Layne Murdoch/NBAE/Getty Images
When he was growing up northern California, not too far from Sacramento, Scotty Brooks was like a lot of kids in neighborhoods around the country, he played basketball on driveways and in playgrounds and he had big dreams.
“When you’re a kid you dream about playing in the NBA and then winning the championship,” he said. And Brooks not only dreamed the dream he lived it, winning a ring when he played for the Houston Rockets in the 90s.
“Now I have a chance to do it as a coach, it’s a great opportunity for our organization and our players to really see how far we’ve come.”
They’ve come a long way in a short time.
You remember that group of guys who came to Oklahoma City from Seattle and we were all wondering who some of them were. Robert Swift? Mo Sene?? Really???
“Not so long ago we were talking about being the worst team in NBA history and you definitely don’t dream about being the coach of the worst team in NBA history,” Brooks said with a laugh.
That first year though the Thunder foundation was being set. Kevin Durant was rapidly developing into one of the league’s best players, Russell Westbrook was showing flashes of what he would turn into and Nick Collison just kept plowing along.
Since then some personnel changes, new guys added to the mix, others sent away. One thing though has stayed constant.
“I think our players have done a great job of buying and letting our coaches coach and coming to work with an attitude that they’re going to have to get better to get to the level that we need to get to.”
That level has been reached now. The Thunder are standing on the mountain top of the NBA waiting to be joined by a team from the Eastern Conference for one last series that will define a special season.
All the hard work, all the long nights of wondering if it was all worth it and the nights and days and sometimes weeks spent away from family trying to get better, all of those thoughts kind of welled up inside Brooks the other night just before the trophy presentation at center court.
Some of us saw the coach reach his hand to his eyes to try to hold back some tears, we all saw it in the picture that appeared in The Oklahoman the next day.
I asked Scotty who had come to mind when he tried to stop the tears, “well there’s a lot of people who help you along the way but my mother has always been a big part of my life and it’s gonna be nice because the last time she came out to see me play was at The Finals in Houston in ’94 and so now she had told me she’s not gonna come out till I get into The Finals as a coach so she’s coming out for Game 1, it’s gonna be great.”
Most all of Brooks’ family will be in town for The Finals and so will a lot of his boyhood buddies and countless others, former teammates, new acquaintances will watch on television to see if the California kid with all the big dreams will help make another one come true.
SCOTT BROOKS
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Not that this means a single thing of import at this point, but I see that Draft Express' latest mock has OKC taking Royce White. High risk, high reward. I've come around, if he's there I think you take him. If there's a team that can afford to take a risk like that I honestly think it's the Thunder.
http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-mock-draft/2012/
@Old Man Game Royce White would be an unbelievable value pick
@Old Man Game You absolutely take him if he's there. He's most likely lottery-level talent. If he's dropping, it's because of off-the-court stuff.
@Jooseppi Yeah that's for sure from what I've seen. The thing is, if you're picking at 28 the odds of getting a really good player are fairly low anyway so why not take a risk. Worst thing comes to worst and he's an absolute trainwreck you don't have to play him. Besides I think the Thunder culture might be just what the guy needs to keep it on the straight and narrow.
Royce says he loves John Lennon, philosophically and musically. That's pretty cool.
damn, those tickets went fast!
@andyworcester Yep, I was on ticketmaster.com right at 10 and got nada. Guess my only hope is the rewards zone now. Can't afford the markup on the broker sites.
@HardenIsMyManCrush yeah, $80 seemed so much better than $350
@andyworcester This is a state used to buying OU-Texas tickets... not surprising.
Couldn't get it to search what I wanted for properly, but here goes. I looked up players with at least 27 ppg in the playoffs and sorted by true shooting percentage (I was initially trying to search for TS%>60%, but it was glitching on that). However, here's what I found doing that above search: http://bit.ly/Mv5ybq
Here's the takeaway. KD's got the 16th best TS% while averaging at least 27ppg. And he's the only one who's played 15 games and averaged that. One of you stats guys needs to look at this and tell me if it's at all historic or just nice company to be in.
