OKC Thunder – Top 10 moments of 2008-2009 season

The OKC Thunder inaugural season offered plenty of memories. Here are the top 10 moments of the 2008-2009 season.

The OKC Thunder are celebrating their 10-year anniversary, and we here at Thunderous Intentions are celebrating with them. Welcome to Part One of the Historic Triple-Double,10 moments from 10 seasons in 10 articles. Let’s time travel.

Do you remember where you were when you found out that Oklahoma was getting an NBA team? I know I do. I was in the cafeteria of Berryhill High School in Tulsa, having lunch. That lunch did not get eaten.

Do you remember if you were an NBA fan before that? I know I do. I was a fan without a team. My only loyalty was for my favorite player, Shaquille O’Neal. I had followed him throughout my childhood from Orlando to Los Angeles to Miami, my favorite color of Fla-vor-ice changing from blue to yellow to red as he went. In April, 2008, though, my favorite color of Fla-vor-ice froze as blue, and I never ate another color.

Reports were that the Seattle SuperSonics would be moving to Oklahoma, in a deal that would be challenged by Seattle but was sure to go through eventually. At the time, it seemed ridiculous. The highest level of professional sport in the state at the time was… the Tulsa Oilers? Tulsa Drillers? Tulsa Talons?

No, Oklahoma was a state for college sports. It was OU, OSU, and it was Bedlam. Even more than that, Oklahoma was football. It’s still a football state, but basketball has dug out a deep foothold in the red dirt.

Where it all began

This franchise has been to one Finals, four Conference Finals, and the Playoffs every year except the very first and the accursed 2014-2015 season. It’s seen two MVP trophies, a third future MVP, 15 All-Star Game appearances, 13 All-NBA selections, and most recently a second superstar free agent choosing to stay.

To date, a championship is the only thing that’s eluded the OKC Thunder, and the 10 years have been, by any objective NBA standard, a resounding success. The organization is famously forward-thinking. But today, on the 10-year anniversary of the announcement that the Seattle SuperSonics would be relocated to Oklahoma, let’s take a moment to look back at the top 10 moments from that first season in 2008-2009.

Follow me back, back, back, to a time when the NBA in OKC was only a twinkle in Clay Bennett‘s eye. To a time when googling “OKC Thunder” returned far fewer results than “Oklahoma City NBA” and when dot-blogspots roamed the internet. Follow me back to where this all began.

The announcement

Ranking in order of importance or impact will be the natural way to sort the moments for most years, but in this first year, with moments and precedents being at a premium, these will be chronological.

On April 28, in the year of our lord 2008, the NBA Board of Governors voted “overwhelmingly” to approve the Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma. The only votes against, per the Seattle Times, were Paul Allen, Seattle native and current owner of the Seahawks, and Mark Cuban, that guy from Shark Tank. So Thunder fans everywhere can continue disliking Mark Cuban.

The City of Seattle promptly sued to force the team to respect their lease with Key Arena, but the writing was on the wall from that moment – Sonics to the Sooner State.

All due respect

Full disclosure, I now live in Seattle, so while I always had a certain amount of understanding for the anger and resentment of Seattleites, that feeling has multiplied. The fact of the matter is, Clay Bennett and his ownership group, the late Aubrey McClendon in particular, did Seattle wrong.

Starbucks owner Howard Schultz had sold the team to an OKC ownership group led by Clay Bennett in 2006 with the understanding that the group would do everything in their power to keep the franchise in the Pacific Northwest. The sale price was $350 million, with an eventual relocation fee of $30 million (The latest estimate of the Thunder’s value was $1.25 BILLION)

The team was transferred to Oklahoma only after a “good faith” effort by that group to get a new, modern stadium built-in the Seattle area. That faith of that effort was, shall we say, less than good.

Sonics fans took it in about the way OKC fans would if we found out the Thunder were packing up and leaving. There’s a bit of NSFW language in the below video.

Moving on

While it’s important to be respectful to the hundreds of thousands of fans who had their team ripped away from them unfairly, what are Oklahomans to do? Not root for the team? Of course not. The Oklahoma City Thunder were, and continue to be, a boon to the state and the region.

From the moment the Thunder tipped off their first game, Oklahoma became more credible. Bricktown boomed. Downtown leapt. Suddenly, to anyone who actually took the time to find out, Oklahoma City was a big league town, with big league aspirations and a big league franchise.

For a while, the stigma of small-town, USA, stuck with the team, but after the recent signing of Paul George and the previous signing of Russell Westbrook, it seems like the narrative regarding OKC is finally turning, and the turn started on April 28, 2008.

