My observations from Thunder Alley, Game 5

[mediacritic2000]

Hi there! I took my 18 year old daughter to Thunder Alley last night. Here are our impressions:

First off, our thoughts and prayers go out to last night's shooting victims. Terrible tragedy!

God's path for my daughter and me is AMAZING! We arrived downtown about 5 pm and actually headed over to the ballpark to park. But I didn't want to pay $10 for parking across from the ballpark and instead parked 2 blocks north of the arena.

That one decision may have saved us from being harmed as the shooting would have occured en route to our car!

GOD IS GOOD!

Since we arrived at Thunder Alley about 5:20, we had a ton of places to drop our lawn chairs and relax. We chose the area right next to the Cox Center with our backs pressed against the Cox Center walls.

This was a good decision until TONS of people kept walking in front of us. The people around us and I moved our chairs up about 1-2 feet thus creating a walkway behind us, problem solved!

We had a fun time watching the game, I wished they could have piped in the starting lineup intros to us (the ones that air on the scoreboard inside the arena).

Storm chasers did a good job of keeping people entertained during timeouts with t-shirts tosses but they should have had a few people on the roof of the Cox throwing some down for us far away from the stage.

The EMCEE Katie reminded everyone that this was a "family friendly" environment, she said it cause of weed floating around.

Even though some unsavory characters do come out at night, we stuck near Thunder fans and never felt threatened at all.

I did start some great chants including:

Russ-ell West-brook (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap)

Kevin's Mom! Kevin's Mom (when they showed KD's mom on tv)

Fire-d to-morrow! (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap)(when they showed the Laker coach)

Scott-y Brooks! Scott-y Brooks!

Should have kept him! (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap) when they showed Derek Fisher

Sweat-y Euro-pean (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap) when they showed Gasol

Serge I-ba-ka (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap)

Family Friendly! (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap) when some dudes passed around a bottle of rum in Thunder Alley

KD's Mouth-Piece (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap) when they showed KD take his mouthpiece out

Bark-ley's Come-ing! (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap) late in the game and us winning big

Drive Home Safely (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap) late in the game and us winning big

Beat the Spurs! Beat the Spurs!

After the game, since we were on the West side of Thunder Alley, we just followed the crowd and got to our car just fine. We were in Moore when we first heard of the shootings.

GOD IS GOOD!!!

[Jimmy Early]

I just really hope that 1 or 2 IDIOTS don't ruin Thunder Alley for THOUSANDS. It can become one of the great traditions and spectacles in the NBA - it looks incredibly impressive on the sports boards.

[Doug Loudenback]

God has nothing to do with this, nothing at all. It's akin to saying that God protected someone "here" but did not protect others "there". That is so totally, extremely, horrifically, and idiotically bogus.

Thunder Alley should continue. God will like that. But, if he/she doesn't like it, well then it would be good and suit me just fine if God can just find some other convenient place to lurk in the minds and hearts of men and women other than at Thunder basketball games. If a deity is to be involved here, I'll call the Bricktown shootings a flagrant foul on God and eject him/her from the game ... uh ... for the remainder of the playoffs.

The Shadow knows.

[tracey]

WOW Doug. You seem very angry. Sorry if some people's beliefs offend you, but both believers and non-believers should be able to post what they like.

I agree mediacritic. God is good.

[Anonymous]

Doug is simply pointing out the obvious.

If "God" is so good for saving these people who coincidentally avoided a dangerous situation, what about the people who actually parked for $10 and were exposed?

The logic is laughable, but then again we live in OK where God apparently allowed anything and everything good to happen, but bad things are done by 'bad guys'.

[StormFan93]

God has nothing to do with this, nothing at all. It's akin to saying that God protected someone "here" but did not protect others "there". That is so totally, extremely, horrifically, and idiotically bogus.

Thunder Alley should continue. God will like that. But, if he/she doesn't like it, well then it would be good and suit me just fine if God can just find some other convenient place to lurk in the minds and hearts of men and women other than at Thunder basketball games. If a deity is to be involved here, I'll call the Bricktown shootings a flagrant foul on God and eject him/her from the game ... uh ... for the remainder of the playoffs.

The Shadow knows.

This is why your posts are my favorite.

[ZeusExMachina]

God has nothing to do with this, nothing at all. It's akin to saying that God protected someone "here" but did not protect others "there". That is so totally, extremely, horrifically, and idiotically bogus.

Thunder Alley should continue. God will like that. But, if he/she doesn't like it, well then it would be good and suit me just fine if God can just find some other convenient place to lurk in the minds and hearts of men and women other than at Thunder basketball games. If a deity is to be involved here, I'll call the Bricktown shootings a flagrant foul on God and eject him/her from the game ... uh ... for the remainder of the playoffs.

The Shadow knows.

I still love you, Doug. God Bless.

Yes, OP, God is good. I'm glad you and your daughter were safe.

[Doug Loudenback]

WOW Doug. You seem very angry. Sorry if some people's beliefs offend you, but both believers and non-believers should be able to post what they like.

I agree mediacritic. God is good.

Sure, anyone can say what they want, whatever a "believer" and/or "non-believer" might be or believe. Please explain ... and, while you're at it ... what is "mediacritic?" I'm not familiar with that word, either.

[tracey]

Mediacritic is a poster here. Look, I am not trying to pick a fight. Just forget it.

[baruch]

totally agree, Doug
involving God in such a thing is the most un-religious thing i can think of

[kleese]

My personal beliefs line up close to Doug's I'd guess. I was thinking some of the same things reading the original post.

However, that response is totally unnecessary and very clearly derails the intent of the thread. The OP slipped in a bit if their belief system there, but that is obviously not why they started the thread.

If you and I sat down and discussed this Doug we would probably have a lot in common, but I am sorry, your response comes off as grumpy, snarky, and someone who is looking to pick a fight with another poster whose intentions were pretty obviously harmless.

[RicanThunder]

Damn, Doug. Beliefs aside, this was probably not the post to bring an oppositional religious view to the table. Those types of posts have their time and place, but this probably wasn't the right vehicle to voice this opinion. MediaCritic was just trying to thank the entity that guided him and his daughter away from danger. Whether that entity be called "chance" or God, makes nary a difference.

For someone who is pretty concise and on-point with his opinions, this just comes off as disgruntled and angry.

[mediacritic2000]

Thank you to the creators of this board but this will be my last post. Regards....

[tracey]

Gonna miss you. However, I understand, and I kinda feel the same way. God Bless

[okcadmin]

Just a reminder, if you find someone offensive and don't want to see someone elses posts, click forum actions above, then click edit profile, then edit ignore list, add the users name and click o.k.

However, that won't stop you from seeing the same poster when others copy and paste them in their replies.

I hope you reconsider MediaCritic2000 and stick around, the playoff series with the Spurs is going to be exciting!