What's the dance team gonna be called ... the Thunder Girls, the Storm Chasers, the Weather Girls, what?
This post is in its infancy and will be added to not only during the day but during the season. Eventually, I'll post a downloadable screen saver with appropriate music.
Although the name has not been decided, the members of the squad have been. 200 or so tried out for the team but only 20 were selected, and that happened at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill on September 11. Rumor has it that James Thunder Early of OkcNbaFans.com was a secret judge but I've not been able to confirm that.
The winners are shown below ...
The Oklahoman's September 11 Video
And they are ...
Katie, * Jada, Riane, Lauren, * Christhian, * Brittany from Oklahoma City
* Erica from Midwest City
Ashley from Shawnee
Megan from McCloud
Kimberly from Norman
* LaTeshia from Moore
* Lindsay & Brittany from Edmond
* Nicole from Mustang
* Shereka from Muskogee
Natalie from Altus
* Hayley from Springdale, AR
* Crystal and Sheri from Dallas
* Amy from Long View, TX
* = Former OKC Yard Dawgz Dancers
I don't have images of everyone yet (other than in small group photos) but I've assembled what I can find into a small slide show, below -- most are photos of the Yard Dawgz selectees but not all. If you want to see the slideshow, click the Play button ...
Check out the driving routes for the non-metro gals ... incredible! Approximate driving distances from the far-away locations to the Ford Center are as follows:
From Longview, TX: 313 miles
From Plano, TX: 196 miles
From Altus: 139 miles
From Muskogee: 139 miles
From Springdale, AR: 212 miles
What devotion!
The September 20 Tulsa World carried a nice article featuring Hayley (Springdale, AR) and Shereka (Muskogee):
They move, they groove for a shot at becoming Oklahoma's first NBA dancers.
OKLAHOMA CITY — They line up 20 at a time near the stage, covered in sparkly makeup and spandex dance gear. It’s their time to shine and shake it for a shot at becoming an OKC Thunder dancer.
In a state where cheerleading is almost as popular a sport as football, the chance to cheer for a major league home team is a big deal.
Oklahoma’s first NBA team put out the call for dance team auditions, and more than 200 women signed up. The field was narrowed to 83, and now 40 finalists await the stage at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill in Bricktown, hoping their moment in the spotlight will impress judges enough to land a coveted spot on the squad. * * * Shereka Jones struts on stage in a sparkly blue halter top and black hot pants and tells the audience:
“I’m an Okie from Muskogee, I love country music and just like Gretchen, I say ‘Hey y’all and yee-haw!’”
The dancers' career aspirations beyond professional cheerleading are a delightfully mixed bag.
One wants to be a radiologist, another dreams of opening a bakery (a career hazard for a gig where one must regularly bare her midriff). It raises the question: Where do aspiring radiologists and criminal justice lawyers go to buy zebra-striped bra tops and short-shorts with hot pink trim?
It's that kind of opportunity that had Shereka checking the OKC Thunder Web site immediately after the new team was announced, because she knew there would be a dance team and she wanted a spot. Her brain was playing tricks on her before she went on stage, but her muscles took over and she nailed her dance routine, ending with a backflip.
"I would just love to be a part of it," Shereka says.
If she makes the team, her family will drive from Muskogee to watch her dance at the Ford Center (except for Dad, who's the Wagoner High School basketball coach and may not have time during the season).
Hayley Rush, of Springdale, Ark., was a member of the OKC Yard Dawgz arena football dance team with Shereka. She's hoping they'll be teammates for the OKC Thunder franchise, too.
Last December, Hatchell earned a degree in dance from the University of Central Oklahoma. Since pirouetting across the stage, she has worked as a member of the Yard Dawgz arena football dance team, and she has also taught classes at DMC School of Dance in Midwest City. Her students range from ages 3 through 18 and her instructions focus on tap, ballet and lyrical dancing.