Scared money don’t make none

Sam Presti, you dog.

Presti had made moves already that would affect the OKC Thunder down the road, such as trading Ray Allen away, kicking off hashtag-the-process in earnest. But, the 2008 draft was the first time he was truly operating under the assumption that this was a decision for Oklahoma.

Although there were rumors that the then-Sonics had interest in Russell Westbrook with the fourth pick, none of the most popular mock drafts had him going any higher than sixth to the Knicks. Most of them had the pick down as Brook Lopez, a player that OKC has long had interest in. How different the Thunder could have been.

But Sam Presti, shooter of shots, has never been one to adhere to prediction. Instead of taking Lopez, or Love, or Augustin, or the other Lopez, Presti took Russell Westbrook, and the rest is current events.

Building

Kevin Durant was already in the bag, and James Harden was yet undrafted. But this draft, the first in OKC history, is still the one with the largest current implications. In addition to taking Russell Westbrook with the fourth pick, Presti also selected Serge Ibaka with the twenty-fourth. Those two picks established 40 percent of the Thunder starting five for the next half-decade.

Russell Westbrook then became the one who stayed, showing loyalty that Thunder fans always assumed someone else would. A declining and expiring Serge Ibaka was traded for Victor Oladipo and the 11th pick in the 2016 draft, Domantas Sabonis, who were then flipped for Paul George, he who is also here to stay.

Sam Presti took the best player in the 2008 draft with the fourth pick, and then took Paul George with the twenty-fourth. In Presti we trust.

The settlement

On July 2, 2008, the City of Seattle agreed to settle its lawsuit against Clay Bennett and his OKC ownership group for $45 million. This was the final legal obstacle standing in the way of the franchise’s move to Oklahoma.

“The NBA will be in Oklahoma City next season playing their games,” Clay Bennett said in a very hard to find on the 2008 internet press conference.

Thunder fans weren’t yet jaded by the departure of Kevin Durant at this point. Still, this announcement brought with it a gigantic sigh of relief for anyone worried that the team would somehow remain in Seattle.

After supporting the displaced Oklahoma City Hornets when Hurricane Katrina forced them out of New Orleans, OKC had proven that it was capable of supporting an NBA team. Russell Westbrook replaced Chris Paul. Kevin Durant replaced David West.

The Oklahoma City professional basketball franchise was born.

It’s on

The Oklahoma City professional basketball team did not have colors, or a name, or a logo yet. They went to Orlando Summer League wearing boilerplate black and white, Oklahoma City across their chests.

In a way, it was totally appropriate. Those who were already fans of this un-named team knew nothing about it. Kevin Durant was good, probably, but that was the only intel. The team was a blank slate, a lottery, a black jersey without a name.

As far as I can tell, there are no videos of the Thunder playing in this league. Apparently Russell Westbrook was a stand-out. Apparently, PJ Carlesimo couldn’t stop raving about him. Allegedly, there was a player on the OKC bench wearing Sonics shorts, and Russ had green on his shoes.

Jeff Green took the first shot in the history of the franchise. He missed. DJ White scored the first basket over two minutes into the game. If there had been Thunder fans there, and if the tradition had existed at that point, they’d have remained standing.

There weren’t, and it didn’t, but in that moment, OKC basketball began. We just didn’t know that they were the Thunder yet.

Identity

The Oklahoma City (Blanks) were a team with a home, but without an identity until September 3rd. On that day, the OKC Thunder name, logo, and colors were officially revealed. The sky blue matched the color of the state flag. Yellow represented the Oklahoma sun. The “sunset” (come on, it’s orange) walked the line between OU crimson and OSU orange, pleasing all while angering none.

The name “Thunder” was selected as a reference to both Oklahoma’s famous storms and the 45th Infantry Division, the “Thunderbirds.” It’s also been used to reference the sound of a herd of bison “Rumble”-ing across the plains.

The reactions to the logo and name were, let’s say, mixed. Love for the team has caused them to grow on the fan base, but in all honesty, they aren’t great. That did nothing to dull the announcement, though, as you can see in this honest-to-goodness personal blog.

Darnell Mayberry was there!

This was a great day for Oklahomans, when we finally knew officially what team we would cheer for and what colors we would bleed. It was not, however, the first time this information made its way out.

The Leak

According to this second blog post, the logo leaked a few days early. This was before Twitter or Reddit took off. It was even before cell phones commonly came with adequate cameras, and per the blog, an employee snuck a digital camera into the warehouse for this bit of espionage.

