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Goin’ Old School

Friday, May 18th, 2012

Usually when the Thunder is on the road, the team has its game day shootaround at the arena. When they are in Los Angeles, Coach Brooks likes to take them to the gym at Santa Monica High School. It’s your basic old-school gym that takes the players back to their roots.

No fancy bells or whistles, just a floor and hoops and lots of history. It reminds the guys of their years and years of hard work, dedication and focus to get to the level they are at today.

Game 3 tips off just after 9:30 p.m. CDT on ESPN and Thunder Radio (with Pinto/Davis/Long)

Immediately following the game, stay with thunder.nba.com for a full ThunderLive online postgame show .

-Dan Mahoney

Posted in Players, Playoffs 2012 | Comments Off

News travels fast

Thursday, May 10th, 2012

Like most offices, news travels fast around here.

As the press conference announcing James Harden winning the Kia NBA Sixth Man Award began on NBATV, Thunder staffers started to gather in our reception area to watch the announcement.

Pretty soon, the ladies at our front desk were commenting on having a full house as we all watched, smiling over the recognition of our team and pointing out our co-workers as they were caught on camera.

We were also excited to learn that Harden is donating his Kia Sorento to the Oklahoma City YWCA, an organization both Harden and the Thunder have supported in the past.

Congrats to our team, and GO Thunder!

- Karina Henderson

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Thunder auctions: Stretching our reach

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

When the city of Brazzaville, Republic of Congo – Serge Ibaka’s hometown – was struck by a tragic accident earlier this month, the Thunder stepped up to help by raising funds for relief through an in-game auction and raffle.

It wasn’t the first time the team has worked with a player to extend our reach beyond our regular community programs.

In times past, players have asked to work with the Thunder Community Foundation to help support causes that they connect with on a more personal level or want to support beyond their individual means.

For example, on Sunday, the team worked with Russell Westbrook to host another special auction and raffle during the Miami Heat game. Westbrook chose to support Sanctuary Women’s Development Center, an Oklahoma City organization that helps homeless and low-income women and children to overcome poverty. With items donated from the Thunder, from Westbrook, from a local artist and even from the Miami Heat, the auction and raffle raised $12,500 to benefit Sanctuary.

If you’re headed to the game this Monday, April 2 (against the Memphis Grizzlies), you’ll want to check out another auction and raffle that stems from a player-team partnership. James Harden is helping the YWCA of Oklahoma City kick off a capital campaign to expand the capacity of their shelter for battered women and children.

Harden will put up for auction his jersey worn during Monday’s game, which he’ll autograph while meeting the auction winner postgame. Other autographed items will be up for auction, and a team-signed ball will be raffled off.

Stop by the tables outside of Section 120 during Monday’s game, or CLICK HERE to give your direct support to this outstanding cause.

UPDATE 4/3: Last night, our fans’ tremendous support helped the Thunder Cares Foundation (new name!) raise more than $15,000 to help the YWCA of Oklahoma City. Great job!

- Karina Henderson

Posted in Community, Game Nights, Players | 1 Comment »

Extended Thunder Family

Friday, March 16th, 2012

When disaster struck in the heart of Africa, many residents there didn’t know where they would get the strength to recover, rebuild or restart their lives after what was lost.

And few residents of Brazzaville, capital city of the Republic of Congo, would have envisioned the strength and support pouring out from Oklahoma City on Friday night.

The Thunder Community Foundation, which holds frequent in-game auctions to raise funds for community outreach programs, decided to donate all of its proceeds from Friday’s auction to help the people of Brazzaville after a munitions depot exploded on March 4, killing more than 250 people, injuring 1,300 more and leaving at least 5,000 homeless when neighborhoods were leveled following the blast.

In true Oklahoma style, support came from all sides, following the lead of Ibaka. The native of Brazzaville donated his autographed game-night jersey, to be presented to the auction winner personally after the game.

Even Tony Parker of the Spurs, OKC’s opponents for the night, gave an autographed jersey for the cause.

As the auction and a special raffle began before the game at Chesapeake Energy Arena, fans crowded the tables, putting in bids and buying up raffle tickets for a team-autographed ball.

But the fans didn’t stop at that. Many fans gave the money for the raffle, but wouldn’t take a ticket. Some threw in extra donations with their purchase.

One fan, Robert Chapman, gave enough money to buy 20 raffle tickets, then took the slips and started giving them to children so they might have a chance to win the drawing.

Chapman (pictured above, in orange) is a Serge fan who found the auction when he came to the game. Though he can only come to a few games a year, he made sure to pitch in for this cause.

Last year, Chapman came to another game when the Thunder was supporting a cause special to Nick Collison and holding another raffle. At that time, “There was this little girl next to me, and she wanted to buy a ticket. And her mom said, well, we can’t afford a ticket,” he recalled. So Chapman bought her a ticket and gave her the joy of a chance to win, while he helped out an important cause.

This year, seeing the opportunity to help Serge’s hometown, he didn’t hesitate to act again.

With the generosity of fans like Chapman, the Thunder brought in $16,000 Friday night, all of which will be donated to UNICEF for their on-the-ground relief efforts in the Republic of Congo.

Any fans interested in adding to the donations and supporting the people of Brazzaville in our extended Thunder family can send a check (with “Congo Relief” in the memo line) to:

Thunder Community Foundation
c/o Christine Berney
Two Leadership Square
211 N. Robinson Ave., Suite 300
Oklahoma City, OK 73102

-Karina Henderson

Posted in Community, Game Nights, Players, Thunder Fans | 1 Comment »

Bleeding blue

Friday, December 30th, 2011

Today’s Oklahoma Blood Institute blood drive at the Cox Convention Center had a few special features you don’t normally find when you’re giving blood – a bouncy castle, a free Rumble T-shirt for donors, a few Thunder Girls and Thunder players Cole Aldrich and Reggie Jackson. The all-day event is a Thunder tradition, supporting a life-saving organization at a critical time of year.

