5th, 2012
Photo by @melissafrmtulsa, via Twitter
As the Thunder receives more national attention with a run in the Playoffs, I’m always reminded of one of a question that for our organization is settled, but for many others remains a point of debate:
Is our team name singular or plural?
Fifteen years ago, the late William Safire, a longtime language columnist for the New York Times, wrote a seminal piece on a new language of sports. With team names like Heat and Magic making their way into the NBA, Safire asked an important linguistic question – how do you refer to these teams? Are they singular, as they sound to be, or are they plural, as most other team names are?
With learned sources in disagreement, Safire – himself a pretty darn learned linguistic source – decided to make a pronouncement.
Enough dribbling; it’s dictum time. To reach a decision, let us turn to the great guiding principle of English grammar, revered by linguistic sages, eminent lexicographers and the most useful usagists: ”No matter how ‘correct’ it may be, if it sounds funny to the ear of the native speaker, it ain’t right.” [...]
If the team name ends with s, use a plural verb: the Bulls beat and are. If not, construe it as singular: the Jazz beats and is.
When our team became the Thunder, our organization took note of Safire’s column, but we also thought it through from another perspective. It was, perhaps, the foundation of the concept of “Team Is One.”
In our eyes, the Thunder is singular. Just as we have one city that has come together in adversity and in success, we have one team that has done the same. Just as we have come to represent one community, rising together, we look to the future as one team, together.
As the T-shirts distributed to fans in attendance for the first game of the 2012 NBA Playoffs said, “We are one.” And when “we” refers to our team name of Thunder, “we” … well, “we,” is. The Thunder always “is.”
To us, this speaks to the fact that we are more than a collective of individuals. We are not just a roster of different players, an office of different staff members or a community of different fans. Our team means every single one of us, together, uniting behind a singular name: Oklahoma City Thunder.
So next time you hear someone ask when the Thunder “are” playing, or whether the Thunder “are” winning, feel free to correct them – knowing that you have your team, your community and William Safire standing as one to support you.
- Karina Henderson
