THE GRAHAM SLAM

An admission, Thunder fans: I haven’t always liked your team very much.

When I enrolled at OU nine years ago, the Thunder were the hottest young team in the NBA. And I was jealous. Growing up near Dallas, my Mavericks had been the laughingstock of the league for the first 20ish years of their existence.

Then they acquired a transcendent international star named Dirk Nowitzki, and things were looking better. But it still took them more than a decade – a decade! – to hoist a championship trophy in 2011, the franchise’s one and only so far.

Contrast that with Oklahoma City, which had existed for all of three years at that point yet somehow acquired not one, not two, but THREE of the best players in the NBA. I couldn’t believe it, and I didn’t like it. It seemed only a matter of time until there was a dynasty in OKC.

Of course, that’s not exactly how it turned out. But the Thunder have lived a charmed existence through their first decade-plus in Oklahoma.

Now, the hard part. OKC has yet to reach the mountaintop, and it probably hasn’t been farther away from that goal since its inaugural season. But general manager Sam Presti has amassed a mountain of draft capital and some of the league’s most intriguing young talent in players like Josh Giddey, Aleksej Pokusevski, Lu Dort and, especially, Shea Gilgeous-Alexander.

I still love my Mavericks. And I’m probably an even bigger fan, now, of the Utah Jazz, whose arena was blocks from my apartment and across the street from my office when I lived in Salt Lake City.

But starting this season, I’ll be covering the Oklahoma City Thunder not just for fun, but for my job. And I couldn’t be more excited.

So what does that mean for you? It means that each week, you can expect my recaps and analysis of Thunder basketball in the pages of the Watonga Republican.

But it won’t just be in this paper – my coverage will be appearing in Wesner Publications papers across the state, from Madill to Ponca City and many towns in between.

There will also be an accompanying newsletter with additional insights that subscribers can expect each week.

On Tuesday, I joined my first media availability with the Thunder, who were coming off a 113-97 preseason loss to Charlotte the night before. Coach Mark Daigneault was gracious enough to give my simple question a thoughtful answer.

It was awesome.

I never imagined I’d be in a position to cover professional sports at this job, and I’m extremely grateful. To Brett Wesner, Scotty Maxwell, Kimberly Jenkins and my coworkers here in Watonga, I extend a humble thank-you for your support and trust.

Look for my new Thunder content within the next few weeks. Thunder Up, baby.