Here’s the thing, I’ve been calling for a blowup and rebuild for 2 years now (since the Russell Westbrook MVP year). I don’t like watching hero ball, which unfortunately means I’m going to hate watching Houston, and I don’t particularly care about triple-doubles. I knew we weren’t going to win any championship when Russ was the best player on our team. But I never thought that it would hurt this bad seeing him get traded. it’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

I was born and raised here in the shining city if OKC. I remember in the years after Hurricane Katrina desemated New Orleans, when Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets called Oklahoma City and the Ford Center their home for 2 seasons. Those 2 years helped foster a love in me that would never die. Not a love for a team, nor for a player, but for a game. The NBA had their talons in me, and it would never let me go.

On September 3rd, 2008, I, like many Oklahomans, was watching the announcement. We knew that the former Seattle Sonics were heading to Oklahoma City, and they wouldn’t be called the Sonics. We also knew the 6 final contenders for the new franchise name. It was going to be; the Barons, the Bison, the Energy, the Marshalls, the Wind, or the Thunder. It was long suspected that the name was going to be the Oklahoma City Thunder, but when Clay Bennett stepped up to the podium while the intro to AC/DC’s Thunderstruck was playing, I couldn’t help but feel giddy about our name and the future of our franchise. The Hornets made me a basketball fan, but that press conference made me a Thunder fan.

Our future wasn’t always the brightest. That first year in OKC saw the Thunder ending the 08-09 season winning only 23 games, while losing 59, making us dead last in the Western Conference. We had all the promising young talent you could ask for, we just didn’t really get the chemistry. That 08-09 season, however, would be the only losing season the Thunder have recorded so far. The 09-10 season saw our first ever playoff berth, in the 10-11 season we saw the Western Conference finals for the first time. The year after that, in the 11-12 season, The Oklahoma City Thunder, after existing for only 4 years, got home-court advantage in the NBA Finals, where we lost to LeBron James and the Super Heat. 

Then, the Harden trade fell. James Harden to the Rockets. Yeah, that one kinda stung a little bit. He was the first player ever drafted by the Oklahoma City Thunder. But I understood why he had to go. Everyone could see that he was something special, even James himself, so no one was really surprised when he wanted to be “The Guy” on his own team. But even after losing Harden we still had Kevin Durrant and Russell Westbrook, 2 of the best young players in the league. Fast forward a few (winning) seasons to the Summer of 2016 and KD was gone too. Yet even after losing a player who, up to that point, was a 4x scoring champion, an inductee into the 40-50-90 Club, on 7 All-Star Teams, 5 All-NBA 1st Teams, and had won the MVP, the Thunder still had hope.

We put everything we had into Russell Westbrook, and he gave us everything right back. Off the court, he participated in community outreach programs, basketball camps, and Thunder Cares, and all that is great, but that wasn’t his love letter to this city. His love letter was on display for the whole world to see every time he stepped onto the court. Playing with a ferocity that no one could ever match, and he channelled all that energy into a near impossible feat; averaging a triple-double for 3 Straight Seasons. Let’s not forget that before that 16-17 MVP season, triple-doubles were a sight to behold, a stat line that only the best achieved sometimes. But Westbrook somehow got 42 in a single season, breaking a record that had existed since the early 60’s.

That was his love letter. That was Russell Westbrook saying “I’m here. This is my city too.” Then he showed us that same love for 2 more years. I don’t know if any basketball city has ever loved their star like OKC loves Westbrook. That love is woven into the fabric of our city, and we will always feel it. But now it’s time to say goodbye. Our favorite son is all grown up and ready to venture out on his own. It’s been clear since Durrant left that OKC wasn’t winning a Championship anytime soon. After being plagued with injuries year after year, and trading away Paul George, our most promising addition since the 2009 drafting of James Harden, it was time to part ways. 

They say if you truly love someone, you gotta let them go. So this is me, a Thunder Fan since that September day almost 11 years ago, saying goodbye. Russell, you’ve been with this team through 1 losing season, 10 winning seasons, 9 playoffs, 4 Conference Finals, and 1 NBA Finals. You’re a meme, you’re a hero, you’re an angry, greased-up rhinoceros charging into an unsuspecting lane. You are chaos and order rolled together. You are an Oklahoman. 

Now go get that Championship.