I’m aware that my selections for ACoH this year have been rather lacking in the shirtless pics department. Today I will be making up for that. Here’s the Thunder’s Serge Ibaka. He loves being shirtless. And also scarves.
Since it’s been all of five months since we did a post on Kevin Durant, we thought it was time for another montage of the Thunder’s forward. Never mind, of course, that he led Oklahoma City to a Game 7 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies Sunday with a stellar postseason offensive performance (39 points!) The team will return to the West final for the first time in 15 years when they were the celebrated Seattle (Super)Sonics. It won’t be an easy task, mind you: they’re facing the Mavs. But aren’t you glad to see a West final that doesn’t include Kobe for a change?
More Durant deliciousness and your Monday music fix after the jump.
Actually, for those of you who work in businesses dependent on the stock market or religiously inclined to give you Good Friday off, it may technically be Friday. (This would include both CuteSports’s and my significant others, but we are not bitter at about it at all, nope.) Anyway, I had planned to write about actually watching all three NBA playoff games yesterday, but I am struggling to form coherent sentences at this point, and all I can really remember about yesterday’s games is thinking the Thunder’s Serge Ibaka needed to be on this blog. So, here you go:
Everyone needs bonus Boris Diaw.
The NBA season starts in just under two weeks, so it’s time for the second installment of our Haiku Previews. (If you missed it, part one is here.)
Living in New York, I’m tolerably familiar with the Eastern Conference in general and the Atlantic Division in particular, so horrible Bucks haiku blunder aside, last week was the “easy” week in terms of research. This week’s haikus owe much to TrueHoop, Henry Abbott’s excellent NBA blog (which I was reading before ESPN hired him, so I feel all cool), as well as the various NBA team blogs hosted at SBNation. I will say the pictures came a bit easier this week — there are some lovely, lovely men in the Eastern Conference’s Southeast and the Western Conference’s Northwest divisions.
Again, the teams are listed in order of last year’s final regular division standings.
This past Wednesday, the not-really-that-secret new name for the former Seattle Supersonics was officially revealed, along with the
Source: AP via The Tulsa World
team logo and colors (sky blue, yellow, and the shade exactly between Sooner crimson and Cowboy orange. No, seriously.) Back in July, when “Thunder” first became the strongly rumored front-runner for the new name, I happened to be visiting my family in Tulsa and none of us were particularly impressed. So, now that the new name comes complete with a shiny new look, I thought I’d check in and see if real, live Oklahomans (or at least those who would answer my email) had been swept up in Thundermania.
Eh, not so much.
The Nickname:
“Thunder is a pretty goofy pick, if we are going to be a generic name, pick an animal. We should have been something with an Oklahoma connotation. I guess at least we can use AC/DC’s Thunderstruck as a theme song. So we may have the best intro song in the NBA. [Editor’s Note: Not being a big AC/DC fan, I have to disagree with this point.]” — My father
Ladies... 