The OKC Thunder’s first Playoff season was one for the ages. Here are the top 10 moments of the 2009-2010 season.
As the OKC Thunder prepare for the 11th season it’s time to reflect back on a decade of franchise excellence. To that end, TI will feature the top 10 moments from each individual season of the past 10 seasons. With that it’s time to review season two (2009-10) and the plays which stand the course of time. Let’s time travel.
We’ve all been spoiled. Since their first Playoff appearance in 2010, the OKC Thunder have been a mainstay, an assumption in the post-season. With the exception of one, the accursed 2014-2015 season, OKC has played past the 82nd game every time. Even in that one hellish season, they finished tied for the eight-seed.
Now, the Thunder are an expectation in late April. With the commitment of Paul George, with Russell Westbrook and Steven Adams also locked down, they are now an expectation in May, as well. It’s easy to take it all for granted, but there was a time before all of that. There was a time before banners and All-Stars, before the Big 3 and departures and the OK3.
Loud City began in 2010, and OKC never looked back.
2010 wasn’t the start of the culture that would go on to win the heart of Paul George in 2018, but it was the beginning of that culture’s validation. While Russ, Kevin Durant, and James Harden would go on to blossom into full-fledged superstars quickly – perhaps too quickly – the start of the 2009-2010 season had them as just assets.
This season was when they exploded onto the scene and into the national consciousness. They stopped waiting at the door and kicked it open with youthful disrespect. In retrospect, it would have been better for the Thunder franchise if they’d been bad for one more year. But Russ, KD, and the Beard were in no mood to wait their turn.
They were here, and they would not be ignored.
OKC loses their razor
Try to remember as you’re reading this that, at this time, the Thunder had not traded James Harden to the Houston Rockets. Try to remember that his beard had barely begun, and that he still wore a headband and came off the bench. If you can’t do that, at least try to remember that OKC still has this moment to thank for Steven Adams.
Try.
On June 25, 2009, with the third pick in the NBA Draft, the Oklahoma City Thunder selected… … … James Harden, from Arizona State University.
The Thunder had moved up in the draft lottery from the fourth pick to the third, but luckily had not moved up to the second. There were (and still are) rumors that OKC was enamored of Hasheem Thabeet, and that he’d have been the choice ahead of Harden if he’d been available. Luckily, the Memphis Grizzlies, with Marc Gasol already on the roster, jumped on that grenade.
James Harden was, at the time, maybe not controversial, but was considered a bit of a reach. Many mocks had OKC taking Ricky Rubio, and Harden going around sixth. Russell Westbrook, you see, was incapable of being a real point guard – or at least that’s what many people thought.
Thank Sam Presti for ignoring those people.
The pass
On January 20, 2009, the OKC Thunder were 8-34, and were in the midst of one of the most dreadful starts to a season in recent memory. On January 20, 2010, the OKC Thunder beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 94-92 for their 24th win of the season. They had won 23 games in the entire previous season.
The box score says that KD logged a 31 point, 10 rebound double-double, and that Russ had nine points and nine assists. It also says that Harden scored 12 points off the bench, and that Jeff Green played 44 minutes in a January game (Young legs!).
Jeff Green had a game-saving block of future Thunder player Corey Brewer, allowing the Thunder to walk away from Minnesota with a road victory.
None of that is as important, though, as how far the team had come. After winning only 23 games the previous season, they were now 24-18, and well on the way to their first Playoff berth.
It may have been just a meaningless January game in Minnesota to most teams, but to OKC it was a huge sign of things to come.
Rising stars
As a Sophomore, Russell Westbrook participated in his second NBA Rising Stars Challenge (then the poorly-titled Rookie Challenge) in 2010. James Harden was selected to participate in his first. Along with the event that will be shown on the next slide, this weekend was an introduction of the Thunder on the grand stage.
With two up-and-coming stars and one who was slightly more established, OKC declared itself to the NBA world as a potential force to be reckoned with down the line.
Russ’s 32 minutes were the most in the game. In something of a foreshadowing of his future All-Star weekend tendencies, Russ scored 40 points on 18-29 shooting.
The Rookies, however, led by assistant coach Kevin Durant and a quad of 20 point scorers that included James Harden, won the game 140-128.
The timing of this game is very interesting. Players like DeJuan Blair, OJ Mayo, and Jonny Flynn having washed out of the league entirely. At the same time, those like Anthony Morrow and Derrick Rose are on the back ends of their careers. And then there were those like Russell Westbrook and James Harden, currently in charge of the league.
