The Thunder has reached last year’s finish line in half the time.
Monday marked this season’s halfway point, and with its 94-91 victory at Atlanta, the Thunder already has tied last year’s victory total.
Last season, the Thunder finished 23-59. This season, the Thunder is 23-18 at halftime. The Thunder is on pace to double last year’s win count, which is why we’re singing the franchise’s praises around these parts, but we’re not the only ones bearing witness The Thunder has been exposed: →The New York Times had two stories before the season began, which included a feature on Kevin Durant entitled, "A Star Rising, Still in Hiding.” →The Thunder was featured in the November issue of Sports Illustrated for Kids. →Durant was the cover boy for ESPN The Magazine and its "Next” issue (Dec. 14, 2009). →The latest issue of The Sporting News examines "Will the boom times last for the Thunder?” in which two scouts discuss what the Thunder must do to become a playoff-contending team. →Durant and the Thunder are scheduled to be in this week’s issue of Sports Illustrated in an article by Chris Ballard. →Point guard Russell Westbrook will be in an upcoming issue of Dime Magazine. →More than a few dot-com writers have partaken in the Thunder — NBA.com, ESPN.com, Yahoo.com, SI.com and other on-line sites. →On at least two occasions this season, the Thunder has been voted the fan’s Game of the Week on NBA.com. →With the Thunder sporting a winning record, ESPN executives decided to bump an originally scheduled game from its Friday night coverage on Nov. 27 to show the Thunder’s contest against Milwaukee inside the Ford Center. →Monday’s game against Atlanta was televised on the NBA Network. Perhaps no town is more high-profile on Martin Luther King Day than Atlanta, along with Memphis and Washington, D.C. Last season, national attention focused on the Thunder’s controversial move from Seattle and the team’s horrendous record. This season, November victories at San Antonio, at Miami, at Utah and a 28-point blowout at home against Orlando put the Thunder on the national radar for all the right reasons. "When they started to put some wins together at the beginning of the season, we were watching and were wondering if it would last,” said Benson Taylor, a managing editor at The Sporting News. "As they continued to win, we had to look at them. Other publications had to really start looking at them as well. They’re a young, exciting team that’s starting to win.” Many compliments come with stereotypes. When the New Orleans Hornets temporarily relocated here, Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley described Oklahoma as a "vast wasteland” and "no place for black people.” Barkley asked Hornets point guard Chris Paul if he had cows and chickens in his yard. Though Oklahoma City now has a permanent NBA franchise, many national writers continue to focus on the weather, the landscape, farm animals and how Durant and his teammates live in complete anonymity, insinuating local fans are oblivious to who plays for the Thunder. "So for the moment, Durant remains more recognizable on the national basketball landscape than on the local plains,” wrote the New York Times. This fails to acknowledge the team’s 30 sellouts in 62 home games to date, nor does it take into consideration that folks around here tend to mind their own business and give celebrities their space. Many observers who were previously were critical of the Thunder are now scrambling to get on the bandwagon. If the Thunder goes 23-18 in the second half of this season, more national exposure undoubtedly awaits. Potentially, so do the playoffs. John Rohde: 475-3099. John Rohde can be heard Monday-Friday from 6-7 p.m. on The Sports Animal Network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1.
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