I unabashedly love Oklahoma and Oklahomans. I went to school there (three degrees from Oklahoma State), met my wife of 52 years there and still make annual trips back to see my OSU Cowboys or the Thunder in action. I have friendships that have lasted more than 50 years despite having moved away in 1982. I have found the people of Oklahoma to be resilient, passionate about their beliefs and, most importantly, extremely loyal. I have followed the Oklahoma City Thunder since their move from Seattle and have been extremely impressed with OKC as an NBA city — and how the Thunder have united all of those OSU and OU fans for a common cause and team.

In my 30-plus-year consulting career (including my time as an executive in the NBA’s Team Marketing and Business Operations group), my holy grail has been to find sustainable ways to emotionally connect the team to the market. There are examples of this emotional connectivity: Premier League football and SEC football, which are generational; NFL markets of Green Bay, Pittsburgh and Dallas, which are also generational but are part of the magic shield that encompasses the NFL as America’s real national pastime (sorry, baseball). But those examples have much shorter schedules than NBA teams. The Thunder played 54 home games this season, far more than Premier League and NFL teams. They also play on a variety of days and times, making it more challenging to attend games. This season, my search for the holy grail ended in OKC during Game 2 of the NBA Finals on June 8.

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