These two were just stepping onto the All-Star stage, but Kevin Durant was already there.
All-Star Kevin Durant
Participating in the annual All-Star Game is just one more thing that OKC Thunder fans are fortunate enough to take for granted. 15 selections in nine seasons, but Kevin Durant in 2010 was the first.
It was a very easy selection. KD had scored 30 points or more 29 times in 51 games so far that season, and had scored fewer than 20 points only five times. He was a shoo-in. It had even been coming for a while, with Durant participating in (and winning) the HORSE competition in the previous season (a title he would successfully defend in 2010).
Still, the announcement that the OKC Thunder would have a participant in that constellation was an incredible moment.
Dwyane Wade led the game in scoring and took home the MVP trophy. Future, current, and soon-to-be-past Thunder player Carmelo Anthony led the West to a loss, in what would now be considered an upset.
Durant scored 15 points on a relatively inefficient (for him) 14 shots off of the West bench. In a show of respect for the young guy, he was allowed the third most shots for the West.
Nobody was under the impression that this would be his last All-Star Game.
The clinch
The Oklahoma City Thunder clinched a Playoff spot for the first time on April 3, 2010. As if going from 23 wins to the Playoffs wasn’t impressive enough, the fact that they managed to make the post-season in this particular year is made even more special by how incredibly competitive the Western Conference standings were that year.
The young Thunder needed 50 wins to earn the eight-seed, which tied the 2007-2008 Denver Nuggets for the most wins ever needed to earn that spot. They increased their win total from the previous year by 27 games – one of the largest increases in NBA history without a major roster change.
Unfortunately, all video highlights of their clinching victory over the Dallas Mavericks seem to have been purged from the internet. The most note-worthy statistic is Nick Collison pitching in 17 points off the bench.
The only documentation of this having been the clinching victory was this article from The Oklahoman.
Appropriately, Loud City met the team at the airport. That tradition has held strong.
Scoring champ
In a season made up of first-but-not-lasts, Kevin Durant walked away with his first NBA scoring title, averaging 30.1 points per game. He was the youngest scoring champ since someone named Max Zaslofsky, or, as he better have been know, Max Buckets.
It was a coronation of sorts for the Thunder’s cresting wave of talent, the highest peak a player who had never accomplished any playoff success could possibly ascend to. The next step toward the young core’s validation would come shortly, as they finished the season in position for the NBA Playoffs.
Half a hundred
The Thunder finished their season with a 114-105 victory against the Memphis Grizzlies, in a game that didn’t matter much. It did, however, get them to the milestone plateau of 50 wins.
As mentioned previously, 50 wins is a ridiculous number to fall into the eight-seed. The OKC Thunder actually tied with the San Antonio Spurs and Portland Trail Blazers for the six-seed, and fell to eighth due to tie-breakers.
There was actually some discussion prior to the start of the Playoffs that the Spurs may have done a little tanking to match up with the two-seed Dallas Mavericks. For what it’s worth, the Spurs did upset the Mavs, and in only six games, so that theory might hold some water.
Imagine how differently this all could have gone if the Thunder had been in the Spurs’ position.
O Captain! My Captain!
On April 15, 2009, Scott Brooks had been officially named Head Coach of the OKC Thunder. He had righted the ship admirably following the firing of PJ Carlesimo the previous year and earned the job.
In the same way that KD was a shoo-in for the All-Star Game, Scott Brooks was an easy choice for the Coach of the Year Award in 2010. One year and one week after getting the job, he received the job’s highest honor outside of winning a championship.
Scott Brooks was an excellent developmental coach for the Thunder. He helped multiple players reach levels that they would never have reached without him. While he has been much (overly) maligned for his strategy, he was beloved by Thunder players even after his firing, and his resume speaks for itself.
He won this CoY Award. The team won 62 percent of their games under his guidance and 53.4 percent of playoff games. Scott Brooks coached in three Conference Finals and one Finals with the Thunder.
By any measurement, he was a success, and OKC was lucky to have Scottie Brooks.
Rise together
Thunder U, tied for the six-seed in the mighty Western Conference, possessors of 50 victories, were rewarded as little as possible for their conquest. Their opponent would be the juggernaut Los Angeles Lakers, who had been to the Finals the previous two seasons (winning the last one) and – spoiler alert – would go on to win that year’s Finals.
