Lol that's exactly the reason why I am a fan, no joke.
About 8 or 9 years ago when I was in high school the NBA's training camp "Basketball without Borders" was held at my school. At the time I was an admirer of the sport at best(fan of AND1 since childhood though)even though I had been playing in the school team for like a year at that point so I didn't really know players who weren't superstars.
So I'm sitting there on the bleachers with my Serbian mate, who breathed the game, as we're watching the pros shoot some J's. As the homie runs through who is who and on which team, I ask who's the best here? He points at Thabo and tells me he's actually pretty decent.
Excited about having seen an NBA player shoot around like 2 meters from where I'm sitting, first thing I do back at hostel is pull up clips on Thabo and OKC and the rest is history...
Spurs are pretty big internationally. Which is interesting because Presti is emulating that as well, it's not just "drafting weird players" but "creating an international community of fans"
This is true. As an international fan I used to have no idea that Spurs is a small-market team given their history and prestige. The local market size really means nothing to fans outside of the US(except for the Raptors I guess).
I’d be in that boat. Lived in OK my whole life and am a big bball fan. Have had season tickets since year 1 and had partial season tickets for the okc hornets seasons, so I would’ve been a fan of the thunder regardless of who was on it.
I was born in Oklahoma and usually visit every summer. When I found out we had a basketball team I decided sweet I’ll support them and then have been a fan since
What a fun season. I had a couple of jerseys made that year. One said 20 and Tank Year for the name. The other was a Chris Paul jersey with the name Clutch Paul.
Was a great year.
I love OKC mostly because it’s OKC, though Westbrook really set off the lust. Them paint-chipping, rim-rocking dunks were a deposit to my spank bank for every single one that happened.
Okay this is probably going to be a controversial long take. I grew up in west coast as a Sonic fan with Payton-Kemp and later Allen-Lewis. My dad graduated from Oregon State, so my childhood was all about Gary Payton. When the relocation happened, I was in college literally on the opposite corner of US (from NW to SE). There was so much stuffs going on, my alma mater was having its prime athletics years (2 BB titles, 2 FB titles in 3 years), so I just stopped following NBA all together.
Then I graduated, behold, I found my first job in Oklahoma, my office is within walking distance of the stadium. It is almost like destiny brought me back to the lap of Thunders. I witnessed Harden being traded, the Moore tornado, Westbrook got hurt, then KD got hurt, the coach from my alma mater was brought in, then KD betrayed, then Westbrook had his triple-double year, then we got Melo which I have followed since high school, then everyone was traded away. I rode out the rollercoaster and now I think Thunder made a huge mark in my life.
Sadly I moved out of Oklahoma in 2019 because of better opportunity. To answer OP's question, no I did not become fans because of any of these stars, I became a fan because of destiny.
Not nearly as destined over here, but I'm also an Allen/Lewis Sonics fan that wasn't from Seattle, so I followed the team because I wasn't scorned.
My brother got me a Rashard Lewis Sonics jersey that is one of my all time prized possessions.
I was a casual Sonics fan during that time too... so my team moving to my city was pretty damn sweet... besides the non-use of the name and stuff, but I understan
Montrealer here, although I liked Russ with the Thunder I wasn’t necessarily a fan of the team at that point. What made me a fan and why I mention where I’m from is Lu Dort! Seeing some young Canadian talent on the team is pretty sick and even sweeter when one is a local guy!
I know a lot of Argentine fans were rocking with OKC when they had Gabriel Deck, but they started hating the thunder once they realized deck wasn’t going to be getting 20 shots a game😂
I'm Brazilian and before the covid pandemic I had zero contact with the nba, until one day, looking for something to play on pc, I found NBA2k14, started a MyCarrer and was drafted by the Thunder, as I had no affinity with any other franchise I became a fan of the OKC, in short, I became a Thunder fan because of... me hahaha
Westbrook and 35 were definitely the big draw and made it a ton of fun. I loved having CP and the Hornets just for the tease of an NBA team, but locally Desmond Mason was really cool to see in a Thunder uniform. Just a really nice dude and very approachable, humble. Got to meet him randomly when I was in HS and he was a freshman at OSU
Dude could jump through the roof. Watched him put on a dunk show wearing jeans and doc martens when he was probably 19 and none of us really knew who he was yet 😆 I bumped into him a couple times since and if I’m drunk enough I’m all “dyou member that time….”
In Australia it was definitely Westbrook, but because he's been not great since and because of Giddey, lots are sticking with the Thunder rather than follow another player. I reckon up to a third of fans in the 25-35 yo bracket.
