Go Thunder!?

Editor's Note: From this day forward, Wednesday's on Rambling Tangent will be dedicated to the Oklahoma City Thunder and the NBA. Read at your own emotional risk.



I've been known to go against the grain occasionally in my life. My opinion on the Oklahoma City Thunder is one of those rebel moments.

July 2008 was a horrible time in Seattle, Washington. It marked the end of an era when the Seattle Sonics left town for the Oklahoma flatlands and took the NBA's brightest future with it.

Before the team moved, they drafted the best player since LeBron James, sharp-shooter Kevin Durant. The 19 year-old Durant was fresh off a dominant freshman year at the University of Texas. He then was promptly selected second overall in the 2007 NBA Draft by your Seattle Suuuuuuper Sonics. Sorry, I just had to. (Sonics P.A. Announcer, Matt Pittman was incredible)

Durant met all expectations by winning the 2007 NBA Rookie of the Year award. He averaged 20 points per game as a teenager; begging the question, how high is this young man's ceiling?

At that point, the Sonics still had a future in Seattle and it was burning bright, at least on the court.

But then it all came crashing down.

Of course, the Sonics didn't leave without a fight. It has been well documented how the Sonics weren't moved, they were stolen. Owner, Clay Bennett bought the beloved basketball franchise from Starbucks owner, Howard Shultz. Bennett promised to try his best to keep the Sonics in town and get the stadium funding they needed.

Neither happened. Shocking.

Bennett was planning on moving the team from the get-go. The cowboy Bennett was based in Oklahoma City already, so moving the team there after one year was inevitable. The moving trucks came and took Seattle's baby away and we have grieved for two years straight.

It happened Seattle, it is time to move on.

I'm attempting to rip the life-sized Band Aid off this deep emotional wound Seattlites suffer from. I know many fans will not like my thoughts on this subject but that is not enough to stop me from sticking with my team.

The location changed, the jersey's look different but the history is still ingrained in my cranium and I 'Refuse To Lose' (those memories).

Bennett can't take away the fact that the franchise he purchased, thrived in Seattle for four decades, including in 1979 when the Sonics brought home a championship. He can't take away the fact that Kevin Durant was drafted by Seattle and played his rookie season at Key Arena.

With that said, I'm declaring myself an unabashed Thunder fan that never stopped rooting for the team he grew up watching. Bring on the boos and hissing. I will be the bigger man in this controversy and go with my heart. The rest of you can quietly and enviously, watch Durant dominate the NBA out the corner of your eye.

The O.K.C. Thunder kick-off their season at home tonight against the highly talented Chicago Bulls. All-Star point guard, Derrick Rose runs the Bulls offense along side his odd-looking, yet very physical, Joakim Noah. These two are the center-pieces to the Bulls lineup but the edge in this matchup of young basketball duo's goes to O.K.C.

The league's reigning scoring champion (30 points/game), Kevin Durant, returns with his trusty sidekick, point guard Russell Westbrook. Durant enters his fourth season and Westbrook's third season coming off a great summer in which they won a gold medal with the USA Basketball team at the World's Championship.

But the last time the NBA saw this combo and rest of the Thunder players, they were pushing the Los Angeles Lakers to the brink of elimination from the 2009 playoffs. In the end, the Lakers were the better team and went on to defeat the Thunder and everyone else for that matter, winning the 2009 NBA title.

The future for the Thunder is simple: feed Durant the ball and the wins will come. I expect O.K.C. to earn a high-seed for the playoff run and shock the basketball world by upsetting a couple veteran teams. They are not championship caliber. Yet.

Earlier I posed the question: how high is Durant's ceiling? It was a trick question.

There is no ceiling.