NBA Players United

Forecasters Predict Thunder Rumblings

By: Talia Bargil
for NBPA.com

Giving the L.A. Lakers a run for their money and racking up new fans along the way, the Oklahoma City Thunder are no longer a side act.

Despite just three nationally televised games during the regular season, the team proved they belonged on the NBA Playoffs main stage and demonstrated why their eighth-seeded squad was – and is – worth a serious look.

With the young and inexperienced team stunning the basketball world with their epic 27-game improvement over last season’s 23-59 record, the underdogs competed right down to the last gritty second of their sixth (and final) game of the highly publicized postseason.

According to the team’s veterans, Kevin Ollie and Etan Thomas, the only surprise is that their season did not see the light of May.

“We kept our goals in mind all season and understand who we are and who we are trying to become…a championship team,” said Ollie, who just wrapped up his 13th NBA season. “The camaraderie on this team has been great. I’ve never been on a team that likes each other so much, on and off the court.”

Thomas arrived on the scene last summer after spending the entirety of his seven-year NBA career thus far with the Washington Wizards.

“I've never really seen anything like this,” he said. “This is a very special group, extremely talented and humble. You are going to see a lot of great basketball from this group for many years to come.”

And while the names Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green have become synonymous with Thunder basketball, good luck finding a player on this roster that boasts about individual accomplishments or recognitions.

“We got lost in our team, never worrying about selfish accolades. From day one, from training camp, a team mentality was preached…it’s a fabric of our being,” said Ollie, who was signed by the team one year after its relocation from Seattle. “We win with the Thunder and lose with the Thunder. We are a team before any individual.”

Just listen to any Durant interview to confirm this mantra is the real deal. But Thomas is not shy to give credit where it is due.

“It all starts with KD (Kevin Durant),” he said. “He is the league’s leading scorer and the main one who stays after practice to get more shots. He approaches every practice with focus and intensity, and he doesn’t take any days off. KD’s work ethic spreads to the rest of the team. Everyone here works extremely hard.”

The team’s elder statesmen say Head Coach Scott Brooks is the purveyor of the team’s solidified – and what certainly appears to be genuine – “we” mentality.

“With Coach Brooks’s leadership, we became a great story,” said Ollie. “Coach defined our roles early on and we understood that we had to be a team that valued every possession and win by defense. We came together very quickly, and our mantra was that we could create something special as a team. That never wavered.”

After manufacturing a playoff team from the youngest roster in the league and a less-than-stellar start, Brooks earned the prestigious 2010 NBA Coach of the Year honors. Suffice to say that even while receiving the Red Auerbach trophy on April 21, Brooks’s one-track mind was focused on his team, which was about to embark on Game 3 of the playoffs series down 0-2.

Even after falling to the defending champion Lakers in what could have been one of the league’s biggest upsets in NBA history, this youthful squad has got nothing but time on their side. And with a hungry big three in place showing considerable signs of maturity, this Thunder team has put its competitors on notice.

“The goal this year was to get to the playoffs, but we understand that this journey was more important than the destination,” said Ollie. “We are not trying to make history, we are trying to create a future.”

A bright future indeed.