The Side Part: Matthias, daggers, Rucker and Thunder In Your Heart

Enough sad stuff. This week it’s about smiles and laughter and love and free Route 44’s from Sonic.

This week it’s the best moments in Thunder history. There have been so many many good ones, and this certainly and obviously is not a comprehensive list. These are just ones that I happened to enjoy quite a bit. They make me feel good when I think about them. They’re listed in no particular order. There are some that probably don’t belong, and there’s probably a pretty glaring omission or four that I’m not thinking of. Forgive me, I know not what I do.

MATTHIAS FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

It should be stated once and for dadgum all, if we’re all being honest, that this is the greatest moment in Oklahoma City Thunder history. Matthias from Southern California may as well be Zeus, inhabiting heaven-front property up in the clouds on the north shore side of Olympus. He controls the lightning that makes the Thunder and whatever offspring he blesses the world with will be Herculean and Michael Bolton will sing wonderful songs for them. We can go the distance because of Matthias.

I say this with sincerity: No moment in Thunder history brought me more joy or made me laugh harder than this fight song. I love it. It came at a time when fans desperately needed something to smile about. It is the best because he means it. He means it because you mean everything after you drink what I’m assuming must have been Wade Boggs levels of beer. If the Thunder don’t pay for Matthias from Southern California to relocate to Oklahoma City so he can lead the crowd in a stirring rendition of that song before every game, then, well, I won’t do anything, but they should totally do that.

DURANT AT RUCKER

I’ve never seen jump shots bring a crowd to the point of hysteria. Then I saw a video of Kevin Durant at Rucker, rising up over the whole entire concrete jungle, flinging in 30 footers, having an easier time with them than I have sitting in a recliner. With every make, the crowd’s accompanying “Ohhh” getting increasingly louder.

The first time I watched that video I just kept smiling. I couldn’t stop. Every three like a new, amazing present. Like someone kept giving me a mint 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California with each and every make. Everything about that video is made of just about the purest kind of joy sports could give a viewer.

The environment: Every single person in attendance participating in the constant escalation of what was soon to become complete madness.

The players: Those on Durant’s team understanding you get him the ball when his hands are roaring campfires. Those on the opposing team playing him as hard and true as they could, making the domination that much more impressive to watch.

The Emcee: This guy on the mic. This guy. Not the guy who shows up late in that video with a mic and a championship belt. He’s clearly the number two in that crew. I mean the unseen dude. The one you hear throughout it. You talk about the performance of a lifetime.

I. AM.

You wanna talk about doing your job to complete and utter perfection?

EVERYBODY’S TRYING TO GUARD HIM. EVERYONE.

You wanna talk raising the stakes?

I. AM.

You wanna talk rising to the occasion and delivering?

I. AM.

Doing exactly what needs to be done?

I. AM…THE BEST.

This was a creature sent down from some other far greater planet that has not yet been discovered who specializes in putting on shows. He entertains. Look at him. Just playing to the crowd like he was born in front of one.

A brief aside: I really want to be best friend’s with Durant’s buddy who’s always with him. The dude in the grey Nike Elite t-shirt and the White Sox hat who’s just looking at the camera at different times saying things like “Yes, sir” and “It’s over”. Everyone should have a friend like that around to help celebrate impressive feats of mental or physical strength.

Whenever I put down an entire basket of Olive Garden breadsticks by myself after I’ve already finished my Create-A-Sampler-Italiano three choice appetizer, I want him there, adjusting his hat, standing up, and telling the whole room, along with the camera crew that I hired to document the whole thing, just how incredible I am.

HARDEN’S DAGGER

This one is weird to look back on now, if only because of the way in which the W was secured. Harden and his dagger. Happy thoughts, though. Good things. That’s how you fly. I will not be Toodles. I will not lose my marbles and my way and wind up falling to the ground in a pair of green tights.

