You Know, I was Born in Oklahoma
Talking about OKC Thunder and the NBA Finals
Greetings,
This is going to be a short one. Also, I hope you will enjoy my homemade photos.
Earlier this week as of the writing of this blogpost, the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Indiana Pacers to win the 2025 NBA Finals.
Yes, I watched. Here in Indonesia, streaming subscriptions are cheap. But anyways… I decided to watch (despite the time difference) because I’m kind of a Thunder supporter. Why? Very simple, I was born in Oklahoma - Stillwater, OK to be exact. And no, I’m not going to show you my birth certificate. Of course, I didn’t remember much of the Sooner State. I have one or two memories, and that’s about it. My parents moved away when I was three. So in a sense, I was just there to be born.
But even though I've never stepped foot on that state since I was the age of three, I still have a soft spot for it.
That’s why when I found out that Oklahoma City actually has a major sports team (not counting college teams), I ended up rooting for them. It’s not like I was a fanatic about it, I just like the fact that Oklahoma is being represented. Because honestly, the idea was simply mystifying to me. It still is. It’s not like people know about Oklahoma, especially not people from outside of America.
For that matter, I don’t think people know about Indiana either.
I read up about how this year’s finals isn’t as exciting in terms of narrative. And sure, neither Oklahoma nor Indiana has the “cool/sexy factor” of New York, LA, Miami, or even Boston.
But honestly, I actually love that. These are two parts of the US that most non-Americans (even Americans too, let’s be honest) have little idea about. So why not give them some love?
And the fact that it was OKC who emerged victorious made the whole thing all the more sweet. At least it was for me.
I remembered when the Seattle SuperSonics was a thing and then they moved to Oklahoma City. I remembered wanting OKC to just win something in the middle of those LeBron superteams and the Golden State Warriors dynasty. So when they finally did it my thoughts were something along the lines of:
If you follow NBA basketball during the 2010s, then the OKC Thunder is one those teams you can’t help but love. They had a talented group of players, their fans were electric, and they were just simply fun to watch. The trio of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden had a lot of potential but never panned out for a lot of reasons that I won’t go into because this isn’t a basketball newsletter. Now all three them were known to be team-hoppers who go from city to city.
It’s sad.
So I’m sure OKC fans will be happy that their team finally won a championship.
But as for the games themselves? I like that it went to Game 7, especially since OKC was very much favored, especially with the MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leading the team. Unfortunately, the ending of that very game was kind of disappointing. Throughout the first half, the game was very close, even with Indiana losing their star player Tyrese Haliburton to injury. But the second half was when the slaughter began. And without Tyrese (the guy who has time and time before pull his team out of huge deficits) in the lineup…
Well, I knew it was game over.
It’s the kind of game that only people who root for the Thunder were satisfied with. Fortunately for me, I did root for the Thunder. So there’s that.
Until next time,
Michael P. Marpaung