So without school to get in the way, and a schedule that offered a little more freedom, Hatchell took her turn center stage and showed that she had all the right moves. * * * Hatchell was overjoyed.
“It was unbelievable, surreal, it all happened at once,” Hatchell said about becoming an elite professional dancer. “That’s the highest point a dancer can reach.”
Often overlooked by many fans is the time commitment it takes to be a part of one of these teams. An NBA team has 41 home games each year and that number can rise if the team makes it to the playoffs. So with only a few weeks remaining before the season tips off on Oct. 29 when the Milwaukee Bucks come to the Ford Center, the team has a lot to learn. Dance team practices run from Monday through Thursday as this brand new squad has many routines to learn.
ONE MORE THING: Let's hope that Professional Basketball Club, LLC, pays these ladies MUCH more than the $50 per game that the Honeybees received from George Shinn's organization when the Honeybees were in town! I'll be reporting on this when the facts become known, as well as lots more photos taken during games & events, most of which I'll post in this article.
Last night, Saturday September 20, 2008, it was my pleasure to attend the Jacobson Foundation's annual fund raiser and cultural event called the "Pony Moon Gala." I've been with my wife once or twice before to similar events in Norman, but, to my knowledge, this was the 1st to be held in Oklahoma City, this one at the grand Skirvin Hilton Ballroom.
Ordinarily, the "boundaries" of my articles are Oklahoma City or County, per se, but with occasional lap-overs to the Oklahoma City metro. This is one of the latter combined with the former!
The event described below occurred at the Skirvin Hilton on September 20. The host of the event was the Jacobson Foundation in Norman and the celebrated guest honoree was a prominent state, national, and probably internationally known Native American person, W. Richard West Jr. However, before describing the festivities, some background is in order about Oscar Jacobson, the Jacobson Foundation, and W. Richard West, Jr. ABOUT OSCAR JACOBSON. Born in Vastervik, Sweden, in 1882, Oscar Brousse Jacobson immigrated with his family to the United States in 1890, settling in Lindsborg, Kansas, where he attended public school and then Bethany College located in the same community. There, he studied art with internationally known artist Birger Sandzen and graduated in 1908. This August 29, 2007, Norman Transcript article by David Dary says,
During the next five years Jacobson taught at Minneapolis College of Art and Design and at the state college of Washington. During the first half of 1915, he studied at the Louvre in Paris. When he returned to the United States, he was hired as director of the School of Art and art museum at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.
So, at age 32, he moved to Oklahoma to head the School of Fine Arts at the University of Oklahoma in Norman in which capacity he served until 1945. His home which came to be known as the "Jacobson House," was built in 1917 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
Larger image not available
The Norman Transcript article continues (I've inserted ¶ symbols to show paragraph breaks in the original article to shorten its vertical presentation here):
In the late 1920s, something happened that forever changed Jacobson and the study of art. ¶ Less than 60 miles west of Norman at Anadarko, Sister Olivia Taylor, a Choctaw, began teaching art to Kiowa Indian students at a mission school operated by St. Patrick's Catholic church.
Susie Peters, a woman working for the Indian agency in Anadarko, saw their art and was impressed. Peters organized an art club encouraging the students to memorialize the Kiowa culture in their drawings. She sent some of the drawings to Oscar Jacobson at OU in 1926. ¶ He was fascinated with what he saw. Their art was flat with ground planes of color. Jacobson invited the Indians to become special students at OU. Six Kiowa students – five boys and one girl -- came to study with Jacobson. They were James Auchiah (1906-1975), Spencer Asah (1905/1910-1954), Jack Hokeah (1902-1969), Stephen Mopope (1898-1974), Monroe Tsatoke (1904-1937 who was also known as "Hunting Horse") and Lois Smokey (1907-1981).
Smokey's parents rented a large home in Norman where all of the Kiowa students lived while they studied at OU. ¶ The five boys became known as the "Kiowa Five." While Lois Smokey's art was included in nearly all of the early exhibits, she has not received the credit she deserves in the story of what became known as the Kiowa Five.
