{"id":4823,"date":"2017-10-06T10:10:08","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T15:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=4823"},"modified":"2018-08-20T15:27:40","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T20:27:40","slug":"thunder-ready-even-if-it-is-just-a-glorified-practice-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=4823","title":{"rendered":"Thunder ready, even if it is just a glorified practice tonight……"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Tonight it begins anew for me, the tenth season of the Oklahoma City Thunder and the 2017\/2018 NBA season. Sure, the contest with the New Orleans Pelicans is just the 2nd of four exhibitions before the actual season begins in a couple of weeks, but the routine started ten years ago on that \u201cfirst night\u201d will be played out again.\u00a0 The anticipation is there, again, after the long months of late spring and summer, and I cannot wait to get in the car and take that thirteen mile trip\u00a0 to downtown Oklahoma City.\u00a0 For the four hundredth or more time in those\u00a0ten years my night will be complete when the final buzzer goes off in the Chesapeake Energy Arena.<\/p>\n

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Win or lose, I will have viewed basketball at the highest level, even if tonight\u2019s game is just a glorified\u00a0practice.\u00a0 Russell Westbrook might not play, but that makes little difference.\u00a0The\u00a0 excitement of live and in person sports which started for\u00a0me at the age of three,\u00a0watching my Uncle John Pratt\u2019s Midwest City Bombers basketball team play in a tournament in Drumright, OK.\u00a0 That was in 1956.\u00a0\u00a0Today,\u00a0after thousands of games, that excitement is going strong at mid-morning.<\/p>\n

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This should be one heck of a ride for the Thunder with the additions of Carmelo Anthony and Paul George.\u00a0 With three\u00a0cinch\u00a0hall-of-famers on this Thunder roster, the possibility of playing and competing for a championship at the highest level, that is the Finals, is a fact.\u00a0 Westbrook, George, and Anthony, supported by some familiar faces such as Roberson and Adams, Collison and Abrines, and spiced with other new faces that are named Patterson and Felton, bring the Thunder.<\/p>\n

Sports fans, I am ready.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 \u00a0 Tonight it begins anew for me, the tenth season of the Oklahoma City…<\/p>\n

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