It still burns. Watching Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and the Thunder thrive is tough for any true Sonics fan to watch, but if you’re like me, you’ve accepted that the city was robbed of its team and have actually found the NBA playoffs enjoyable to watch again (beyond just watching the hilarious Jimmy Kimmel specials) especially now that I don’t have to hear about Kobe Bryant.
A Seattle news station has now forced me to come to terms with the fact that Seattle-Oklahoma City relations are still anything but friendly with the hilarious announcement that from this week forward, KIRO TV News will only be referring to the OKC Thunder as the “Former Sonics” throughout the duration of their playoff appearance.
Well, apparently nobody can take a joke, especially OKC fans. Let the finger pointing and name-calling begin, because after all, we live in the social media world now where literally everyone has an opinion. Here are a few of my favorite comments not laden with profanities found on the NewsOK Facebook Page:
- “Seattle is the rich, good looking guy who lost his girl to a roughneck while he was admiring himself in the mirror and neglecting her.”
- “Maybe that’s why they’re not there anymore … besides Seattle not wanting to support the team!”
- “Simple minded sore losers with low IQs. They had their chance.”
Okay, if anything, people in Seattle are the opposite of simple-minded. You can’t even sit down to have a beer with a friend without them asking you if you heard about the five new studies that were just released about potential toxins in plastic water bottles. Or how we’re going to fix world hunger. Pretty much everything here is gone over with a fine-toothed comb. And remember this adorable joke covered by the same news outlet? As if you’re not instigators, OKC. Finally, in defense of KIRO, I’ll say that they chose to do this six years later, and if you look on the station’s website, they report in print by using the team’s actual name.
I’m not really sure exactly what media portrayal was like regarding how the team came to be in OKC, but it appears lacking. I urge these fans that seem to believe they ended up with a team because we didn’t care enough about the Sonics to watch Sonicsgate (airing on ESPN Classic this Saturday at 9AM PST). The rallies that emerged over the past several years for the pilfered team could fill OKC’s stadium over and over again. The Sonics had a World Championship (and many more were it not for Michael Jordan) and its former players are deeply rooted in Seattle’s community, so of course we’re all still upset. So, let the city have some occasional fun with it. Come on, OKC … let’s all just get along. No? Okay, fine.
For the record, Oklahoma will still be the last state I step foot in.
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