Jacobson provided the students with art supplies and studio space. He also provided them with a monthly stipend for their living expenses. He ignored suggestions that the Kiowa artists be taught to draw in a more European manner. ¶ During the 1920s and '30s, Jacobson’s home became a meeting place for artists from Norman, Taos and Santa Fe who were shaking up the art world. At the same time Jacobson developed a market for Indian art that became known as the "Oklahoma School."
In time, 31 Kiowa artists came to Norman to study under Jacobson. He circulated their watercolors widely throughout the United States. In 1928 their works were featured at the International Art Congress at Prague, Czechoslovakia. ¶ The Prague exhibit resulted in another showing in Paris. Newspapers in Paris, London and elsewhere praised the art. Their works received so much attention that it was next included in an exhibition of Southwest art in New York City. The Kiowa Five became celebrities in the art world.
Oscar Jacobson's classes for Indian artists and those developed at the Santa Fe Indian School marked the beginning of the institutionalization of Indian painting. Jacobson lectured widely for the U.S. Park Service During the 1930s depression, he acted as a technical advisor for President Franklin Roosevelt's Public Works of Art project in Oklahoma. ¶ Three Kiowa – Hokesh, Asah and Mopope – participated in the Intertribal Indian Ceremonies in New Mexico in 1930. Mopope, Auchish and Asah painted sixteen murals on the upper walls of the Anadarko Post Office in 1936 and '37.
The works of the Kiowa Five and other Indians are today highly collectable. So are more than 500 landscape paintings that capture with simplicity the grandeur and dignity of the American West.
Jacobson, then about 63, retired from OU in 1945, but from his home on the northwest side of the campus he and his wife Jeanne d’ Ucel continued to encourage the development of Indian art. ¶ In 1951, the University honored Jacobson by naming the building housing the art museum for him. Today Jacobson Hall is the visitor's center. Oscar B. Jacobson died Sept. 15, 1966 at age 84."
Jacobson, His House, & the Kiowa Five (larger image not available)
THE JACOBSON FOUNDATION. The Jacobson Foundation was established in 1986 to preserve the home but, more, to honor and encourage "the legacy of Oscar Jacobson and his wife, Jeanne d'Ucel, while honoring the courage, talent, and achievement of the 'Kiowa Five' and all the Native American art students." The foundation was responsible for securing the Jacobson House's 1986 placement in the National Register of Historic Places. Noted Oklahoma historian, Arrell Morgan Gibson, one of my wife's principal mentors in her own Native American educational journey, called the Oscar Jacobson legacy "a preservation imperative."
The Foundation operates the Jacobson House Native Art Center in the former residence of the Jacobsons. By bringing art exhibits, cultural activites, lectures, workshops and educational events to the public, the Jacobson House continues a tradition begun by the Jacobsons and their Native American student artists. Russell Tall Chief, Director, is observed in several photographs taken on September 20, below.
Russell Tall Chief, Director (larger image not available)
Additional information about the house, Jacobson, the Kiowa Five and much more is contained in the Jacobson House website. The collage below is assembled from a panoramic image of the Jacobson House interior at that website:
ABOUT W. RICHARD WEST. When talking about W. Richard West, it's best to begin with his father, Walter Richard West Sr. ("Dick"), and his mother, Maribelle McCrea. Richard's parents met at Bacone College, Muskogee, while Richard's father was an art student there -- the father would later chair the art department at Bacone from 1947 to 1970 and at Haskell Indian Junior College from 1970 to 1977. When Richard was 13, his dad, Dick, took him to New York see the Heye Collection. "It was more Indian material than I had ever seen in my life," he says now, "almost overwhelming" -- in particular the artifacts of his own Cheyenne ancestors. See this article in the March-April 2001 issue of Harvard Magazine. In that article, the author says:
His father counseled West and his brother, "You are Cheyenne, and don't you ever forget that." As a result, West speaks of a "bona-fide rootedness [in Cheyenne culture] that centers me." His father also warned his sons that they would need higher education to succeed in the larger world. "We were pushed as fast as our little minds would run," West says. "I think we have six or seven degrees between us." He attended the University of Redlands, his mother's alma mater, and found a mentor in the late Earl Cranston, Ph.D. '31, an historian whom he credits with helping him gain admission to Harvard. It was in Cambridge, through family connections, that he met his future wife, Mary Ann Braden, a lawyer who is deputy assistant secretary of state for oceans and fisheries; the couple have two grown children.
