The Oklahoma City Thunder are one of the least popular great teams to climb the NBA mountaintop in some time, and NBC’s Mike Tirico can’t understand why.
As Tirico calls the Thunder’s second straight appearance in the Western Conference Finals, he has revealed the depths of his frustration with the team’s reputation around the NBA and within other fanbases.
In an appearance on The Ryen Russillo Show ahead of Game 2 of the conference finals, Tirico said that “it bothers” him to see criticism of the Thunder over their style of play, the size of the city, or anything else, calling Oklahoma City “the Green Bay of the NBA.”
“The fanbase is unbelievable, the organization’s rock solid, they invest back in their team,” Tirico said.
Some will argue that the Thunder get an unfair whistle on both sides of the court, given that they play incredibly physical defense while MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander feeds on a hefty number of free throws on the other end. And given that they rebuilt quickly in a smaller market, they are an easy target for fans more used to big stars forcing trades to glamour markets.
Tirico is hearing none of it.
“Their stars, OK, SGA draws fouls. Great. He’s also really damn good at drawing fouls. He’s a really damn good player. And he got the MVP, came back and got more efficient,” Tirico noted. “Their players are hard workers. When you see (them) do the interviews after the game, when one’s there, they’re all there. They’re all about each other. They’ve set a tone for the culture for the rest of the league to be about each other.”
If the physicality turns some fans off, Tirico suggested they direct their ire at the league or the officials rather than the team that is taking advantage of the rules as they are being enforced.
“What’s not to like about this team? Because they play physical defense? Because they are aggressive defensively and you feel like they get the benefit of the whistle? They earn it,” he said. “They earn it by the way they play. If the league wants to change, completely, how defense is played, they can legislate that. But what is there to dislike about a team that does it the right way? It bothers me.”
If nothing else, many of the factors Tirico highlighted are giving OKC an identity. Even if the style of play might be off-putting to some. In the big picture of the league and how many fans tune into Tirico’s broadcasts on NBC, interest and curiosity matter more than straight-up likeability.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.