November 20, 2008 10:30 am  |  50 Comments

A First for OKC Thunder Fans: Boo Birds


by Marcel Mutoni

Ever since they landed in Oklahoma City, the local pro hoops team had heard nothing but polite clapping and words of encouragement from the hometown folks. As you know, of course, nothing lasts forever, and last night was a turning point in the relationship between the ticket buyers and the ballers.

The mood inside the Thunder’s gym finally turned sour; twelve games into the honeymoon, the fans at last voiced their displeasure. Can you blame them? The home team was getting spanked by the Clippers.

From The Oklahoman:

With 2:50 remaining in the third quarter Wednesday night, Thunder fans no longer could contain their frustration. So they did the unthinkable.

They booed.

For two full seasons while hosting the displaced Hornets, local NBA fans never booed the home team.

Though OKC went on to lose by 20, the peanut gallery found it in their hearts to offer the players some encouragement as they made their way back to the locker room.

Losers of nine straight, and quite possibly headed towards one of the worst seasons in League history, the Thunder players can expect scenes similar to last night to repeatedly play out this year - at least until those folks stop caring altogether, and just no longer show up to the arena.

  • Add a Comment
    • Digg
    • del.icio.us
    • Facebook
    • Google
    • StumbleUpon
    • TwitThis
    • Yahoo! Buzz
    • Print this article!
  • RSS

This story is filed under: NBA, The Wire, Top News

Read more like this in:

  • Bear Posted: Nov.20 at 10:43 am
    Wow..poor guys. But i can see why the fans are upset

  • Torrance Posted: Nov.20 at 10:45 am
    I have been booing that terrible logo and team name for a long time.

  • Torrance Posted: Nov.20 at 10:47 am
    And first, yessir!

  • BETCATS Posted: Nov.20 at 11:00 am
    Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

  • Ken Posted: Nov.20 at 11:00 am
    Nossir. But yeah, I can’t blame the fans. Losing 9 straight is one thing, but losing to the Clippers by 20 pts? That’s pretty shameful.

  • BigWalt206 Posted: Nov.20 at 11:03 am
    Its called Karma, Clay, get used to it! I just can’t wait till the day KD can finally walk away.

  • TADOne Posted: Nov.20 at 11:11 am
    9-73 will be threatened this year.

  • BETCATS Posted: Nov.20 at 11:15 am
    Jeff Green>>>Any of you fools

  • riggs Posted: Nov.20 at 11:22 am
    oh, did OKC fans think they were getting nba champs or something?

  • 007 Posted: Nov.20 at 11:30 am
    IMHO..this is may just be a transition period..it’ll pass as d wheels turn..they just gotta be strong,kep workin.. but seattle supersonics really sounds much better. they need a team back.

  • Phil B Posted: Nov.20 at 11:40 am
    with every loss the thunder get, an angel gets its wings

  • rav Posted: Nov.20 at 11:41 am
    karma’s a bitch okies

  • Keith Posted: Nov.20 at 11:42 am
    It’s not so much the players that should be booed for this more the city, owners and David Stern. The fans wanted this mess, the owners created this mess and David Stern allowed this mess.

  • Pic Posted: Nov.20 at 11:51 am
    PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE come back to Seattle. I promise I won’t boo.

  • Keith Posted: Nov.20 at 11:57 am
    Just to clarify what I meant by ‘fans’ I meant the OKC residents.

  • Diggy Posted: Nov.20 at 11:58 am
    The curse of the SONICS!!!

  • Cizzo Posted: Nov.20 at 12:01 pm
    Do birds fly suoth for the winter in OKC, if not be prepared to scoop alot bird doo doo up in there arena daily.

  • Jess Posted: Nov.20 at 12:14 pm
    they better get used to it

  • mike Posted: Nov.20 at 12:17 pm
    how bout they just boo robert swift?

  • henryjkim Posted: Nov.20 at 12:20 pm
    omg thunder suck.. and KD is overrated!

  • Boniface N'Dong Posted: Nov.20 at 12:25 pm
    Yea, I hope KD bounces up out of there as soon as he can. Karma is for real.

  • WhaHuh Posted: Nov.20 at 12:26 pm
    jeff green is average and playing in KD’s best position

  • BigWalt206 Posted: Nov.20 at 12:32 pm
    I want my Supersonics back too, but I want nothing to do with that OKC franchise Pic, there’s too much pain and anger associated with them for it to ever work for me. I just want a brand new franchise (I live in a fantasy world) to start from scratch (hopefully as the Sonics, but I didn’t pay attention to wether we own it or have to buy it from Clay&Aubrey because I was a little too distraught to read everything) because I don’t want to steal anyone else’s team (of course unless the whole George Shin is a titanic douce bag plays out and he sells/moves the Hornets again. Take that back, I would only want the Hornets if Shin were completely out of the picture) because I now know how bad that hurts (The George Shin comment doesn’t count against me here). But I anticipate the day that OKC has to close their doors, accept that it isn’t working, sell and move the team to Vegas…now thats a jersey I’ll buy! The NBA…Where limitless cynicism happens…

  • Roy Posted: Nov.20 at 12:35 pm
    co-sign @ Keith

  • Jukai Posted: Nov.20 at 12:55 pm
    BJ Mullins or Ricky Rubio for a first round draft pick guys, what do you think

  • Holy Baller Posted: Nov.20 at 1:06 pm
    Things will be better when they get the first pick in the draft and take the homeboy Blake Griffin

  • underdog Posted: Nov.20 at 1:31 pm
    What did they expect? A miracle?