Richard's dad, Dick, is nicely described in this Oklahoma Historical Society article. Included in his father's education was the University of Oklahoma where he was a student of Oscar Jacobson. In Richard's remarks at the Skirvin on September 20, he remembered being in the Jacobson house when he was five years old.
West was born in San Bernardino, California on January 6, 1943, and grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma. His father was Walter Richard West Sr., the Cheyenne master artist; his mother a music lover of Scottish ancestry. * * *
* * * West also kept up his interests in Indian history and culture, and in 1989 became involved in the efforts to create the National Museum of the American Indian. He served five years as coordinator and treasurer of the Native American Council of Regents of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, gaining valuable insights into the contemporary Indian art world.
In 1990, West was named as the founding director of the National Museum of the American Indian. The Museum is a part of the Smithsonian Institution, and includes over 800,000 objects from the Heye collection. West says of the Museum, "One of our most serious commitments at the National Museum of the American Indian is to offer a counterbalance to the distortions engendered by the painfully long exclusion of Indian people from the interpretation of their own history and culture." As director, West has been responsible for guiding the successful opening of the three facilities that comprise the Museum: the George Gustav Heye Center, which opened in New York City in 1994; the Cultural Resources Center, which opened in Suitland, Maryland in 2000; and the Mall Museum, which is scheduled to open on the last available site on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in 2004. West has also played a key role in guiding the philosophy of the "Fourth Museum," a community outreach program giving millions of people worldwide the opportunity to experience the Museum's collections, photo archives, exhibitions and public programs.
National Museum of the American Indian. West's crowning glory was doubtless his work in establishing the National Museum of the American Indian, part of the Smithsonian, on the Mall in Washington, D.C. My wife attended the hugely glorious opening of that facility and I'll post some of her photographs of that event later. Until then, a few images of the grounds are shown from general internet resources.
Below, Richard West is seen from within that facility with the U.S. Capitol in the background:
Street Views of the National Museum of the American Indian
West retired from his position in 2007 in the midst of some controversy generated by the Washington Post concerning lavish and, it argued, unrelated-to-his-position expenditures. See this pair of articles: December 28, 2007 and February 10, 2008. One expenditure thought inappropriate by the Washington Post was associated with West's retirement -- "a gala dinner, the trust funds paid for the $37,000 catering bill, which included medallions of prime beef tenderloin seasoned with habanero chiles, and quail glazed with wild plum jam. Federally appropriated funds, however, were used to pay $30,585 for an eight-minute DVD biography of West, which was shown during the dinner and presented to him as a going-away present."
As for Doug Dawg, I'm just glad that the Post made part of that cool video available for your viewing, regardless of how the newspaper characterized it in its captioning. It's a very nice video clip.
Originally, I embedded that clip here but now the image below is only a link to the Washington Post video location ... the code associated with the Post video was slowing down regular image loading here (particularly for users using MS IE Explorer, not so much for Firefox), so, now, click on the image to open the video in a new window or tab.
And, to be sure, the Washington Post's viewpoints were quite obviously not troubling those present on September 20, 2008, in downtown Oklahoma City when Richard West, honoree, was enthusiastically revered and esteemed below.
