Archive for November, 2012

Every Kiss Begins With KD

Thursday, November 22nd, 2012

Jean Liddell of Norman was up early Thursday morning, preparing Thanksgiving dinner for her family of 35…not bad for an 85-year old great-grandmother hit square in the head by a sharp pass from an NBA basketball player the night before.

Sitting courtside at Wednesday night’s Thunder game with her sons Mike and Mickey, Mrs. Liddell was enjoying her favorite team when midway through the third quarter an errant Kevin Durant pass came her way. The ball hit her in the head and even knocked her glasses to the floor.

“ I was having a great time and that ball just came out of nowhere, you don’t think about it,” she told us today. Seconds after being hit, she was all smiles as Durant came over, asked her if she was ok,  bent down and gave her a comfort kiss on the head. “Ain’t he a sweet guy?  He is so sweet,” she added. Thabo Sefolosha also helped comfort her.

Lightning struck twice a few minutes later as the ball came towards her again. This time, hitting her on her knee, on which she recently had surgery. Realizing that might be an unlucky seat, she wanted to enjoy the rest of the game in another location. “My son got up and moved me out of that terrible territory,” Liddell joked.

Mrs. Liddell’s “souvenir” for the night is a black eye from where the ball hit her, but she said she is fine. “That’s minor when you have somone like Kevin give me a kiss.”

She said Thabo and the Clippers’ Jamal Crawford came over to check on her after she was hit the second time, one of the referees gave her a hug and Rumble came and sat in her lap. “After a while I said, everyone go away so I can watch that game again,” she joked.

As for her family, they are glad she is doing well and are taken with her new-found YouTube fame. Her son Mickey is a Hollywood producer whose phone lit up immediately with texts from friends in L.A. who watched it all on national TV.

“I had little angels watching me the whole time. I have that guardian angel that stays with me, when a ball comes at me, it didn’t even hurt me,” Mrs. Liddell said.

But next game, she won’t take any chances. ” I will pick a different seat next time, I think.”

Watch Brian Davis and Grant Long’s coverage of the moment on FOX Sports Oklahoma.

-Dan Mahoney

Posted in Game Nights, Players, Thunder Stuff | 2 Comments »

Warm hearts

Wednesday, November 21st, 2012

Around the Thunder business office, we enjoy a good story. And when you engage with as many people as we do on a daily basis – whether it’s the 18,203 we’re in touch with every game night or the kids we encounter during community events – we accumulate a lot of stories, and we swap them regularly.

The best ones spread almost virally throughout our work day, reaching every corner of the office. This is one that’s already starting to get around.

On Monday, we had one of our biggest community events of the year – our annual trip to the City Rescue Mission in downtown OKC. This is an all-team event, where players, coaches and other staff volunteers serve a meal to hundreds of our city’s homeless population, then put on a mini-carnival for all the families in the mission’s gymnasium. It’s part of our Holiday Assist tradition (which we are proud to have presented by our partner, Cox Communications).

We love this event. It’s big, it borders on the chaotic, but we always walk away from it with our eyes brightened and our hearts warmed.

We posted several photos from the event on our Facebook page, including this one of Kevin Martin playing basketball with one of the young boys who currently lives at the City Rescue Mission shelter:

Beyond the direct impact of Monday’s event on everyone involved, this picture had an extended effect that we only learned about when we saw this comment on our Facebook post.

Many thanks to Cindy for sharing, many kudos to that young man for his courage in telling his story and much praise to the class for being so respectful. This is a wonderful story for us to take with us going into our Thanksgiving weekend, as well.

- Karina Henderson

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A Turkey Day surprise

Monday, November 19th, 2012

Amanda, one of our Season Ticket Members and mom to Tanner, passed along a story that her son had written for a school assignment:

On behalf of the Thunder, here’s hoping your Thanksgiving is more relaxing than the one Tanner imagined. Happy Thanksgiving!

- Karina Henderson

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Blue Alliance goes global

Monday, November 12th, 2012

With yesterday being Veterans Day, we are thinking of all our veterans, as well as our current servicemen and -women bravely working to preserve our nation and our freedoms.

James Reynolds serves as our Owasso Blue Alliance Captain, but he’s also serving our country in Saudi Arabia right now.

James sent us this photo to make sure we know he’s “still repping the Thunder 8,000 miles away.”

Thank you to James and to all our brave men and women currently – and formerly – in uniform.

- Karina Henderson

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Help for the holidays

Sunday, November 11th, 2012

Our community programs are all, in one way or another, driven by our fans. Whether it’s a heartwarming story that leads us to reach out to an organization or the funds raised for the Thunder Cares Foundation through our in-game auctions, we could not touch so many lives across the state without you.

That’s why it is so appropriate that this year’s Holiday Assist initiative, presented by Cox, would begin with an event that calls upon our fans to give directly to a cause.

As fans entered tonight’s game against the Cavaliers, they were asked to bring donations for the Thunder food drive. To maximize the impact of each donation, we partnered with a few other organizations, including Gov. Fallin’s “Feeding Oklahoma Food and Fund Drive,” the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma and Homeland, who offered to match every contribution.

Through those partners and your generosity, nearly 4,000 Oklahomans will get a much-needed meal going into this holiday season. With Homeland’s match, we collected 5,000 pounds of food tonight – two and a half tons – that will reach those in need during a season when we all feel particularly called by the spirit of giving.

We are constantly humbled by the willingness of our fans to rise to the occasion when asked to help a neighbor, and tonight we thank all those fans who keep us in that state of being.

If you would like to make a contribution to the Regional Food Bank through Gov. Fallin’s initiative, please click here.

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- Karina Henderson

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Thunder warrior

Wednesday, November 7th, 2012

There are some pictures that you see and you just know they have a good story behind them.

This photo, which had been forwarded both to Megan and Janaki on our staff, definitely falls into that category.

After returning from a 25-day safari in Africa last month, Thunder fan Rebecca O’Haver told us how her photograph came to be.

For the final leg of their safari, Rebecca and her friend stayed in Laikipia, Kenya – a town about 150 miles north of Nairobi and only accessible via a very rough dirt road. They stayed at a camp run by a Samburu warrior named Lemarti.

Here’s what Rebecca wrote:

On my walk to lunch one day, I wore my Thunder T-shirt. I heard the word “NBA” and turned around to see this very tall warrior walking quickly toward me. He repeated, “NBA,”  and I said, “Yes, Thunder.” He had the biggest smile on his face. I was amazed that the NBA and the Thunder even made it this far into the African bush. There is no running water or electricity at this camp. And definitely no wifi. Do our players realize how far their recognition of talent travels?

After lunch I brought my Thunder shirt back to the dining tent and asked to see the “Thunder warrior.” When he arrived, I gave him the T-shirt. He immediately put it on, and the rest of the warriors started coming into the dining tent, looking very impressed. It was too cool to pass up. I went and got my camera. You can tell he had a bit of swagger going on once he put on that shirt. He was proud and so was I.

The rest of my stay, the other Maasi and Samburu tribesmen and warriors called this man Thunder! Cool, huh? I wonder if a Thunder T-shirt ever made it this far away from home?

Other Thunder T-shirts may have traveled more miles, but maybe not quite so far from what we know as “home.”

Thank you, Rebecca!

- Karina Henderson

Posted in Thunder Fans | 5 Comments »