To Thunder Up or Not to Thunder Up

I'm fairly certain I've written about my life as a sports fan before, but I'm too lazy to search the extensive archive of this blog to be sure. All I know right now is that the entire foundation of my identity as a sports fan has been threatened by a seismic (meteorologic?) shift. The Oklahoma City Thunder, the one and only major sports franchise of my beloved home state, have reached the NBA Finals. The Boston Celtics, the team that I grew up rooting for based on my mom's stories of trips to the Garden and my extended family's New England roots (and the lack of any local NBA presence), are facing a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Finals.  In the however unlikely event that the Big Three, or  - more realistically - Ragin' Rajon, can take down the Heat in Miami, I will be forced to choose. Honestly, even if the Heat win tomorrow, I've got to make a decision on the long-term nature of my NBA fandom. Can I abandon the Celtics and embrace the hometown Thunder?  Time for a pro-con list, Rory Gilmore-style.

Rooting for the Thunder - Pro:

  - They're based in OKC. I was born and raised in Oklahoma, and a decade in St. Louis aside, I consider myself as proud an Oklahoman as anyone. I like when good things happen for my state.

  - They're good. Everyone likes rooting for a winner.

  - The players are likable. The roster is currently stocked with young, hard-working players who don't see to cause a bunch of trouble. They play hard on defense, too.

  - The team is a client of my employer.

  - Most of my friends are Thunder fans. Two interesting stories here:
(1) My older brother, who I don't think could name more than 3 other current NBA teams, regularly says things like "Thunder Up", and "James Harden is a the best sixth man in the League." Now, I'm not convinced he hasn't just memorized these terms, kind of like how I passed high school French without actually learning to comprehending a conversation, but it's still kind of cool to have another sports fan in the family.
(2) I have a friend--let's call him "Ray"--with whom I've battled on fan issues since 6th grade. He's a "fan" of the Yankees, Lakers, and Redskins. I've told him for years that his fan logic clearly falls in the province of "bandwagon jumper".  To be fair, he's generally stuck with these teams since his youth, but there's no escaping the fact that he obviously chose his teams based only on their success.*
In any event, Ray is now a big Thunder supporter. I find this admirable in that he's given up a long term roting interest in the Lakers to support Oklahoma's team. (This is easier for him than for me, of course, because his initial interest in the Lakers had no basis other than Bandwagoneering.)

  - My kids will likely develop as Thunder fans. And as much as it pains me to say, they probably should. Admittedly, I am that kind of warped individual who will force his children to root his teams exclusively. My kids are still too young to really get fandom, but I have made it clear so far that WE ALL root for the Red Sox, Patriots, Cetlics and OSU Cowboys.  Deviation will not be tolerated. My sons and I will end up in one of those long-term estrangements if their teenage rebellion leads them to pledge loyalty to the Texas Rangers, KC Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys, or other semi-local teams. Much more serious consequences will result if I ever see a Yankees hat, a Sooners shirt or an attempted defense of Payton Manning's legacy.  But there's no escaping the fact that they will grow up in Oklahoma with a local NBA franchise. It would be a clear violation of my own sense of fandom for them to not root for the Thunder. If the Thunder were here when I was a kid, this whole discussion would be moot.

  - Desmond Mason is a Thunder fan.  I love Desmond Mason.

  - Great home crowd at games.

That's a lot of pros, and some pretty compelling ones. But now let's look at the cons:

  - The "Oklahoma City Thunder"?  Come on. That's a U12 girls softball team.

  - The Thunder has united fans from across the state. That may sound like a pro to you, but I don't want to be united with OU fans. I really don't like most people who root for OU. Seriously.  I don't have any desire to find a common sporting interest with these people.

  - Seattle.  Tradition is one of the greatest aspects of sports. Teams represent a legacy; a long term connection to a city and its people.  I don't buy into the whole "OKC stole the Sonics" thing, but I just don't like it when teams move.  I would be much more comfortable if the Thunder were an expansion franchise.

  - I root for New England teams because of family. My dad's not much of a sports fan, so most of my influence came through my mom and her family.  They live in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and we didn't see them a whole lot, so sports was a good way for me to feel connected to them living hundreds of miles away. My grandfather tried to convince me to be a Cardinals fan because they were good and closer to Oklahoma and hadn't tortured their fans for a generation like his beloved Red Sox. He'd send me a full set of Cardinals baseball cards every year. But I stuck with the Sox, Pats, and Celts because that's who he, and Uncle Charlie, and Uncle Leo and all six of Mom's sisters, and all the cousins rooted for.  To abandon the Celtics now would be like abandoning my family.

  - As a Sox/Pats/Celts/Pokes fan, my formative years were spent agonizing over not just losing seasons, but gut-wrenching losses. My childhood sports memories include the 1986 World Series (Sox/Mets), the 1986-87 Super Bowl (Pats/Bears), the 1988 Bedlam game (Brent Parker), the Pitino Celtics, Black Saturdays, and the post-Clemens but pre-Pedro Sox. My only bright spots as a fan were the mid-80s Celtics, Barry Sanders, and Eddie's Cowboys.  I stuck it out. I endured the disappointments and the failures. It sucked as a kid**, but that just made the rewards that much sweeter. Watching the Pats beat the Rams at a watch party in St. Louis as the only non-Rams fan there was delightful.  Being in St. Louis for the 2004 World Series was indescribable. I went to Game 4. I watched the Sox win the Championship that my grandpa and aunts and uncles waited their whole lives for. I was the family chronicler of that moment, and I took hunderds of pictures and spent an hour on the phone with Uncle Leo and Cousin Greg while walking out of Busch Stadium after midnight.  I have way too much invested in these teams to just toss them aside for a new kid on the block.

  - I hate bandwagon fans. I spent too much of my life suffering for my teams to not care about the kid at school who wore a Bulls hat for years, then shows up in a Lakers shift after MJ is gone.  The Thunder phenomenon in Oklahoma feels too much like that.

  - I doubt the Thunder lasts in Oklahoma. I stand by my original evaluation of the NBA's viability in OKC - two or three losing season in a row, and the fans are gone. Fans here do not show up for losers. Look at Gallagher Iba the last few years, or Lloyd Noble forever. These people aren't in it for the love of basketball.  They want to be part of an excited crowd watching their team win. The NBA is notoriously hard on small market teams, and I'm not sold on this thing being the beginning of the next NBA dynasty. I'm not dropping the Celtics only to have the Thunder stolen back by some Seattle billionaire in 6 or 7 years.

I'm leaning con at this point, but I welcome your guidance....

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*As Bill Simmons so eloquently expressed:
"If you're between the ages of 20-40, you're a fan of the Yankees, Cowboys, Braves, Raiders, Steelers, Celtics, Lakers, Bulls, Canadiens and/or Oilers, and you're not actually from those one of those cities ... well, you better have a reason that goes beyond "When I was picking a favorite team as a kid, they were the best team, so I picked them." At least give me a reason like "Reggie Jackson was my favorite player growing up," or "I always liked the red Bulls uniforms," or even "Everyone in my gang wore Raiders colors." Do you really want to be known as a bona fide Bandwagon Jumper?"

** Perfect microcosm:  In fourth grade (I think), I wore my Hutch replica Patriots uniform to school. Mitch Watkins threw up egg salad on it.