(if Baron Davis can leave town, why not this guy?)
“The whole singular name thing is shaky. Magic, Jazz, Heat. A little too much World Football League for me,” writes the Oklahoman’s Barry Tramel of reports the former Seattle Sonics will begin play in 2008 as the Oklahoma City Thunder. Not in the Premier Basketball League mind you, but the NBA.
Half the fans will like it from the get-go ” don’t forget, Thunder won The Oklahoman’s 64-name bracket in the spring, as voted by readers ” and the other half will embrace it soon enough.
Most cities do. Can you name a fan base that despises its name, with the possible exception of Tampa Bay’s Rays?
Most fans will be like my niece, who when first told of Thunder said, “Well, it’s better than YardDawgz, but who an hour later was gushing.
Thunder is not indigenous to Oklahoma. Everyone has thunder, except maybe San Diego. I can personally attest to thunder rolling through Crested Butte in the last couple of days.
Something uniquely Oklahoman would have been cool.
Fair enough, though I should point out the name Meth Teeth has already been taken, nor is it it a uniquely Oklahoman phenomena.
It does say everything about how (un)important OKC’s longstanding minor league hockey team now is – “Thunder” is the name of one of their biggest rivals, just 160 miles north.
it also says everything about how rarely I read Deadspin —- even to look for shit to complain about. Someone else pointed out Matt Sussman was all over this Thunder v. Thunder story over a day ago.
Actually the Deadspin story (which I also hadn’t read) is about a minor league football team in Tulsa, which is easy enough for an NBA team to steamroll/buy out. I was actually thinking it was interesting they went with Oklahoma City instead of Oklahoma – figured that was just about their eagernesss to kiss the city’s ass, but the other team must be the reason why. It was also the name of Berlin’s NFL Europe team.
But I meant the Wichita Thunder. OKC’s hockey team is the best-drawing in the US (the arena was actually built in hopes of wooing the NHL, Columbus got it instead) so there really are a few thousand (if not 10,000) OKC sports fans who are accustomed to rooting against a team with that name. Oh well, it’s not quite the equivalent of “Longhorns.”
like I said, I hadn’t read the Deadspin story!
re : Thunder. Currently the Yankees’ Eastern League affiliate. And formerly the name of Las Vegas’ IHL entry.
Yeah, Trenton is surely a better illustration of Tramel’s “there’s thunder everywhere” thesis.