Thunder Playoff Memories
Aug 20 2009 4:59PM
Every player has playoff memories, whether from first-hand experience or from watching on television as a kid.
A majority of the Thunder players have never experienced the postseason, players such as Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green and Kevin Durant.
Then there’s guys like Damien Wilkins, Nick Collison and Thabo Sefolosha, all of who have played on the big stage usually before nationally televised audiences.
Thunder.NBA.com spoke to some Thunder players about playoff memories before they parted ways for the off-season.
Westbrook, a Los Angeles native, grew up a die-hard Lakers fan in the heart of their three-peat from the 1999-00 to 2001-02 seasons.
“Shaq and Kobe when they won the three-peat,” Westbrook recalled. “I went to a playoff game when they played Sacramento. It was exciting. It was a different level.”
Back on the east coast, Durant and Green grew up in Washington Wizards territory.
Green, for one, attended a pair of Wizards-Cleveland Cavaliers first-round playoff games not too long ago.
“Just the atmosphere and the intensity of the playoffs, it was a sudden change,” Green said.
Green said he’ll always remember watching classic videos of a young Magic Johnson, who as a rookie led the Lakers to the 1980 league championship over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Durant, meanwhile, said he thinks of one thing when the playoffs come to mind: Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz, when Michael Jordan captured his sixth league title by hitting the game-winning shot with just under six seconds to go.
“I was watching that game and I was thinking to myself, there’s no way he’s going to hit that shot,” Durant recalled. “But after that move he made, and he made it in a tough Utah arena, and they won a championship. That will always stick in my head. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to play in the playoffs and make some of my own memories.”
While Wilkins has playoff memories of his own, he also has those of his father, Gerald Wilkins, who starred for Cleveland in the early 1990s, when the Cavs lost to Jordan and the Bulls in the 1993 Eastern Conference semis.
“I remember my dad coming home and was always throwing stuff because Michael Jordan was coming back in town, and him being so frustrated that he had to come across him again,” Wilkins said. “He was such a giant killer when he played. And I remember ‘Nique (uncle Dominique Wilkins) and Larry Bird in the playoffs. Those were my memories of the playoffs, and that’s what playoff basketball was to me. Once I got my first taste of it, it felt like I had been there before.”
Collison remembers watching Jordan and the Bulls form his hometown of Iowa City, Iowa. Ditto for Sefolosha, who caught MJ and the Bulls back in Switzerland.
Collison fondly recalled his own playoff experience.
“It was probably the most fun basketball I’ve ever played, other than the NCAA Tournament,” said Collison, who has played in 11 playoff games. “I think the excitement from the fans is a totally different level.”
Contact Chris Silva
A majority of the Thunder players have never experienced the postseason, players such as Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green and Kevin Durant.
Then there’s guys like Damien Wilkins, Nick Collison and Thabo Sefolosha, all of who have played on the big stage usually before nationally televised audiences.
Thunder.NBA.com spoke to some Thunder players about playoff memories before they parted ways for the off-season.
Westbrook, a Los Angeles native, grew up a die-hard Lakers fan in the heart of their three-peat from the 1999-00 to 2001-02 seasons.
“Shaq and Kobe when they won the three-peat,” Westbrook recalled. “I went to a playoff game when they played Sacramento. It was exciting. It was a different level.”
Back on the east coast, Durant and Green grew up in Washington Wizards territory.
Green, for one, attended a pair of Wizards-Cleveland Cavaliers first-round playoff games not too long ago.
“Just the atmosphere and the intensity of the playoffs, it was a sudden change,” Green said.
Green said he’ll always remember watching classic videos of a young Magic Johnson, who as a rookie led the Lakers to the 1980 league championship over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Durant, meanwhile, said he thinks of one thing when the playoffs come to mind: Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz, when Michael Jordan captured his sixth league title by hitting the game-winning shot with just under six seconds to go.
“I was watching that game and I was thinking to myself, there’s no way he’s going to hit that shot,” Durant recalled. “But after that move he made, and he made it in a tough Utah arena, and they won a championship. That will always stick in my head. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to play in the playoffs and make some of my own memories.”
While Wilkins has playoff memories of his own, he also has those of his father, Gerald Wilkins, who starred for Cleveland in the early 1990s, when the Cavs lost to Jordan and the Bulls in the 1993 Eastern Conference semis.
“I remember my dad coming home and was always throwing stuff because Michael Jordan was coming back in town, and him being so frustrated that he had to come across him again,” Wilkins said. “He was such a giant killer when he played. And I remember ‘Nique (uncle Dominique Wilkins) and Larry Bird in the playoffs. Those were my memories of the playoffs, and that’s what playoff basketball was to me. Once I got my first taste of it, it felt like I had been there before.”
Collison remembers watching Jordan and the Bulls form his hometown of Iowa City, Iowa. Ditto for Sefolosha, who caught MJ and the Bulls back in Switzerland.
Collison fondly recalled his own playoff experience.
“It was probably the most fun basketball I’ve ever played, other than the NCAA Tournament,” said Collison, who has played in 11 playoff games. “I think the excitement from the fans is a totally different level.”
Contact Chris Silva
