Something that wasn’t ever said in Oklahoma before James Harden donned an Oklahoma City Thunder jersey: “Fear the beard.” And it may never be said again. It’s gone. The beard is gone and love hurts.

 

Breaking up is hard to do, especially breaking up with a first love. But the Thunder fans get that the NBA is also a business, don’t they? They don’t?

 

Once upon a time, Bedlam was Oklahoma’s most important sporting event, even to outsiders. You know, the Oklahoma State Cowboys versus the Oklahoma Sooners. Oh boy. People of the state wait all year for it, and houses are divided. It’s a big deal in Oklahoma, but outside of Oklahoma, does anyone really care about the game? Ehhhhh.

 

But it’s OK; Oklahoma is not used to being hip, relevant, or important. It’s not used being involved in any sort of national conversation.

 

Not used to it.

 

Times are changing, though. Oklahoma’s first major professional sports team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, has two of the league’s bonafide superstars.

 

Oklahoma, looked at by outsiders as a wild-west-like land, filled with teepees, rednecks, and horse-drawn carriages has now fallen for the freakishly athletic, humble, and high- flying Thunder.

 

Head over heels. And the feeling is mutual.

 

The NBA culture it has created in the state is awesome for me, as a lifelong NBA lover and Lakers fan, but it’s so weird. I’m originally from Los Angeles, but have lived most of my life in Oklahoma, where people have never really cared about NBA basketball until the Thunder came along. Last season, I could not wrap my head around the fact that the NBA Finals were coming to Oklahoma. Oklahoma.

 

That’s not supposed to happen for so many reasons. Small market teams historically struggle in the NBA because they can’t spend the kind of money big market teams like New York or Los Angeles can, and therefore lose out on the best players. Dwight Howard left Orlando for Los Angeles. Shaquille O’Neal left Orlando for Los Angeles. Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire left Denver and Phoenix respectively for New York. Kevin Garnett left Minnesota for Boston. LeBron James left Cleveland for Miami.

 

And yet, all of a sudden, OKC’s Chesapeake Energy Arena is the loudest arena in the NBA, prompting many to call the fans the best in the league. ESPN recently named the OKC Thunder franchise as the best franchise in sports, based on data including bang for the buck, fan relations, ownership, affordability, stadium experience, players, coaching, and title chances.

 

Compare the Thunder to the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the Thunder’s biggest rivals. The Lakers are used to being hip, relevant, and very much a part of the national conversation. The franchise has been around since 1947, and has the second-most championships in NBA history behind the Boston Celtics. Lakers fans have watched Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West (the NBA logo); Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant have all led their teams to finals appearances or championships. The most iconic Lakers fan, Jack Nicholson, who sits courtside at every home game, personifies the image and experience of Lakers fans.

 

Being irrelevant is not an option for Los Angeles. In the 65 years of their existence, they have missed the playoffs five times.

 

Oklahoma City, on the other hand, is a college sports town. Sure Oklahoma has produced NBA players Wayman Tisdale and Bryant Reeves, but high school and college football has always dominated the sports scene. So why the sudden NBA explosion? TV ratings in Oklahoma during the Thunder’s playoff run last season approached Bedlam ratings, previously untouchable ground. The James Harden trade was on the same night as the Oklahoma vs. Notre Dame football game, and the trade dominated social media. I’m a little confused.

 

And I’m not the only one.

 

“As recently as August 2005, if you would have mentioned that it was a remote possibility to have an NBA team in Oklahoma I would have thought you were crazy,” said Bill Haisten, who has covered the Thunder since their inception for the Tulsa World.

 

“The Thunder are the most marketable small market team in memory, if not ever,” said Haisten. It didn’t hurt that three members of the Thunder represented the United States in the London Olympics this summer. “All I can think of is how this incredible group of young men has unified this city and this state as never before,” said Oklahoma City’s owner Clay Bennett.

 

Now the Thunder are transcending Bedlam, uniting the state and experiencing this obsessive fan-behavior that makes Oklahoma fans so good and so bad. Last year, when I went to a Lakers versus Thunder playoff-game in a Kobe Bryant jersey, and this season, where it looks like the Western Conference could be decided between the two teams, I’ve noticed some stark differences in the behavior of Thunder fans.

 

Lakers fans have a marriage with their team, while OKC’s relationship isn’t quite as mature.

 

Remember your first love? That’s what Oklahoma’s relationship with the Thunder is like. A comment that could be construed as a knock on a Thunder player amongst Thunder fans will get you stared down at the very least. Oklahoma loves these guys and no one can say anything bad about them! It’s sweet, but at the same time a little annoying.

