Wednesday Bolts – 3.10.10

Marc Spears of Yahoo! with a nice feature on Russell Westbrook: “Sonics/Thunder assistant general manager Troy Weaver continued to push strongly for Westbrook, whom he felt best fit the franchise with his combination of talent, character and work ethic. Weaver, Sonics general manager Sam Presti said, had a “passion about Russell’s ability to grow with the organization over time.” The pitch paid off: The Sonics took Westbrook No. 4.”

Give KD Skittles!: “I’m good in Oklahoma City. I love it here. I like going outside and seeing the neighbors and they say, ‘Hello.’ They make me cookies and give me Skittles. There are cities you may not get that.”

This is kind of crazy news: The Tulsa Shock plan to announce shortly the signing former Olympic Gold medalist (and HGH user) Marion Jones to play basketball. I find this strangely cool. I’m sure this will draw some interest to the relocated franchise. That, or they were having trouble filling out the roster, since you know, players didn’t want to come and play here.

KD still second for MVP in ESPN’s Award Watch: “OKC is 14-3 in its past 17. Durant has showed improvement on defense while becoming arguably the top scoring threat in the league. His lone negative is turnovers.”

Benson Taylor of Sporting News: “Earlier this season, as recent as late January, the Thunder were one of several teams fighting for the eighth spot in the West. Then came February, when OKC lost only two games, putting the team well above .500 and well on pace to make the playoffs. Now, the Thunder are one of the teams that the Hornets, Rockets and Grizzlies—who are all scrambling to get back in playoff position—are gunning for.”

The Thunder’s on the cover of the new Hoop Magazine: “Believe it or not, the Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder are on the precipice of a playoff berth in the wild, rugged west, but they’re both built for the long run and are no one-hit wonders. We dig deep to find out which squad holds they key to success out west for the next decade.”

If you want to go to remaining home games, it might start getting tough. Tonight’s game is sold out but they’re doing the “Pack the Ford” promotion where they release 200 tickets around 5 PM. From what I understand, most of the remaining games are going to be like this. Which is pretty great.

Westbrook on former teammate Darren Collison: “He’s always been a great point guard,” Westbrook said. “He taught me a lot when I was at UCLA and he’s done a great job with that team over there so I think he’s having a great season.”