💙 Faith, Hope And Love: Why The Thunder’s First NBA Title Means So Much To OKC 🔌
Weekend Plug-in 🔌
Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” meets readers at the intersection of faith and news. Click to join nearly 10,000 subscribers who get this column delivered straight to their inbox. Got feedback or ideas? Email Bobby Ross Jr.
OKLAHOMA CITY — It’s the juxtaposition.
The juxtaposition between then and now.
The juxtaposition between Oklahoma City’s darkest day and its brightest.
I couldn’t figure out — until a single photo crystallized my vision — why I felt so much joy and emotion when the OKC Thunder won the NBA Finals on Sunday night.
After all, baseball is my passion. I entered the sports Promised Land in 2023 when my beloved Texas Rangers — 41 years after I attended my first game — finally won the World Series.
On the other hand, I’m typically only a casual fan of the Thunder. I attend a few regular season games a year with my family. I pay a bit more attention when the playoffs start.
Why then did Oklahoma City claiming its first NBA championship mean so much to me?
The juxtaposition, that’s why.
READ: OKC Thunder In A League Of Their Own — When It Comes To Pregame Prayer
A transplanted native Texan, I relocated north of the Red River in 1986 to attend Oklahoma Christian University. I met the love of my life — a lifelong Oklahoman named Tamie — in 1988. We married in 1990. I started work at The Oklahoman, the daily newspaper in Oklahoma City, in 1993. The first of our three children, all born in Oklahoma, arrived that same year.
Then came April 19, 1995.
That date will remain forever etched in the hearts and souls of Oklahomans: The deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history claimed 168 lives and wounded hundreds.
The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum pays tribute to the 168 people — including 19 children — killed in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. (Photo provided by Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum)
At the 30th anniversary two months ago, I reflected on how covering the biggest story of my life — and my adopted hometown’s response to it — changed me.
I wrote:
I didn’t lose a loved one. I suffered no physical injuries. But I — like the rest of my devastated community — witnessed the attack on the Heartland up close.
I didn’t realize until years later how deeply the bombing — and the weeks, months and even years spent reporting on it — touched me. I pretended that I, as a hard-nosed newspaperman, was immune from such a tragedy changing me.
I was wrong.
Back to the juxtaposition: On Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of people filled downtown Oklahoma City for a parade celebrating the Thunder’s championship.
“There are 712,000 people who live in OKC, and there may have been more people than that today on the streets of Downtown,” Mayor David Holt said on Facebook. “For two uninterrupted miles, Thunder fans were stacked deep on both sides of the street to celebrate, and tens of thousands gathered in Scissortail Park. Whatever the total number, it was unquestionably the largest gathering in our city’s history.”
Back to the photo I referenced earlier: The image was taken by Jimmy Do and shared by the team.
It shows superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and other Thunder players in an open-air bus, surrounded by fans and passing by the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s outstretched arms perfectly frame the message on one of the massive bronze Gates of Time at the memorial:
We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.
For the 30th anniversary remembrance in April, memorial leaders chose the theme “A Day of Darkness, Years of Light.”
For three decades, “faith has played an important role in our healing,” Kari Watkins, the memorial’s president and CEO, told me earlier this year.
When the NBA Finals started, I highlighted the Thunder’s pregame prayers — a tradition unique among the league’s 30 franchises.
“I think these practices speak to our community’s recognition of a higher power and our willingness to acknowledge that,” Mayor Holt told me for that column. “Faith carried us through some dark times, including and especially April 19, 1995.”
Fast-forward to today.
Thirty years after the bombing, Oklahoma City “is a comeback story like no other.”
The Oklahoman’s Steve Lackmeyer — my close friend dating back to our Oklahoma Christian campus newspaper days — wrote that back in April.
Lackmeyer noted:
In the three decades since the bombing, Oklahoma City has turned into one the country’s fastest growing, going from 461,622 to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimate of 715,893. Downtown is home to an array of distinctly unique districts ranging from Bricktown and Deep Deuce to Midtown, Film Row and Automobile Alley.
Downtown, home to just the Sheraton in 1995, is now home to two dozen hotels. A 2023 study commissioned by the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber reported the city attracted 24.1 million visitors with a tourism economic impact totaling $4.5 billion.
New skyscrapers fill the downtown skyline. The river, once an embarrassment to the city, is now a major draw for tourists, athletes and outdoor recreation enthusiasts.
Now Oklahoma City — only the 47th-largest TV market in the nation — is the home of the NBA champions.
And not only are the Thunder the best team, but their culture of teamwork and mutual respect exemplifies the Oklahoma Standard.
Pastor Michael Milligan prays before Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Keaton Ross)
“Thousands gathered near the Memorial Museum, where every Oklahoma City Thunder journey begins, to celebrate the Thunder’s Champions Parade,” the memorial posted on social media. “This city knows the power of coming together, and today, that spirit was everywhere.”
Faith. Hope. Love. Resiliency.
All those factors help explain the tears that flowed — even for a casual fan — as Oklahoma City ascended to the sports mountaintop.
READ: NBA Finals Prayers, Pope Rally At The Ballpark And NFL Coach’s Faith
Family plays a role, too: My adult children — Brady, Keaton and Kendall — are Thunder fanatics and season ticket holders. Kendall, known for her I’d Knit That business that boasts 158,000 followers on Instagram, is a fiber knit artist who collaborated with the Thunder on a one-of-a-kind piece sold in the team’s gift shop this season.
This is about way more than basketball, y’all.
It’s the juxtaposition.
Inside The Godbeat
With the departure of Kelsey Dallas for the SCOTUSblog, the Deseret News has assigned Boston-based staff writer Mariya Manzhos to produce its weekly “State of Faith” newsletter.
In introducing herself to readers, Manzhos recounts growing up in Ukraine.
“These early experiences shaped my view of religion,” she writes. “I learned early that the freedom to worship in public, to speak about your faith, to search for meaning in community was not something to take for granted. In the past decade of reporting on faith and culture, I've seen how faith shapes what we value and how we pray, but also how we vote, lead, serve and gather.”
The Final Plug
In last week’s Plug-in, I said I’d do my best this week “to tackle a subject that does not require a ball.”
Obviously, I failed at that.
I felt compelled to write about the Thunder again. But next time — and that’ll be in two weeks since I’m taking off the Fourth of July — I’ll try harder.
Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.
Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 18 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.