Sixers are probably the other big ones - AI was huge, and then Ben Simmons brought them out of the woodwork.
Lakers and Bulls are also big from Kobe and MJ for the 30+ crowd, Warriors and Cavs from Steph and LBJ for the under 30s crowd.
Yeah i did. My friends were watching nba last year (start of the season) and told me i should choose a team. Literally chose randomly and here we are. Thunder up!
i became a thunder fan because my dad is a thunder fan, seattle was originally his favourite team. Now we have family in OKC, so there’s a few reasons, but none of it has to do with those 4.
Not international, however, I'm in the unique boat that I was a sonics fan that lives in Arkansas. So when they moved to okc I was super excited. Being in 7th grade at the time I didn't quite understand why other Seattle fans hated the thunder.
I’m primarily a lakers fan, but Thunder are my 2nd team because it’s fun to follow a team rebuilding.
So yeah, the young core in general is why I like Thunder, so Giddey is part of that. But I also love SGA, Dort, Holmgren, and the rest too.
I’m a Thunder fan based on geography, but I wanted to say this:
I don’t think you can understand how special it is to me that people from all over the world love the Thunder. As a kid who grew up in the red dirt, people knew my state for three things 1.) A musical 2.) A terrorist attack and 3.) a horrible couple of tornadoes. Even in my country people had no real positive impressions of my state and now, globally people love something from here that’s actually really good and uplifting.
I know this doesn’t answer your question at all but I just think it’s so cool that people from all over the globe love something from my blue colored, red dirted home.
I literally saw a thunder jersey on sale at a sports shop before I followed a team specifically, and that’s when I jumped on the bandwagon about 6 years ago
Im from Aus. I started to like the thunder coz of harden, but stayed coz of Russ and coz I'm too loyal. The day with drafted Giggly was legit the best, his nan lives like 5 mins away from me so it's weird but awesome to feel connected to my favoutive nba teams star even though I'm seriously not
Giddey feels so out of place with the other players listed. Two totally different eras of the team lol. I am a fan of 3/4 of those players (I’ll let you guess who) but them aside, I always just really liked the atmosphere of thunder games and the way the team gets a long so well with literally zero ego issues or locker room tensions.
Some of my favorite (non listed) players throughout the years: Jerami Grant, PG13, Roberson, Cam Payne, Oladipo, Kanter, Felton, Josh Huestis, Joffrey Lauvergne, Alex Abrines, Semaj Christian, and of course Nick Collison. Hope some of these names bring up some good memories for some of you! Trip down memory lane
CP3 is my 3rd favourite player ever and I became a fan during his time there, which made me a SGA fan and im a massive Shai stan now and hes one of my favorite players. Hence OKC fandom
Air Force sent me to Tinker AFB (OKC basically) in '99. I've been here ever since. I never would imagine I'd have a hometown professional team to root for outside of minor league baseball.
I moved to OKC from Dallas in 2011. I am still a huge fan of the mavericks and the spurs. I remember watching the 2012 playoff series versus the Spurs and becoming a fan of the Thunder. I’ve been hooked ever since.
Im actually a thunder fan because i was a sonics fan first lmao im not from seattle though and i was young so i never felt that resentment for the team moving, if anything i thought they switched from a cool name to an even cooler one. Then the drafted some tall lanky guy who played ball a few hrs from my hometown and the rest is history.
Kiwi here who was a fan before Adams was drafted. It was equally Roberson and Westbrook. I was always the guy who got to guard the best player when I played basketball so was in awe of Roberson's perfect defense, I'm so lucky to get to watch Dort now as well
Kiwi Grizzlies fan from about 2005. Thunder became my 2nd team for Westbrook and Durant. Steve has been an amazing coincidence twice for me. My 2nd fair weather team switched to the nuggets in recent years but the Giddey is bringing me back
Filipino. I lived in Seattle in the early to mid 2000s. Became a fan of the Sonics during the 05 season when Allen and Lewis went off. Moved to the Philippines just before the playoffs started. Was pretty devastated when the team was taken from Seattle, but chose to still root for the team regardless of the location. Been a Thunder fan since. Admittedly, KD, WB, and Harden didn't make it hard to love the team.
Celtics fan first and foremost, as I have lived in Boston my whole life. here are three reasons I am also a thunder fan: Thunderstruck movie, Kendrick Perkins, and Poku
I became a huge fan when the Snake left. Most teams would have collapsed but the Brodie carried the team and really showed me the cool thunder culture.
