Thunder and Ice

     Well, first off, basketball season ended way too early. On the other hand, the season ended in the most Thunder-est way possible. And since the af2 Talons don't exist anymore, somebody else had to let fans down at the last second. (I suppose the Drillers could, if you cared about baseball. Or the new soccer team, the Roughnecks.)
     But anyway, it was a very challenging season to be an Oklahoma City Thunder fan. KD got hurt. Russ got hurt. We traded Perk and Serge got hurt. KD got hurt again. Russ got hurt again. Random guys we'd never heard of got hurt. But somehow, because they're the Thunder, they fought and clawed their way back through the Western Conference to put themselves with a chance to sneak into the playoffs despite everything. And they did everything they needed to, winning their last handful of games and winding up in a tie for the eighth spot with New Orleans. But the Pelicans owned the tiebreaker, so they got in and we were left out. So that was very disappointing. But the resilience and persistency of OKC kept them going this far. And yeah, it's a major bummer that we missed out. But this is the first time that's happened in years! Since the Sonics moved here! So it's a reminder of how much stronger our state's team has gotten over the years.

     Because of the lack-of-local-team-to-follow in the NBA playoffs, I'm pulling for our toughest rivals, Memphis and San Antonio. But the TV is tuned into playoff hockey each night because IT"S PLAYOFF HOCKEY. AKA "one of the world's best sports ramped up to even more excitement and tension". I stayed up watching the late game last night between Winnipeg and Anaheim because I couldn't sleep, and besides, it was a good one. (Final - Ducks 4, Jets 2. Ducks got lucky late in the third period.) I think the games on channels my TV gets tonight are Ottawa-Montreal and Calgary-Vancouver.

     Besides volleyball, hockey is probably the most team-focused team sport there is, and then when you add in the frenetic pace and sacrifices integral to key plays, it adds up to amazing. Really, almost everything involved in hockey is fairly boring and unimportant in itself; chasing down a loose puck, setting a screen on the goalie, receiving a pass. But when you add everything together, it allows for those handful of shining moments that result in a goal. So it's a lot like life that way. Most of the time, our lives are very boring and the daily or weekly tasks are very insignificant. But consistently doing those little things add up to a life well-spent. It's what makes the difference between Nano's funeral and NaNa's.

     I have like, three papers to write over the weekend, so if there's any time for other stuff, I'm thinking The Big Green or D3: The Mighty Ducks is in order.

     (4-22-15 Update). Oklahoma City just fired Scott Brooks. Not a fan of this decision....