This is actually a better search, as it requires a minimum of 10 games played. There's only 94 players who have averaged at least 27 ppg in the playoffs with that minimum. Sorted by TS%... http://bkref.com/tiny/ktbge
So in addition to already selling "Beat the Heat" finals shirts on NBA.com, the website is featuring articles essentially calling for a Miami OKC finals.
http://www.nba.com/2012/news/features/shaun_powell/06/08/a-call-for-heat-thunder/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt1
I would really not want to be a Celtics fan tonight.
@Old Man Game I actually would. You have to think that KG's got those pages on his locker. He's gonna come out Hulk-angry and play out of his mind, which is going to be hilarious for non-Miami/Boston fans, scary for Miami fans, and encouraging for Boston fans.
Then again, if Lebron has another dominant night, his play might be a moot point.
So if you were Coach Spo, how would you attack the Thunder's offense?
@Old Man Game At the start of the playoffs, I might have said D-wade on Russ, Battier on Harden, Lebron on KD. But out of those, only Lebron is really worthwhile. D-wade's gonna get his knees re-injured if he tries to keep up with Russ, so Russ'll probably drive past him. Battier's not who he was last year, so Harden's gonna have his way with him. Lebron might - might! - be able to put KD out, but even then, Serge and Collison will the other area to stop.
I'm not convinced Miami has the ability to be a defensive presence with the injuries they have. Plus, it's sort of a SEC-Big 12 question here. One's known for defense, but there's no good offenses to play against there, and one's known for offense, so any defensive numbers are necessarily skewed.
@ou_sas Good thoughts. What about Miami's offense against OKC's defense?
@Old Man Game The big difference between Thunder iso sets and Heat iso sets though is that all 3 of our big 3 can knock them down much more consistently than they can. KD, Harden, even Russ are better jump shooters than they are, so when it comes down to it, isos are going to be more effective for us than for the heat.
@ou_sas Yes that definitely seems to be the case. They always seem to devolve into isolation sets.
@Old Man Game Ah, I see. I guess I was looking at Spo, and thinking he may try to run things, but there's a serious disconnect between him and the players, so even if we suggested plays, they're not gonna get run.
@ou_sas I guess I meant if you were Miami what would you be trying to run to beat us. I was thinking lots of movement for Lebron off the ball.
@Old Man Game Well, like game planning for Michael, or whatever, planning for Lebron is always an asterisk-worthy proposition - he may just decide to take over, and what are you going to do? However, and it's kind of weird to say this, but I might go small with Russ - Harden - Thabo - KD - Serge. Have Thabo hound Wade like crazy, and put pressure on that knee of Wade's. I may be doing them a disservice, but, really, all of the non-big 3 players are 3 point shooters or more defensive big men. Really, if we stay home on shooters - which I know is a big if - that should go a long way towards locking them down.
In a way, I should think our gameplan is going to end up being make Lebron beat you. D Wade's not as effective as he is when healthy - he's clearly picking his spots - Bosh is still hurt, so who knows what he brings, and the other players on Miami's teams are - well, are scrubs. If bron beats us, then he's gonna have a series for the ages, in which case, we say bravo, well done. But I really think that - as shown by the first OKC-Miami game - we can have their number fairly easily.
i'm calling it. derek fisher will explode in the finals. he has to. he is due his clutch finals fix, plus, he just has to have more rings than kobe to bring balance to the earth.
@jameshardensbeard I'm hoping for Serge to have a big finals.
@jameshardensbeard His clutchness will be needed in the fourth, but I think he can handle Norris Cole (rookie) easily. I would like him, Cook or Thabo if the Thunder go small, not all 3 at once...
So i fixed the problem with the video. Going good so far.
I can't make it to game 2 because I'm going to be in Iowa...If anyone wants to buy 2 tickets lower level Section 111 Row T I'm selling them for $700 per ticket which is about $200 cheaper then on StubHub per ticket. They are my season tickets so I can just send them to you via email. I have paypal or I have no problem meeting in OKC somewhere. I thought I would offer them on here before I put them up on StubHub. If you are interested email me at brian.mueller@okstate.edu
@bmuelle21 I'll give you 2x face
A day without NBA basketball is a less fun day than a day with NBA basketball.
But I am glad WE didn't play any NBA basketball today.
Gonna try to get tickets online tomorrow morning, think I'll have better chances for game 1 or game 2?