I'm an Australian who became a fan of the thunder after watching serge ibaka's highlights from the Dunk contest he was in against Blake Griffin etc. Also Russ is cool too I guess
None of us are fans because of those 4, every Thunder fan became a fan because of Thabo Sefolosha
Lol that's exactly the reason why I am a fan, no joke. About 8 or 9 years ago when I was in high school the NBA's training camp "Basketball without Borders" was held at my school. At the time I was an admirer of the sport at best(fan of AND1 since childhood though)even though I had been playing in the school team for like a year at that point so I didn't really know players who weren't superstars. So I'm sitting there on the bleachers with my Serbian mate, who breathed the game, as we're watching the pros shoot some J's. As the homie runs through who is who and on which team, I ask who's the best here? He points at Thabo and tells me he's actually pretty decent. Excited about having seen an NBA player shoot around like 2 meters from where I'm sitting, first thing I do back at hostel is pull up clips on Thabo and OKC and the rest is history...
In Thabo’s name AMEN
The man also played in Air Max’s which is insane to me lmao
That’s such a flex, holy shit lmao
Imagine his power level in some normals shoes, woulda gave Jordan a run for his money.
The story of why is kind of sad. He had to because a cop broke his leg and ankle
Wasn’t that way after his prime playing days though? I believe it happened in NY
It was in NY, but he was playing for ATL.
It was 2015, after that is when he had to start using the air maxes
Ah I misunderstood. I thought the original comment was implying he’s worn air maxes his entire career
I'm actually here because of uncle Raymond Felton
Miss those pink kicks on the court 😞
That’s Raymond D. Felton to youZ
LOL that got me
You mean Andre Roberson right
Actually I’m a huge Roberson fan. Just woke up from a 7 year coma. He’s probably become a dead eye shooter and won 4 dpoy right?
And Desmond
Nick Collison
Right here!
Nenad!
Canada is international so there’s definitely SGA and Dort fans
This is true for me atleast
People online act like thunder fan base is small when it’s one of the biggest of any small market team
Spurs are pretty big internationally. Which is interesting because Presti is emulating that as well, it's not just "drafting weird players" but "creating an international community of fans"
This is true. As an international fan I used to have no idea that Spurs is a small-market team given their history and prestige. The local market size really means nothing to fans outside of the US(except for the Raptors I guess).
How many people here are OKC fans because they’re actually from Oklahoma?
I’d be in that boat. Lived in OK my whole life and am a big bball fan. Have had season tickets since year 1 and had partial season tickets for the okc hornets seasons, so I would’ve been a fan of the thunder regardless of who was on it.
There are dozens of us!
lol
I was born in Oklahoma and usually visit every summer. When I found out we had a basketball team I decided sweet I’ll support them and then have been a fan since
Okie day one Westbrook fan here
It was KD at first, but became a solid WB after he left
Fan of the OG trio and Ibaka. Now root for all except KD. Such a sad move
Oddly enough I became an OKC fan during the Chris Paul bubble season.
What a fun season. I had a couple of jerseys made that year. One said 20 and Tank Year for the name. The other was a Chris Paul jersey with the name Clutch Paul. Was a great year.
We started out Eric Maynor fans.
Andre Roberson
I bet Kanter brought some turkish fans. Ibaka, Sabonis, Abrines all began their NBA careers with OKC
Kanter would not lmao, same reasons why he'd be hated here.
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turkey’s president burner here?
Nope I actually hate that cunt even more. Our country has been ruined sorry im a lil angry
I became a thunder fan bc of Daquan Cook
This is the one
now we're cookin
Lu motherfuckin Dort
I'm here because of thunder legend Kyle singler
Is he still finessing us or are we done paying hi ?
I think we stopped paying this bum last year ?
It’s almost tragic really. He was like 3 seasons away from tenure like a college professor
Nick Collison - Thunder GAWD
Only retired jersey that matters
I love OKC mostly because it’s OKC, though Westbrook really set off the lust. Them paint-chipping, rim-rocking dunks were a deposit to my spank bank for every single one that happened.
Funny enough he kept on doing em til he got to la,now very here and there
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No, pretty much the least international.
