Thunderous Intentions
Fansided

OKC Thunder – Top 10 moments of 2008-2009 season

By Stephen Dolan

UNITED STATES - MARCH 24: Fans wait to enter the Ford Center for a National Basketball Association (NBA) game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Oklahoma City Thunder in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., on Tuesday, March 24, 2009. Nearly three decades after an energy bust that forced 122 banks to close statewide, Oklahoma City is in the fifth year of an economic expansion that's produce the lowest jobless rate for a major metro U.S. area. Oklahoma City demonstrated it could support a NBA team, encouraging the Seattle Supersonics to move permanently and become the Thunder, which now draw crowds as large as the Boston Celtics. (Photo by J.P. Wilson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
UNITED STATES - MARCH 24: Fans wait to enter the Ford Center for a National Basketball Association (NBA) game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Oklahoma City Thunder in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., on Tuesday, March 24, 2009. Nearly three decades after an energy bust that forced 122 banks to close statewide, Oklahoma City is in the fifth year of an economic expansion that's produce the lowest jobless rate for a major metro U.S. area. Oklahoma City demonstrated it could support a NBA team, encouraging the Seattle Supersonics to move permanently and become the Thunder, which now draw crowds as large as the Boston Celtics. (Photo by J.P. Wilson/Bloomberg via Getty Images) /
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 The opening tip

The first time that the OKC Thunder ever suited up in blue and orange was, naturally, in… Billings, Montana?

In a preseason game against the division not-yet-rivals Minnesota Timberwolves, the OKC Thunder lost 88-82. You can see the ESPN box score here, which is entirely blank. The internet was a wildly different place 10 years ago, but luckily Doug Dawgz was on the scene.

Thanks to him, we know that Chris Wilcox led the game in scoring with 17. We also know the demographic breakdown of Billings, for some reason, and what the inside of their Buffalo Wild Wings looked like. We also know that there were 3,817 people at the game, and that the arena looked like this:

Not surprisingly, there are no full highlight videos of this game. There is only one, which shows the moments from the opening tip to the first bucket in OKC Thunder history.

Nick Collison sets a screen, hedges on another, defends Al Jefferson, and then the Thunder get a rebound. Kevin Durant dribbles down casually, rises up calmly, and knocks down a pull-up three that became very familiar to OKC Thunder fans.

The song that played during the opening tip was Prince’s When Doves Cry, a song about the fear of becoming like one’s parents. Knowing Sam Presti, it’s possible that this was an intentional choice. This new franchise, the OKC Thunder, would do everything in their power to not make the mistakes of their forefathers, the Seattle Sonics.

Oklahoma would be their home, and they would do what it took to stay.

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