May 21, 2011; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; A fan for the Oklahoma City Thunder before the game against the Dallas Mavericks in game three of the third round of the 2011 NBA playoffs at the Oklahoma City Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-US PRESSWIRE

A top Brand Loyalty research firm, Brand Keys, conducted a study that ranks teams in each sport league based on fan loyalty.

“Brand Keys Sports Loyalty Index was designed to help professional sports team management identify precise fan loyalty rankings in their home, and national, markets. “These insights enable league and team management to identify areas that need strategic brand coaching,” said Robert Passikoff, Brand Keys’ founder and president.”

Brand Keys measured every team in the NBA and the Oklahoma City Thunder ranked 5th in fan loyalty. The last time Brand Keys did this study was in 2000 and 2005, The Thunder were then the Seattle Super Sonics and ranked 18th & 16th. That’s pretty impressive, especially considering that Oklahoma City is Considered a “Small Market”. According to Brand Keys fan loyalty is driven in four ways; Pure Entertainment, Authenticity, Fan Bonding, and History and Tradition.

Here are some of the results from the study:

National Basketball Association

Top-5
1. San Antonio Spurs (#5, #1)
2. Boston Celtics (#22, #7)
3. Los Angeles Lakers (#1, #3)
4. Dallas Mavericks (#27, #14)
5. Oklahoma City Thunder (Were Seattle Supersonics; #18, #16)

Bottom-5
30. Charlotte Bobcats (Expansion Team in 2000, #20)
29. Sacramento Kings (#19, #4)
28. Golden State Warriors (#26, #19)
27. Minnesota Timberwolves (#13, #6)
26. Washington Wizards (#29, #21)

#’s in parentheses give the team rankings for the years 2000 and 2005 respectively:

According to www.welcometoloudcity.com, “Lunchmeat” (the masked man in the video) is a former Thunder employee and worked the games as a stormchaser. After making this silly but innocent video with his buddy, Lunchmeat was fired. I think it was a little harsh to fire this guy. If anything the Thunder could have used this video during games to play for fans, give Lunchmeat some credit for his creativity.

Do you think Lunchmeat should have been fired for “Thunder Your Butts Off”?

-US PRESSWIRE

Before monday’s game against the Grizzles Kevin Durant finally responded to all of Skip Bayless’ rants on how Russell Westbrook shoots the ball to much. Skip Bayless is always praising Durant talking about how Westbrook needs to pass him the ball more. This isn’t very surprising but Durant dissagrees with Skip and takes the side of his teammate on this one.

According to The Oklahoman, this is what Kevin Durant had to say about Bayless,

“That guy doesn’t know a thing about basketball.”

Skip Bayless has been known as a controversial sports journalist and this isn’t the first time someone has said he doesnt know anything about basketball. KD also had this to say,

“We’re worse when I take more shots,” Durant said. “Like I said, that guy doesn’t know a thing. I don’t think he watches us. I think he just looks at the stats. And traditionally, a point guard is not supposed to take more shots than everybody else on the team. But we’re better when he does do that and he’s aggressive. And I’m better when I’m out there facilitating, rebounding, defending and being more efficient on my shots with less shots.”

This is why the Thunder are arguably the best team in the NBA right now. Teamwork. When would you ever hear Kobe Bryant or Lebron James say that their team is better when someone else takes more shots, whether it be true or not? Westbrook is only 7 shots behind Durant on total shots for the season. If Westbrook was your average point gaurd this may be a problem, but he isn’t. Westbrook is having a MVP like season. The Thunder are 20-4 when Westbrook takes more shots than KD, with an average margin of 12.4 points.

Based on number I can’t agree with Skip on this one. The Thunder are clearly a better team when Westbrook is more agressive. But let’s wait til the playoffs and see who takes the most shots then, when it really matters.