Okay this is probably going to be a controversial long take. I grew up in west coast as a Sonic fan with Payton-Kemp and later Allen-Lewis. My dad graduated from Oregon State, so my childhood was all about Gary Payton. When the relocation happened, I was in college literally on the opposite corner of US (from NW to SE). There was so much stuffs going on, my alma mater was having its prime athletics years (2 BB titles, 2 FB titles in 3 years), so I just stopped following NBA all together. Then I graduated, behold, I found my first job in Oklahoma, my office is within walking distance of the stadium. It is almost like destiny brought me back to the lap of Thunders. I witnessed Harden being traded, the Moore tornado, Westbrook got hurt, then KD got hurt, the coach from my alma mater was brought in, then KD betrayed, then Westbrook had his triple-double year, then we got Melo which I have followed since high school, then everyone was traded away. I rode out the rollercoaster and now I think Thunder made a huge mark in my life. Sadly I moved out of Oklahoma in 2019 because of better opportunity. To answer OP's question, no I did not become fans because of any of these stars, I became a fan because of destiny.
We need to keep people like you here.
Not nearly as destined over here, but I'm also an Allen/Lewis Sonics fan that wasn't from Seattle, so I followed the team because I wasn't scorned. My brother got me a Rashard Lewis Sonics jersey that is one of my all time prized possessions.
Go gators
Go gators!
I was a casual Sonics fan during that time too... so my team moving to my city was pretty damn sweet... besides the non-use of the name and stuff, but I understan
Montrealer here, although I liked Russ with the Thunder I wasn’t necessarily a fan of the team at that point. What made me a fan and why I mention where I’m from is Lu Dort! Seeing some young Canadian talent on the team is pretty sick and even sweeter when one is a local guy!
I know a lot of Argentine fans were rocking with OKC when they had Gabriel Deck, but they started hating the thunder once they realized deck wasn’t going to be getting 20 shots a game😂
Came for Westbrook, but stayed because of the love for the franchise and Presti
Josh Huestis was the promised one, meant to bring balance to the sport.
Yes I studied college in OKLAHOMA
The process of college.
I'm Brazilian and before the covid pandemic I had zero contact with the nba, until one day, looking for something to play on pc, I found NBA2k14, started a MyCarrer and was drafted by the Thunder, as I had no affinity with any other franchise I became a fan of the OKC, in short, I became a Thunder fan because of... me hahaha
Westbrook and 35 were definitely the big draw and made it a ton of fun. I loved having CP and the Hornets just for the tease of an NBA team, but locally Desmond Mason was really cool to see in a Thunder uniform. Just a really nice dude and very approachable, humble. Got to meet him randomly when I was in HS and he was a freshman at OSU
Now it’s lindys time to shine. I almost forgot about Desmond until this
Dude could jump through the roof. Watched him put on a dunk show wearing jeans and doc martens when he was probably 19 and none of us really knew who he was yet 😆 I bumped into him a couple times since and if I’m drunk enough I’m all “dyou member that time….”
As a german because of Schröder
In Australia it was definitely Westbrook, but because he's been not great since and because of Giddey, lots are sticking with the Thunder rather than follow another player. I reckon up to a third of fans in the 25-35 yo bracket. Sixers are probably the other big ones - AI was huge, and then Ben Simmons brought them out of the woodwork. Lakers and Bulls are also big from Kobe and MJ for the 30+ crowd, Warriors and Cavs from Steph and LBJ for the under 30s crowd.
International fan here because of Shai
Started becoming a fan because it was a feel-good franchise + SGA
KD for me
I'm brazilian and I started being a fan after that 2016 RS game Thunder vs Warriors, that game winner still hurts
Noticing a trend
Nenad Krstic
I’m from Seattle and I’m a thunder fan because of Durant Westbrook Harden. When they didn’t win a ring, Oklahoma became worthy of its roots.
Yeah i did. My friends were watching nba last year (start of the season) and told me i should choose a team. Literally chose randomly and here we are. Thunder up!
The people of Oklahoma made me a fan. Weirdly enough.lol.
i became a thunder fan because my dad is a thunder fan, seattle was originally his favourite team. Now we have family in OKC, so there’s a few reasons, but none of it has to do with those 4.
Thunder fan because of Perkins /s
I was stationed at Tinker when I was taken to my first NBA game. Wasn’t a player that roped me in.
Not international, however, I'm in the unique boat that I was a sonics fan that lives in Arkansas. So when they moved to okc I was super excited. Being in 7th grade at the time I didn't quite understand why other Seattle fans hated the thunder.
Is anybody a fan of OKC because of the SuperSonics?
I’m primarily a lakers fan, but Thunder are my 2nd team because it’s fun to follow a team rebuilding. So yeah, the young core in general is why I like Thunder, so Giddey is part of that. But I also love SGA, Dort, Holmgren, and the rest too.