 

“Life was better when I could watch basketball and feel nothing,” tweeted a friend of mine (who had just began watching the Thunder right before the playoffs started) after the Thunder lost to the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. From Thunder fans, I have seen an unmatched, lovesick enthusiasm, especially after Oklahoma City’s trip to the NBA finals this past season. People who previously had minimal interest in basketball, or the NBA in particular, are now flocking to arena’s cheering on the Thunder like die-hards, when they probably couldn’t name ten NBA players two years ago.

 

It’s not all bad. “Just fabulous to be in OKC as the city obsesses over the NBA Finals. Who says smaller cities won't fall in love w pro sports? OKC has...” tweeted Michael Wilbon, a former sportswriter for The Washington Post, current sportswriter for ESPN, and participant in the ESPN show Pardon the Interruption. But, at least for me, some level of control would be nice from the fans, to avoid being that annoying couple that can’t stop holding each other’s hand.

 

Loud City is the name of the upper section of the Chesapeake Energy Arena. Upon venturing up there, you’re greeted with drums. Once you take your seat for the game, you are constantly reminded by workers there that you are in Loud City. “I thought this was Loud City?!” Well yeah, it is, but I just want to relax for a second, ok? “We love each other and we wanna show it so we’re gonna be really loud.” The relationship between the Thunder and their fans is still fresh; a couple-hundred fans that go to each game are likely going to their first game. They get a kick out of the loudness. The fans are all-in on their team.

 

“I think Thunder fans were humble at first, until ESPN started talking them up,” said a fellow Lakers fan in Oklahoma. “After that and in combination with a trip to playoffs, the Thunder fans are getting more arrogant every year. Not only that but I feel like Thunder fans are a little under-informed about NBA basketball.” He continues—“A coworker came up to me one day at work and was like ‘That Westbrook is a bad dude. He’s better than Michael Jordan!’ I was like ‘yeah that guy just started watching basketball.’”

 

Both he and I agree that Lakers fans are more knowledgeable about NBA basketball because we have such a rich basketball history Every team that makes the NBA playoffs hands out free shirts for the playoff games so that everyone can match and look intimidating or whatever. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a case where Lakers fans even bother to wear them. It is seen as a gimmick. Playoffs? Psh. We expected to be here. In fact, at the Staples Center in L.A., the lights are dimmed on the fans, in order to create more of a focus on the court.

 

But Thunder fans wear them even if they were five sizes too big. Not only are they triple XL’s, they also say something stupid. I think the one I got at said “Team is Oklahoma.” How adorable. Like those hideous matching sweaters you and your first crush once wore.

 

I used to date a girl who didn’t understand my obsession with the Lakers, especially when the playoffs rolled around. It actually upset her how much the Lakers meant to me. Now, after a few years in Oklahoma City, she is an avid Thunder supporter, to my amusement. “Uh, since when did you care about basketball?” I said when I found out she cared about the Thunder.

 

“I’m usually the loudest supporter in a room when watching a game,” she said. “The team has brought the city together and made more people across the country recognize us. During the playoffs almost every business downtown had signs up or paint on their windows cheering them on.”

 

The whole state is love-sick, and it’s contagious.

 

Different NBA franchises have different identities, whether those differences are geographical, historical, or personal. For the most part, the identity of the team defines the area they play in. Back in the 80s, with Magic Johnson running the point guard for the Lakers, they were known as “showtime.” Part of the challenge in being the coach of the LA Lakers is that the play on the court is not only expected to be excellent, but also fun to watch.

 

The Thunder are an exciting team to watch in a city that isn’t used to seeing top-level athletes perform. The Thunder are far from Okie. Yet, the Oklahoma City Thunder players have embraced the open-arms of the passionate Oklahoma fans, and are therefore representing Oklahoma in a new, in-style way. Unlike other superstars like LeBron James who move on to big cities, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook have signed long-term extensions with OKC, and have shown no desire to leave.

 

And it’s not like these guys are a bunch of farm boys. Kevin Durant is a superstar, one of the top five basketball players in the world, and he’s perfectly content in Oklahoma. “I love Oklahoma. The fans have been with me every night. What more can you ask for?” Durant said. His low-key and unassuming personality struck an eHarmony-like connection with the Oklahoma faithful.

 

During the 2011 NBA Lockout, which stalled the beginning of the season Durant joined some Oklahoma State University students for a game of flag-football. After Durant tweeted “This lockout is really boring..anybody playing flag football in Okc..I need to run around or something!,” an OSU student responded, and then Durant joined them. He stayed afterwards to sign autographs.