PONY MOON GALA 2008. These are photographs that I took at the event on September 20. The first thing I should say is that I (once again) got to mooch off of my wife, Dr. Mary Jo Watson, Director of the School of Art and Art History of the University of Oklahoma. In Mary Jo's academic circles, when I attend events with her many are surprised to learn that Dr. Watson even has a husband, I do that so infrequently. This occasion was one that I was glad that I didn't miss!
The Silent Auction. As said in the beginning, a principal reason for the annual event is to raise funds for the Jacobson Foundation. Three means exist to accomplish that goal: (a) Tickets — the event cost $150 per person to attend; (b) the "Silent" auction — various supporters of the Jacobson Foundation donate works of art which are bid on "silently," i.e., one writes down his/her bid on a piece of paper and sticks in a box or something, and the highest bidder wins the bidding; and (c) the ordinary auction at which oral competitive bidding occurs. The latter will be shown later in the article. Photos from the "Silent Auction" area follow:
Artist Tony Tiger (left, with coat & mustache)
Inside the Ballroom. Leaving the "Silent Auction" area, I took a few preliminary pics of the ballroom area and then the events which occurred, as follows:
Thanks to Dr. Watson, I was with her near the front Left to right: Mary Jo Watson Julie & Jackson Rushing - Jackson is Adkins Professor of the School of Art Ghislain d’Humières, Director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
After the meal, a few offered speaker remarks. I didn't get them all, but, of course, I did get Dr. Watson ...
... and the honoree, Richard West ...
a slide show of his father's (Walter Richard West Sr.'s) art was displayed on the large screen in the background
... who got the gift of a cool blanket ... Russell Tall Chief is in the center
... as well as a Native American serenade!
Here's a much better view of Richard West Founding Director Emeritus, Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian
Not Your Ordinary Stomp Dance! If you've attended Native American "dance" events, you sort of know what to expect. Dancing tends toward the "traditional" and doesn't change all that much.
Not This Time! The dance performed at the gala was co-choreographed by Holly S. Tall Chief, ballet faculty member at the University of Oklahoma School of Dance, and Cheyla Clawson, Graduate Fellow in the School of Dance, both of them seen performing in the photographs shown below. Jacobson House's publicity sheet about the dance reads, in part:
In honor of the West family, the gala will premiere an original dance composition inspired by the art of Dick West [Richard's father and student of Oscar Jacobson].
More particularly, Holly S. Tall Chief describes the dance performed by her and Cheyla Clawson as folows:
The contemporary duet titled, "Green Rainbow" was performed to the music of Lunar Drive. The dance was inspired by paintings by master artist Walter Richard West Sr. (Cheyenne/Arapaho), and was performed in honor of his son, Richard West, Founding Emeritus Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. Tall Chief and Clawson based their dance on the particular painting "Water Serpent" by Walter Richard West, Sr. Holly's movement represented the Thunderbird and Cheyla's movement represented the Water Serpent, two important symbols in Native cosmology, representing the forces of good and evil. Costumes for the dance were created by Wendy Ponca (Osage), a textile artist who has worked for the Santa Fe Opera costume department and independently as a fashion designer.
As I said, it was not your average stomp dance! Have a look!
Holly Tall Chief, left, and Cheyla Clawson, right
The following is my attempt to capture some motion by combining the 2 above photos
The ladies were kind enough to pose after the performance -- Hoo Ahh!
The "Live" Auction. After the above performance, several works of art (and a live buffalo) were auctioned off to the highest bidder. A few images follow ...
Hi There, What's New? After the auction, except for saying hello to friends, the event was done.
Richard & Mary Beth West, Mary Jo Watson
Betty Price, Retired Director of the Oklahoma Arts Council Amber Sharples, Curator, Oklahoma Art Collection, State Capitol
Here's a twirly-fingers to you, too, Amber Sharples! {grin} And that's all I have to say about that!
That's it ... hope you enjoyed Doug Dawgz yet another scoop over the mainstream media! Hoo Ahh!