The official arrival for the Thunder into contender-land had probably already happened. It may have been after Game 4 against the Lakers a couple years before. It may have been Game 7 against Memphis the year before. It may have been Game 5 against Denver when, over the course of a handful of fourth quarter game minutes, Durant put together an entire career’s worth of highlights. I’m saying, people already knew we were good, and sometimes it’s hard to know exactly what “arrival” within the basketball world really even means.

I do know, though, that I screamed some primal verbiage when that ball dropped through that net in San Antonio. It meant they were one game closer to The Finals. Having played so unbelievably bad in the first two games of that series in San Antonio, it was a gigantic hurdle to clear. Harden, swagging out, Kawhi Leonard’s blood dripping off the knife onto the riverwalk below.

GOING TO THE FINALS

Then the Game 6 victory to win the Western Conference Finals. I sat on my roommates’ ripped up couch, the one with all the white dog hair and the covered up piss stain from said dog when the mailman came once and she got super excited, and tweeted something to the affect of “This is really cool.”

I sat there for a few minutes reveling in it. Like I’d somehow done something to make it possible. That, obviously, is extraordinarily dumb, but I’m trying to be more honest lately.

That team grew up in front of all of us. I was proud.

I’m running the risk of coming off hugely douchey by saying this, but the thing about the Thunder that’s always been so great is that they’ve always been a team that played a brand of ball you didn’t have to be embarrassed by. Even when they were horrible, they played hard. There was a grit there, a rawness that stayed when success started coming. That effort draws a more intense love than a sports team might otherwise get showered upon them. Especially when that love is coming from a state and a city that was hungering for a professional franchise it knew it deserved.

That shot cued up shouts that reverberated throughout the state. Shouts that sounded something like, “Yea. We’re here. And we will be for awhile.”

THUNDER IN YOUR HEART

There’s other amazing moments, too. “No more questions for you, bro”. Any and all of Russ’s Vines. The first time fans showed up at Will Rogers and Nate Robinson and Durant and all them videoed it. The standing ovation after that first Laker series. Russ holstering his guns and unleashing an audible BOOM at half-court in LA after he hit that shot at the end of one of the more dominant quarters of basketball in recent Thunder memory. Great moments, all of them.

I linked to a song at the bottom of my column last week. It’s a song called “Thunder In Your Heart“. My friend Tanner first showed it to me last year. It’s sung by John Farnham. He’s the dude who sang the song that plays near the end of Hot Rod whenever everyone starts rioting and looting in the streets. “Thunder In Your Heart” is ridiculous. It’s as 80’s as 80’s can be. It was on the soundtrack for Rad, a BMX movie. It’s also pretty much the perfect song. If the Thunder game operations crew is looking for a self-aware anthem to blast in The Peake next year, then this is the song.

Please. Let’s make this song a thing. We can do it. It’s too ridiculous to not become the biggest deal. I’ll leave you with the lyrics. Bathe yourself in them. Let their perfection wash over you. They are the best.

Taking a chance…Risking it all…

For the thrill of the moment

Taking a stand, you ain’t gonna fall
You’ve always known it
They’re dying to shake you,
Trying their best to break you
And though the going is rough, you’re going home as a hero

‘Cause there’s thunder in your heart
Every move is like a lightning
It’s the power you feel when you get your taste of the glory
There’s a fire gonna start
And you know they’re going under
You can light the dark when they hear your heart of thunder.

Cry of the wind, spirit of fire
The heart of a lion
Taking control, burning desire
Your flame never dying

Don’t lose that feeling
Don’t ever stop believing
There’s one more moment of truth and you’re gonna face it

‘Cause there’s thunder in your heart
Every move is like a lightning
It’s the power you feel when you get your taste of the glory
There’s a fire gonna start
and you know they’re going under
you can light the dark when they hear your heart of thunder.

When they hear your heart of thunder.

‘Cause there’s thunder in your heart
And you know they’re going under
You can light the dark when they hear your heart of thunder.

There is thunder in your heart
And you know they’re going under
You can light the dark when they hear your heart of thunder.

Tyler Parker is a contributing editor to BallerBall. You can follow him on Twitter here.