  • Joel O's Posted: Nov.20 at 1:34 pm
    If this Oklahoma City thing doesn’t work out - when fans truly stop caring and showing up, maybe the team should consider relocating. I heard about this Seattle place with lots of basketball fans but strangely no NBA team, maybe they should consider it.

  • TADOne Posted: Nov.20 at 2:05 pm
    Joel for the win.

  • Ben Osborne Posted: Nov.20 at 2:50 pm
    Karma’s a b—h.

  • Jukai Posted: Nov.20 at 3:16 pm
    Holy Baller, you think Blake would fit in with Durant/Green? I say Seattle needs a dominant big who can work without the ball or a point guard who can control tempo and has experience delegating plays to stars. Soooooooooo in reality, Mullins or Rubio are perfect for Seattle.

  • Jukai Posted: Nov.20 at 3:16 pm
    haha, I’m still saying Seattle. Oh my, I hate this sht.

  • LA Huey Posted: Nov.20 at 3:22 pm
    Free Bobby Swift!

  • Keith Posted: Nov.20 at 3:31 pm
    I’m going to follow Jukai’s lead and continue to call them Seattle. All who agree, raise your hand *raises hand*

  • jeffro Posted: Nov.20 at 3:44 pm
    People forget that Bennett dismantled this team last year to assure that attendence would be low. This made it much easier to get out of Seattle. It’s going to take years to rebuild this team. This is also a small market, so there’s very little chance that the Thunder will have the money to put together a contender.

  • ClydeSays Posted: Nov.20 at 3:55 pm
    Clay Pidgeons? Just sayin…

  • Josh D Posted: Nov.20 at 4:08 pm
    Cheer up Thunder fans you’ve got Ricky Rubio to look forward too next year

  • B. Long Posted: Nov.20 at 4:23 pm
    ^Or Brandon Jennings.

  • MELLDOGG Posted: Nov.20 at 4:44 pm
    What do you expect from a bunch of Okies who don’t know what’s it’s like to ride with a team for 41 years of wins and loses! They wanted a team, they got a team! Through good and bad they’re yours! Own like a true fan Okies! Haters

  • Jacob Posted: Nov.20 at 5:58 pm
    I fully agree with rav, karma is a bitch

  • davidR Posted: Nov.20 at 6:12 pm
    when it rains it pours. sucks for the players. they dont deserve this garbage, but clay and that whack ass team name and logo do

  • B. Long Posted: Nov.20 at 6:40 pm
    I saw this happening, I just didn’t see it happening this fast. P.J. better update that resume.

  • Tommy Vercetti Posted: Nov.20 at 8:40 pm
    Karma is a…

  • jub_al Posted: Nov.20 at 8:51 pm
    putting the ball in KD’s hands and praying is not the way to go… PJ needs to do some actual coaching, or this team needs to find an actual coach…

  • CARTEL Posted: Nov.20 at 10:20 pm
    so wut they got booed in OKC…if they were still in SEATLE…THEY WOULD HAVE STILL GOTTEN BOOED!!!

  • Holy Baller Posted: Nov.20 at 11:08 pm
    Jukai: I think that Griffin would work very well with their offense. He is very good without the ball and actually a pretty good passer too. His teammates suck so you don’t really get to see everything that he can do because he is double and tripled teamed on a nightly basis

  • Hursty Posted: Nov.21 at 5:16 am
    @B.Long- 4.23 , thats just shameless haha.jks :)

  • NosebleedSeats Posted: Nov.21 at 7:40 am
    I don’t think anyone has mentioned this yet: Karma tends to be a b***h. Can anyone name a member of the bench off the top of their head? Who is the coach? Other than Durant, Green, and Westbrook (Oh yeah, The Basketball Player From The Black Lagoon a.k.a. Bobby Swift) who else is on the team. I blame whoever designed the logo/uniforms. Everyone wants to leave so they can go to a team that at least looks like they can play.

  • Chris Posted: Nov.21 at 10:59 am
    the OKC crowd boo’d just a little, it’s because the player’s quit playing and it was very obvious. as i’m sure seattle people know, it’s difficult to drop $2000 on tickets to watch well-paid professional athletes quit during a game.

  • Howard Schultz Posted: Nov.30 at 10:38 pm
    With all the losing in Seattle this year, it is difficult to find something in the paper to make me smile. Except, looking at that 14 game losing streak. That is awesome! I love every loss. It makes me so happy. That would be icing on the cake if the Thunder broke the total losses record this year. Screw Clay. This is what he gets. I hope you lose your ass!

Comments




The comments section is a place to further discuss the topics in this post. Commenters who seek to accomplish any of the following may be banned: - Personally attack other commenters. - Make derogatory comments regarding race, ethnicity, language, gender, sexual orientation or religion. - Troll, or comment with the intention of creating problems. Trolling includes, but isn't limited to, baiting people to flame at you, encouraging people to leave the site, spamming and using alternate IDs.