Did you catch the FULL PAGE ad in the September 14, 2008, Sunday Oklahoman, page 14B? The text on the page reads, "Our Team has arrived. We have your site." The website is declared by the full page ad to be ThunderMadness.com.
Hey, sounds great ... at first blush. Like, hey, such a place doesn't already exist ... and certainly none do that can afford a full pageSunday Oklahoman ad.
What other Thunder fansite could afford to pay for a full-page ad in the Sunday Oklahoman? More, what Thunder fansite would be any different than Berry Trammel's proclamation that sports fan websites are "peep shows" and are no better than "porn sites" and one which, by lurking, you would be "driving the getaway car?"
(If you're curious about my use of bawdy language, click on Berry Tramel's above video and see and hear the source, first hand.) The answer is obvious -- the one sports fan forum which could possibly be immune from Tramel's condemnation, and the one which could "afford" to pay for the full page Oklahoman ad, would be the one set up by Tramel's employer ... ta da ... OPUBCO itself. So, pricewise, the ad is a freebie and that peep show will more than likely even include articles by Berry Tramel himself! It just can't get any better than that ... free advertising for a fan site ... one which is neither a peep show nor a porn site ... and, by lurking, you'll not be driving the getaway car ... right?
IS IT BETTER? Probably the 1st thing that an inquiring mind would want to do is to have a look at the OPUBCO's upstart, Johnny-Come-Lately, fan board. Indeed, it is glitzy with lots of splashy images and videos borrowed from the Oklahoman's web pages. Does it get any better that this?
Well, maybe it does get better ... and maybe it has been better ... since October 2005 when the Hornets first came to town. Way back then no Oklahoman fan site forum existed at all. Nor did it for the 2 seasons that the Hornets were in OKC. After the Hornets returned to New Orleans, no Oklahoman fan site existed, either. Only now, on the verge of the Thunder's 1st season in Oklahoma City, does the Oklahoman's fan board proclaim itself to be, "OKC's Premier Fan Site" -- when there, look at the title line in your browser's page for that self-proclaimed identification. Also, in the Forums area, notice the wholly unclassy sub-forum in "Around the NBA," the one called, "Sonics Grumbling," subtitled, "We got 'em. You don't. 'Nuff said." Hopefully that subtitle will disappear one day, along with Berry Tramel's above "Peep Show" video.
As of September 16-17, 2008, the former fan forum began migrating to its new name and location (now that the team name and colors are determined), and that is where current activity exists. The "archived" area contains legacy posts going back 3 years and covers the Hornets, the hiatus and litigation period, and the earliest days of the Thunder following relocation from Seattle to Oklahoma City. Below are many of the avatars of the great guys and gals who are members in OKC's oldest and best NBA in OKC fan board:
Beginning Sunday, October 16, 2005, and then known as HornetsCentral.com, a small group of upstart local NBA fans gave locals a place to talk about the NBA, the Hornets, and whatever else they were inclined to say. And did they ever. Schedules, game pics, opinions all over the map. It also drew the attention, sometimes ire, of many who were disposed to favor New Orleans and, sometimes, trash Oklahoma City, particularly, and Oklahoma in general. For two glorious years HornetsCentral.com provided the place for Oklahomans and other friendlies as well as for some who returned hostile fire! Where was OPUBCO's fan board during these two seasons? It didn't exist.
The board persevered through the hiatus after the Hornets returned to New Orleans hoping against hope that Oklahoma City would come to land another NBA team in the future. When the issues associated with the Seattle SuperSonics came to the fore, HornetsCentral, by then also known as SonicsBeat, was the home of the Oklahoma City faithful. Where was OPUBCO's fan board during the hiatus period of April 2007 until just last week? It didn't exist.
The new ThunderMadness.com may call itself "OKC's Premier Fan Site" but just saying so does not make it so ... even if the new OPUBCO board has the benefit of a full-page ad in the Sunday Oklahoman and the resources and power of OPUBCO behind it.