For anyone already plugged into the internet hive mind, the information was out there early.

 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.

The wrong foot

The Thunder’s first regular season game was at home, in the then Ford Center, against the Milwaukee Bucks. KD, Nick, and Jeff Green started. Russ came off the bench. Number 27, jumping for the tip against Andrew Bogut, is someone you’ve almost surely never heard of.

In a case of severe overcompensation for not having a highlight video for the first preseason game, the internet has provided this game in its entirety. Russell Westbrook scored 13 points off the bench, KD only scored 12. The OKC Thunder lost this game 98-87, allowing three 20-point scorers for the Bucks, but who cares?

In that blurry video, you can see the pregame activities for the first OKC Thunder game ever. In perfect Oklahoma fashion, they’re all lined up like the beginning of a football game. Somebody’s waving a flag, but it doesn’t look like Rumble. The stadium is full, like it always will be.

The OKC Thunder were here, and they were here to stay.

The right foot

The OKC Thunder got the first of their currently 489 regular season wins on November 2nd, 2008. In a home game against the Minnesota Timberwolves (Remember Billings, Montana), the Thunder got revenge for their preseason loss.

Future Thunder players Corey Brewer and Randy Foye started for Minny. Kevin Love came off the bench. Kevin Durant led OKC in scoring with 18, and the home team walked away with an 88-85 victory.

It was in doubt near the end, but Mr. Thunder, himself, Nick Collison scored the clinching basket and the Thunder held on. Jeff Green held the lead from the line, and then the Thunder got a stop to seal their first ever victory.

According to NewsOK, Russ sparked a late rally, and Nick played an important role, diving for multiple loose balls and grabbing more than his fair share of rebounds. That sounds very familiar, and is something OKC fans saw a ton of over the years.

This win set the tone.

Rock bottom and back

History made a lot of the fact that the OKC Thunder started their tenure with a 3-29 record. But do you know what’s worse than 3-29? 1-16. Following their first victory on the previous page, the Thunder promptly lost their next 14 games, dropping to that absurdly bad 1-16.

In the depths of that losing streak, it seemed like they would never win again. Coach PJ Carlesimo was fired after 10 consecutive losses, paving the way for interim Head Coach Scott Brooks. Still, they lost four more.

On November 29, though, they got one.

In a 111-103 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies, KD scored 30 points, Jeff Green added 22, and Russ made his first career start, but it was former OSU Cowboy Desmond Mason who made the winning plays down the stretch. He blocked attempts by Kyle Lowry (he played for Memphis?) and Rudy Gay in the closing minutes, helping to secure the victory.

The Thunder started the 2008 season 3-29, but they finished 20-30. It was a sign of things to come.

Climbing the mountain

The OKC Thunder won their last game of the 2008-2009 season in a capital-B-Blowout, 126-85. Look, the Clippers were not a good team that year. Even worse, they were a bad and old team. They finished the season with only 19 wins. It’s hard to imagine that their hearts were in this game.

Still, when a 23-win team gets a blowout, that’s reason for celebration. The Thunder hit the Clippers with youth and athleticism. They even hit them with balanced scoring, having six players in double digits. The Clippers were booed by their home fans.

Ending the season on a high note was crucial for this young team, and it’s hard to think that this win, in addition to the relatively strong finish, weren’t crucial in getting Scott Brooks the coaching job permanently.

It also gave the team hope heading into the off-season – an off-season that would see Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant make a leap. The Thunder needed this win, and they got it resoundingly.

Seems so long ago

More from Thunderous Intentions

• Stealing one player from every Southwest Division team for the OKC Thunder
• Should the OKC Thunder chase after a disgruntled hometown hero?
• 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
• Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
• Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder

It was only 10 years ago. The OKC Thunder were bright, and shiny, and new, and the fanhood was raw, and cheerful, and naive. A win at the end of a bad season was enough, and a loss on the first day was acceptable. There had been no disappointments or hurt, nobody had left or been traded.

The Thunder were promising, and as-yet unfulfilled in 2008-2009. The fans were just happy to be there. It’s funny, the weight that expectations can bring.

The Thunder were bad, but they were fun. The next season, they would be good. They’d still be fun.

To be fair, the Thunder are always fun, but it’s a different feeling when it’s all upside, no fear.

Remember how it felt when Nenad Krstic splashed a jumper. Remember when Jeff Green banked in the first ever OKC Thunder buzzer-beater.

Allow yourself the nostalgia, and appreciate that we also have a future. Russell Westbrook, Paul George, and Steven Adams are here to stay, and the past and future are bright.