This was not the Lakers that we’ve grown to love and laugh at, this was Goliath, and Goliath had home-court advantage.
The baby Thunder managed to keep the first two games in LA close, losing games one and two by eight and three points, respectively. Nevertheless, they still came back to OKC sporting two black eyes and zero wins.
There was not much hope, considering the Thunder had, unusually for a young team, been only slightly better at home during the regular season than on the road.
Goliath came rumbling down the plains, and the Thunder loaded a big rock into their sling.
Here’s the full highlight, but for full nostalgia, you need only watch these three plays:
Loud City
That’s Russ, with a jab to the pride of Lamar Odom. Then it’s Harden with a body blow that sent the champs staggering. KD, seeing them on their heels, delivered the knockout blow that tossed them reeling to the hard wood.
Listen to the crowd. Let it wash over you in waves that feed more and more tingling waves. Is there anything like Loud City when it loses itself in pure basketball ecstasy? Can you feel the hum rising when two big plays are about to lead to a third and the lungs are swollen to bursting? We’ve heard it so many times that it’s familiar now.
This was the night Loud City was born.
Beat LA again
While it was nice to have beaten the Lakers once, OKC really needed to defend the Ford Center completely to have a shot in the series. The Lakers came into Game 4 expecting the feisty youngsters to be happy with their one win. Boy, were they ever mistaken.
In true Oklahoma fashion, the Thunder put a whoopin’ on ’em, to the tune of a 110-89 victory.
It was a true team victory. While KD led the scoring with 22 points, OKC had four other players in double-digits (Westbrook, Green, Harden, Maynor). The Lakers actually had six players in double-digits, but the leaders were Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum with only 13.
The young Thunder had four players outscore the Los Angeles Lakers’ leading scorer. It was a good night.
Although winning Game 3 was the bigger milestone, blowing out the Lakers was a bigger moment. Any team can win on a given night. To beat the defending champs in back-to-back tilts, and in a game that they obviously wanted, was a notice to the entire NBA world.
The OKC Thunder were no fluke.
Hail the conquering losers
The above image, if you can’t tell, is Paul Gasol tipping home Koby Bryant’s missed jumper to end the Thunder’s season.
A certain number four had his shock blocked at the other end, and then a certain number nine failed to block out Gasol. A certain number zero had a decent chance at a corner three to force a Game 7, but with only 0.5 seconds left on the clock, it was never to be.
The Thunder had gone toe-to-toe with a foe the like of which they had no business competing with. They had been weighed, they had been measured, and they had been found formidable.
Durant and Green both fell to the floor in despair, and Russ hung his head low. Loud City would have none of that.
OKC Thunder Culture
More from Thunder All-Time Lists
- 10 OKC Thunder players that never logged a single minute for the franchise
- 3 worst starters of the OKC Thunder rebuild era
- 3 players the OKC Thunder signed past their prime
- OKC Thunder: Ranking the 7 worst starters of the Russell Westbrook era
- Which former OKC Thunder players would be the best Slam Ball participants?
Again, here is the full highlight video for that game, but the above is all you’ll need. I’d like to take a moment here to gloat – I was at this game, up in Loud City, high enough to touch the rafters of the Ford Center and bask in the rising emotions of those beautiful fans.
This was a truly special moment in the entire history of sport. When the Thunder failed, fell to the floor, and hung their heads, the crowd refused to let them despair. 18,342 Thunder fans stood as one and cheered their fallen warriors until they left the arena entirely.
This moment, at the time, may have been just a feel-good, reality tv fluff piece, but the decisions of first Russell Westbrook and then Paul George to remain in OKC with this team, and this culture, and these fans, all reflect back on these moments.
Call it naive, but these fans were here for their players when they were needed. Now, they have players who are here for them, too.
Learning to love
So, what did we learn during the 2009-2010 OKC Thunder season?
We learned that length and athleticism can cause problems for even the biggest teams. We learned that talent can conquer inexperience. Evidence showed us that In Presti We Trust and, while Scott Brooks has flaws, we can trust him too.
We learned that Russ, KD, and Harden would be something, and that the Thunder had a bright future. We learned that Loud City was a problem for any foe willing to put their ears in its echo chamber.
Next: Top 15 NBA Draft picks in OKC Thunder franchise history
But, most importantly, in 2009 and 2010, while All-Stars were coming of age, and giants roamed the plains, and small, Midwestern folks were loading screams and chants of “OKC” into their slingshots, we learned that we loved this team.
We never stopped.