@andyworcester
Game 2
If someone else want's to finish the video i can email it to you. I got about 2 minutes in(The Heat part, i was then going to add The Thunder's, and some clips of them going against each other to close it out),
I was thinking about starting the Thunders part with KD's "Hard Work Beats Talent, When Talent False To Work Hard.", and KD dribbling on the court on warm up. Then as soon as he finishes saying that, i had Russell Dunking for their heroish song to start.
Well i gave up on that video pretty easy. I'm using Windows Movie Maker so i'm not surprised that it was being rather difficult. The intro to the vid was amazing with the clips. I was starting out showing the Heat. With a kinda dark song to it. Make them look like bad guys. Obviously i added the "NOT 1 NOT 2..." scene, it was going real good. Just the problem was the video would freeze from time to time, and i decided to go ahead and save the video, and preview what i had finished so far. The crap would freeze up soo much. Now i don't know if its because i have a cheap computer, or because Windows Movie Maker is the cheap stuff.
@ElMexiThunder Let's see it Mexi... What else am I gonna do til tuesday? :)
is it the first day no basketball since playoff began?
@shiki I don't know. Did we have a day off maybe just before the conference finals began, back when Boston was still finishing off Philly?
@Old Man Game @shiki yeah i think before a game 7 somewhere there was a day off
Another note, I'm not a fan of Beat the Heat chants either. I much prefer our home grown OKC chant
[assuming the Heat make it] I think the Thunder are going to have to go with their big lineup up. I feel that separation is needed when getting KD open from LeBron or Battier. Also, the Heat's big's aren't that reliable, except for Bosh. Perkin's will man-handle him in the post and Serge would be able to roam freely and actually get blocks if Bosh roles past Perk. I don't think Turiaf, or Haslem will be affective in this series. I'm just glad the Thunder don't have to face anymore game change bigs. Don't compared Bosh to Dirk, Gasol (maybe), Bynum or Duncan. Perk and Serge did a wonderful job on them. I think this is their series to make a huge impact. I feel that Thabo will be guarding LeBron and the Thunder as a whole will guard Wade. I'd like Westbrook on Battier if he starts. I think the Heat's line up is Bosh, LeBron, Wade, Chalmers, Battier. No matter what I see 3 mismatches. I think Fisher would have a better time playing against Norris Cole. Collison neutralizes Haslem every time they play. Harden could also have a major impact in this series coming off the bench. I see Harden, Ibaka and Perkins having a great impact on this series. LeBron has to be bottled up like we bottle up Parker. I suggest the Thunder make the Heat play half court offense and trap LeBron when ever he is high or near the 3 pt. to for him to pass.
@thelaughingwiseman Something to keep in the back of our minds is the 2-3-2 format of the Finals, which nullifies HCA a bit since game five will be a road game with the series tied 2-2 if it comes to it. It's how Dallas beat Miami last season, and Miami beat Dallas in 2006.
@justin_mia
i can't picture miami beating us 3 times straight, even in miami...
@jameshardensbeard @ou_sas @justin_mia Also gotta remember that no team has ever won ALL 3 middle home games in the finals, so the odds are on our side
@ou_sas @jameshardensbeard @justin_mia touche, but at the same time, the fact that we DID beat SA 4 straight is what makes me even more confident we'll steal at least one in miami.
@jameshardensbeard @justin_mia The problem with that is that I couldn't picture us beating San Antonio 4 straight. We won't know til it happens, but hopefully our homecourt advantage is still unblemished by the end of the finals.
@justin_mia yeah, lets just hope we beat them before we get in that situation
@SeanzieCrews @f5alcon @justin_mia stern said it was changed to ease travel for both the teams and the media since the two teams are in different conferences (ex. LA vs Boston) but actually its most likely because of MONEY. 2-3-2 format makes it a greater chance of the series going 6-7 games...but yea it kind of puts a ton of pressure to win games 1-2 for the home team.
@f5alcon @justin_mia Ugh I had forgotten about that, why do they switch it for the Finals? Any particular reason?
Anti-smoking commercials really make me hate anti-smoking commercials.
@todayisbananas The Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline office has to be a really dark place.
I have begun serious work on my Heat vs Thunder video. It's ganna look really cheap because it is.