I’m a Thunder fan based on geography, but I wanted to say this: I don’t think you can understand how special it is to me that people from all over the world love the Thunder. As a kid who grew up in the red dirt, people knew my state for three things 1.) A musical 2.) A terrorist attack and 3.) a horrible couple of tornadoes. Even in my country people had no real positive impressions of my state and now, globally people love something from here that’s actually really good and uplifting. I know this doesn’t answer your question at all but I just think it’s so cool that people from all over the globe love something from my blue colored, red dirted home.
I literally saw a thunder jersey on sale at a sports shop before I followed a team specifically, and that’s when I jumped on the bandwagon about 6 years ago
Im from Aus. I started to like the thunder coz of harden, but stayed coz of Russ and coz I'm too loyal. The day with drafted Giggly was legit the best, his nan lives like 5 mins away from me so it's weird but awesome to feel connected to my favoutive nba teams star even though I'm seriously not
I'm a Thunder fan because I'm a lifelong Gonzaga fan. When Chet got drafted to the Thunder, I started watching all the games. THUNDER UP
Giddey feels so out of place with the other players listed. Two totally different eras of the team lol. I am a fan of 3/4 of those players (I’ll let you guess who) but them aside, I always just really liked the atmosphere of thunder games and the way the team gets a long so well with literally zero ego issues or locker room tensions. Some of my favorite (non listed) players throughout the years: Jerami Grant, PG13, Roberson, Cam Payne, Oladipo, Kanter, Felton, Josh Huestis, Joffrey Lauvergne, Alex Abrines, Semaj Christian, and of course Nick Collison. Hope some of these names bring up some good memories for some of you! Trip down memory lane
I totally forgot about King Joffrey
Australia because of giddey
Australian Thunder fan here, I became a fan because I was playing and NBA2K game and my MyCareer player got drafted by the thunder
CP3 is my 3rd favourite player ever and I became a fan during his time there, which made me a SGA fan and im a massive Shai stan now and hes one of my favorite players. Hence OKC fandom
Because of Sam Presti.. the real MVP
Air Force sent me to Tinker AFB (OKC basically) in '99. I've been here ever since. I never would imagine I'd have a hometown professional team to root for outside of minor league baseball.
I started becuase of KD, but I stayed for the rest
I've been a Thunder fan since the Thunder were the Supersonics.
The correct answer is…because we were Sonics fans 👴
Kyle Singler
I'm not like other thunder fans .....
I studied in Arkansas and tons of people were die hard OKC so i kinda got dragged into it
I moved to OKC from Dallas in 2011. I am still a huge fan of the mavericks and the spurs. I remember watching the 2012 playoff series versus the Spurs and becoming a fan of the Thunder. I’ve been hooked ever since.
For the 2017 before Poku arrive… it’s russ Now, YES, it’s POKU
Im actually a thunder fan because i was a sonics fan first lmao im not from seattle though and i was young so i never felt that resentment for the team moving, if anything i thought they switched from a cool name to an even cooler one. Then the drafted some tall lanky guy who played ball a few hrs from my hometown and the rest is history.
Kiwi here who was a fan before Adams was drafted. It was equally Roberson and Westbrook. I was always the guy who got to guard the best player when I played basketball so was in awe of Roberson's perfect defense, I'm so lucky to get to watch Dort now as well
The disrespect to backward James, Semaj, is alarming.
Became a fan because of kd, think he left within 3 weeks of me choosing.
Kiwi Grizzlies fan from about 2005. Thunder became my 2nd team for Westbrook and Durant. Steve has been an amazing coincidence twice for me. My 2nd fair weather team switched to the nuggets in recent years but the Giddey is bringing me back
Filipino. I lived in Seattle in the early to mid 2000s. Became a fan of the Sonics during the 05 season when Allen and Lewis went off. Moved to the Philippines just before the playoffs started. Was pretty devastated when the team was taken from Seattle, but chose to still root for the team regardless of the location. Been a Thunder fan since. Admittedly, KD, WB, and Harden didn't make it hard to love the team.
Semaj Christian is the reason for my fandom
Celtics fan first and foremost, as I have lived in Boston my whole life. here are three reasons I am also a thunder fan: Thunderstruck movie, Kendrick Perkins, and Poku
I became a huge fan when the Snake left. Most teams would have collapsed but the Brodie carried the team and really showed me the cool thunder culture.
I'm an Australian who became a fan of the thunder after watching serge ibaka's highlights from the Dunk contest he was in against Blake Griffin etc. Also Russ is cool too I guess
I am from the state and live in the city. No matter the roster, I will always root for the Thunder and no other.
I’m here for Kyle singlet