One Horse Town

Earlier tonight, I watched Chesapeake Energy Arena erupt as the hometown Oklahoma City Thunder erased a late seven point deficit and defeated Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers 77-75.  Despite the low score, it was an exciting game to watch - back-and-forth action with numerous lead changes throughout - and through it all the OKC crowd was fantastic.  Dressed in white and blue matching T-shirts - each section alternated shirt color for a cool effect that I hadn't seen before - the Thunder faithful were desperate for their team to pull out the come-from-behind victory over the hated Lakers.  The Chesapeake Energy Arena atmosphere may be the best in the NBA, and a large part of the reason is that the Thunder are the only team in town.

As a New Yorker and as an NBA fan, I love the Knicks and consider Madison Square Garden among the best places to watch a basketball game.  But while MSG can be raucus and loud, it lacks the intensity and desperation associated with a fan base that lacks a backup plan.  When the Knicks falter and the NBA season ends, New Yorkers have Yankees or Mets baseball to enjoy and can soon start to focus on the Giants and Jets as they battle for a spot in the Super Bowl (or, the Giants do anyway).  In Oklahoma City, NBA basketball is the entire professional sports scene.  There might be Oklahoma Sooners football down the road in Norman, but once the Thunder season is over the state's professional sports scene doesn't pick up again until the NBA season restarts in the fall.

The Thunder faithful love team owner Clay Bennett, and for good reason.

In 2010, Bleacher Report ranked the top places to watch an NBA basketball game, and among the top ten were Oklahoma City, Portland, Sacramento and Salt Lake City.  What do these four metros have in common?  None of them have another professional sports team, so all of the city's rooting interest is poured into pro basketball.  Add in top ranked Indianapolis, a city with only one other professional franchise (the Colts), and you can see the correlation between great fan bases and fewer competing interests.  While it's great to live in New York and have nine local professional sports teams to follow, all of that choice fragments the market and makes each team's success seem less critical.  When you live in Oklahoma City and it's Thunder-or-bust, the fan base becomes much more rabid.  Plus, it's Oklahoma City - not only isn't there competition from other professional sports, there doesn't seem to be competition from anything. 

While I am quick to criticize the NBA for many things, market selection isn't one of them.  The league has realized that you don't need a massive market to have a successful and popular franchise - some of the league's most successful teams, both on and off the court, are located in one-team markets like San Antonio, Oklahoma City and Salt Lake City.  Unlike the NHL, which has taken the opposite approach (put teams in big markets whether they have any interest in hockey or not), the NBA's small market teams have managed to hold their own with the big boys.  When the Thunder finish off the Lakers some time next week, people in Los Angeles probably won't be too upset - after all, there are Dodgers games at Chavez Ravine all summer long.