It's Game Day

He we are on the precipice of glory in OKC. We officially have made it. We are in the NBA. Listen, Oklahoma City is the biggest small town you will ever see. There is no six degrees of separation, it's more like three. Yet, historically there has always been a well marked line right down the center. On one side Sooners and on the other Cowboys. Households, streets, neighborhoods, offices. All are divided. The Thunder brings it all together. And yes it may sound hokey to an outsider or someone from a place where there's football, hockey, baseball and basketball to divide people's time and attention. But we are officially united in the professional ranks with one team to get behind. Our Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Oklahoman has good coverage on this. Berry Tramel, who annoys me with his folksy banter, pretty much reiterates what I just said.

So yesterday Mayor Mick declared it a, "Day of Thunder" in OKC. Today, the festivities start at 2pm. Reno will be closed off, there will be live music, face painting, sign making, BMX stunt riders and goodness knows what else. The line for walk up tickets also starts at 2pm with the first 75 people getting EZ chairs to sit and there will be drawings for free tickets.

Interestingly, I've been feeling like people have been breathlessly waiting to see how the "game experience" compares to the Hornets. And I still do. But, I was surprised to find myself to be somewhat relieved and excited to see that Loud City officially makes its return. I think it's a great move. As team officials say, the fans made Loud City and the Hornets named it, not vice-versa. Just so you know, Section 309 is in Loud City.

I'm also interested to see the drum line. Hopefully we're talking live drummers and not piped in beats to get the crowd clapping. I recently read something about the Atlanta Hawks have a live funk band that plays during games to keep the crowd going. Similarly a live drum line would be pretty slick I think.

The team has also put banners up for every team in the league which should help with the ambiance. The Fieldhouse in Indianapolis is a monument to basketball. The Ford Center, whilst multipurpose hopefully can be retrofitted to be similar.

Finally the court has been delivered. Although it appears there was some sort of snafu due to the team utilizing one kind of goal fitting and the court's three-point lines being painted at a distance meant for a different kind of goal. So, the Ford Center crew had to paint a new line on the court to be the correct distance. Not sure how best to rectify this but I'd be pissed if I were the Thunder. It sounds like an internal screwup unfortunately.

I'm going to try and head down straight from work tonight to see the festivities and I'll snap some pictures and post them here.

Go Thunder!