Since its humble beginnings on October 16, 2005, HornetsCentral, which later took on a dual name of SonicsBeat (and which has now become OKCNBAfans.com), 65,100 posts were made on 4,895 topics by the board's 1,365 registered members on its shoe-string resources. It has been and remains fiercely independent and the board's grass-roots origins have served OKC NBA fans well, now in its new internet digs.
Have a look at this screen-capture taken September 15, before the migration to the new site of Page 1 in the element of the forum called, "OKC Thunder Talk" (there are others):
Click the image for a larger view
Now that OKC's team name and colors have been resolved, the board has migrated to new web address with better software and features than were present in the past. It's just been opened, though it's still a work-in-progress: New OkcFans.com.
If you really want to participate in the best OKC NBA forum, message board, or want to call it a "peep show" like Berry Tramel did, it's a simple matter: visit the new OKCNBAfans.com today! Old content hasn't been migrated from the old forum yet (and I don't know if it ever will be), so you may want to have a look the former area, too. A sampling of comments by members made just before the migration to the new site reads like this:
Saberman54: I check out at least 7 or 8 different Thunder forums, but this is the only on my tool bar for quick reference.
Fast | Break: This is THE only Thunder forum imo.
Crysis: Thats right FB, these colors don't run...
HornetGirl: This place is home.
StormFan93: Who has the Bosworth avatar? Haven't you Oklahomans done enough to us!!! {grin}
Taranis: I was over at HR being chewed out and called names for being from OKC and having a simple curiosity about the Hornets situation when, I received a private message from one of the other Oklahomans registered at HR. I believe that message came from Patrick, he was telling me he was starting a forum so that we could have a place to talk without being ridiculed or banned. I have reading this board almost everyday since and do not plan on leaving.
Thunderhead: I'll keep coming here for the people and the content. I've learned more here and felt more up to date because of this site than any other. The other site is flashy, but I can stop by and look at it from time to time and then come here for the meat.
okcnba: This site will be just fine. It's got all of the hardcore fans on it, they're already dedicated to it, plus the conversations here are actually intelligent. Trust me, that is quite rare for a sports forum. Even the fact that they have a forum thread entitled "Sonics: We Got em You don't, Nuff said" tells me just how classy of a fan site it is going to be. Tramel wanted a peep show, he's got it now! I'd just like to see this site get a little jazzier, but I know that takes time. Content will be what keeps this site #1 concerning thunder.
josh aka eggman: The members here have be good to me. I do wish we had a forum that looked a little bit more like theirs soon.
Saberman54: The media in OKC is sadly lacking at the present time. The DOK and Channel 9 sports seem to have the most up to date articles and reports, but even those are few and far between. Channel 4 and 5 have the worst coverage I've seen. Hopefully that will get better as we get started with the new season coming up.
As I see it they will have to get reporters that cover the Thunder and the NBA exclusively to bring year round and informative coverage an information.
Till then local forums and blogs seem to be the only place to get that info. The OKCHornetsCentral(soon to be OKCNBAfans.com) forum is the most up to date and informative site I have found. Forum members are the most informed and seem to get breaking news well before any of the news outlets (how do they do that). We'll have to see how the Sports Animal does on their reporting, they have yet to show any initiative as the official Thunder radio network.
Karried: I never would have heard of this site if it weren't for this thread and Doug's blog...lol Razz Maybe rethink the link?
This site will be awesome with a little color tweaking .... give it some time... you have to realize, that site is funded by some big boys ... this site is run from the heart... with no funds to pay a webmaster I imagine... anyone want to pitch in to help?
Betts: I think it's all about content. If people like the content, that's where they will hang out. I like showing up here and finding a post from some obscure newspaper with information (ala your scoop, Doug), and knowing things a day before they show up in the DOK, or finding that the DOK seems to be reading our posts, which fuel their articles. Perhaps by setting up their own forum, they're trying to avoid being scooped!
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