 

Russell Westbrook has brought his attention-grabbing fashion-sense to Oklahoma from UCLA, along with his eye-poppingly athletic game. Remember that eyebrow-raising fishing lure shirt Westbrook wore in a press conference last year? Yeahhhh, that one. But Oklahomans defended the shirt, they actually wanted it. “Where can I buy that shirt?” Go to Lacoste. I’m sure there are plenty left.

 

“I know he wears a lot of weird shit,” said Kobe Bryant of Westbrook.

 

Many NBA critics have criticized Westbrook for being a selfish player. Like last year, when he attempted more shots per game than Kevin Durant, the leading scorer in the league. Thunder fans will defend him and his style of play until it starts to get in the way of OKC winning. “Put Reggie Jackson (the Thunder’s third-string point guard) in!!!!” shout the Thunder fans. “PASS THE BALLLLL RUSSELL!!!!” Thunder fans are ready to defend their players with their whole hearts.

 

Everyone in Oklahoma City remembers that moment when Metta World Peace viciously elbowed former Thunder player James Harden to the head late in last year’s regular season. When I made a trip to game two of the Western Conference semifinals between the Thunder and the Lakers, which was a few weeks after the World Peace elbow, you would have thought World Peace murdered somebody. Which is fine, fans boo opposing players all the time, but after I cheered a World Peace basket, a female fan in front of me turned around with a look that said “He elbowed my boyfriend, how dare you cheer him.”

 

Now one of their first loves, Harden, has broken up with them—leaving for Houston because he wanted more money than he was being offered in OKC. It was incomprehensible to Thunder fans, but then again who wouldn’t want to earn more money in their profession? “Say it ain’t so... 52 million and championships ain’t enough? Literally crying right now,” tweeted a friend. Then a few minutes later the same friend tweeted directly to Harden: “To tell you how torn up about this trade, I have left my house and had to go back three different times in the last ten minutes.”

 

Unfortunately, basketball is a business, and grown men here are not used to these kinds of heartbreaks.

 

Suddenly, after Harden was traded for Kevin Martin, fans quickly found Harden uninteresting. Harden exploded for 37 and 45 points in his first two games as the focal point for the Rockets, but fans are now justifying the decision to trade him. “Martin for 6th Man of the Year! Harden who?” tweeted a fan and friend who a couple days prior tweeted “miss you” to Harden.

 

Some fans realize that it is just a game, after all. As I was walking into the arena, one Thunder fan shouted in my direction “10 dollars to whoever takes out Kobe!” Now that I can handle. That and when I went in the Thunder shop and asked if they sold any Lakers gear. They said no then I showed them the “Beat L.A.” shirt they were selling. That’s good clean fun, and I love that people are starting to love their team—and the NBA. But I was driven crazy by all my friends posting on Twitter during the playoffs.

 

Friends I never knew cared about basketball sent “Zak Patterson is just hatin on the thunder because we’re better” messages and if the Thunder lost it was because of the referees (OH MY GOSH THOSE REFS WANT THE LAKERS TO WIN!!!!!!!!!!), even after I acknowledged before the series that I thought the Thunder would win in five games (which ended up happening).

 

“Eleven made baskets for the Lakers in the second half, and yet 49 points,” tweeted Daily Thunder (blog for all things Thunder) passive-aggressively after the Lakers won a game against the Thunder.

 

Wilbon tweeted during the playoffs: “Spurs and Lakers fans soooo much more knowledgeable and less Johnny-come-lately than alleged Heat fans who just wanna talk and pop jerseys.” While he singled out the Miami Heat fans, I think OKC fans largely fall into the same “Johnny-come lately-we’re-basketball-aficionados” mindset. The fans do not know as much about NBA basketball as say, those who have been watching good teams for decades, and it shows.

 

Fans are so blinded by their love for the Thunder that they scream insanely, at decibel levels near the human-pain threshold. Literally. Maybe they’re just great fans, or maybe that’s a little crazy.

 

The relationship of the Thunder and its fans is still in the early phases. Heck, the Thunder’s ex, Seattle, still have not gotten over losing them. Fandom is love, and there are various kinds of love, the mature, knowledgeable kind, and the head-over-heels enthusiastic kind. Both are fine—they’re just different.

 

Once Oklahoma’s relationship with the Thunder gains a few more years, and the fans become more educated about the game, we’ll see where the relationship stands. Basketball is a business, not just a relationship. As the heartbreak over the Harden trade shows, Oklahomans still have a lot to learn about both.