Our blood drive runs until 7 tonight, but you can always find an opportunity to join this cause and give blood by visiting obi.org.

We’ll have more details, including photos and videos, on the main website soon – in the meantime, come on down and see if you bleed Thunder blue!

- Karina Henderson

Posted in Community, Players, Thunder Girls | Comments Off

Media Day

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

We’re just putting the wraps on Media Day, held this afternoon at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. This is a chance not only for the press to talk with our players one-on-one about the upcoming season, but also for our staff to get photos and videos we need of the players to use for in-arena videos, promotional materials, broadcast segments … the list goes on.

This year, while the players were stopping through photography stations, green-screen sets and even our live webcast, another group was in a separate room getting their moment to show that they’re an important part of the team, too.

About 30 Season Ticket Members were part of a commercial shoot for an upcoming marketing campaign that we’re set to launch during this season. Like the players, they went in front of the cameras with a green-screen background to deliver lines and B-roll for our soon-to-be-released ad. When you see the final product, they’ll be sharing the screen with some of our players, who also shot scenes for the same campaign.

We didn’t just keep them in their own room the whole time – Karlis, our director of Season Ticket Retention, and some of our Account Managers made sure these fans had an opportunity to watch the players in action on the arena floor.

Of course, the action wasn’t what they’re used to watching at the arena – it consisted mostly of players posing for photos, stopping by the live webcast to answer questions and cracking jokes at one another.

Without the fans, though, the team wouldn’t have been complete; with them, every part of Thunder Basketball was represented at Media Day.

- Karina Henderson

Posted in Chesapeake Energy Arena, Players, Thunder Fans | Comments Off

Longing for summer camp

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

I saw a comment on Twitter earlier today from someone who stated that, though she was almost 30, there was nothing she wanted to do more than to attend a Thunder Youth Basketball Camp like the one going on this week.

I know that for some of us staffers who do get to attend camps, it’s tough not to pick up a ball and join right in.

Today, several members of the business office stopped by the camp as Serge Ibaka spent an hour playing with, coaching and talking to the camp participants. We were there facilitating media presence, taking photos and videos of the visit or just jumping in wherever someone needed a little extra help.

But some of us – myself included – spent a good chunk of our childhoods at basketball camps. Just like the kids today, we developed our basketball skills, our sense of teamwork and hard work, and our love of the game.

Most of all, we had fun – which is why it’s so tough, even when we’re wearing business attire, not to grab a ball and jump right in.

We all had our turn when we were young, and now it’s this generation’s time to learn, to grow and to have their fun.

… Still, I was this close to kicking off my heels today and running some lay-up drills.

- Karina Henderson

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POV

Monday, May 16th, 2011

Since so many people have cameras in their pockets at all time, once in a while we find overlapping photos and videos of the exact same Thunder moment captured from different perspectives.

Like when the team came back from Memphis on Friday night, and a fan and a player both posted videos from the airport.

Or when Lump from The Sports Animal pulled a stunt to get into Game 2 of our second-round series, climbing up on the top of the OKC Arena with Rumble while Thunder Alley was going on below:

Or like last night, when fans and staff alike were capturing the closing moments of the team’s Game 7 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.

From Dan, one of our executives, who set up near the court to record the game’s end:

…And from Leah, who watched the moment from Loud City:

No matter how you look at it, we’re still your Thunder.

- Karina Henderson

Posted in Players, Playoffs 2011, Thunder Fans | Comments Off

Round-the-clock fans

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

A handful of the dozens of fans who greeted the team at 3:30 a.m. Posted by @hotdogokc.

One of the first things I do in the morning is to check in on our social media sites and see if there are any questions or comments that need our attention. Usually, even after an evening game, there are cycles to the comments we get, spiking at the end of the game and dropping off during the wee hours of the morning as everyone heads to bed.

Not today.

Looking at all our comments on Twitter and Facebook, that drop-off we usually see overnight just wasn’t there. Fans were commenting about last night’s game straight through into this morning – talking at first about how great the game was and how late they were up, and then talking about how great the game was an how tired they were this morning.

But a small group of fans decided to pull a Thunder all-nighter. At 3:30 a.m., when the team returned from Memphis, a crew of fans was there to greet them. All in Thunder gear, all shouting “Let’s GO Thunder!”, this group made sure that our team got some hometown appreciation following their hard-fought victory.

As The Oklahoman’s Darnell Mayberry said today, “These cheers still were as boisterous as they would have been inside the Oklahoma City Arena after the final buzzer … That’s what makes Oklahoma City Thunder fans special.”

- Karina Henderson

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Reading the community

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

This morning, The Oklahoman ran an article highlighting the Thunder’s commitment to helping children achieve success by emphasizing reading skills. The article featured Serge Ibaka and some of the reading-focused visits he’s made to schools during the season.

The story reminded me of an email we received a few days ago from a teacher who’s been participating in our Thunder Reading Challenge, a competition that rewards students in participating classrooms who read the highest number of minutes in any given month. This year’s challenge ran from September through April.

Lea Conaway, a teacher at Central Elementary in Moore, sent us the name of her April winner and added her thanks to the Thunder for doing the Reading Challenge. “My students have soared in reading scores,” she wrote. “I think this made a difference.”

With over 11,000 K-3rd students from 118 schools participating in this year’s challenge, if other teachers are seeing that same level of impact, this program could be making a difference on a pretty large scale.

- Karina Henderson

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