10 years ago this month, Oklahoma City officially became a "Big League City" when the New Orleans Hornets announced they were temporarily relocating here due to the Hurricane Katrina.
As you know, the Hornets were a huge success. The team was competitive, hard-working, and feisty, and thanks to the support of fans and the business community, we proved to the NBA (and especially David Stern) that Oklahoma City was a legitimate "Big League City." Now, thanks to those Hornets and fans, we now have the Oklahoma City Thunder... and a website called The Lost Ogle.
Yep, blame the Hornets and Hurricane Katrina for this site. In case you don't know our site's history, a coworker and I created a PHPBB message board called OKC Hornets Central about a week after the team moved here in 2005. It was strictly for Oklahoma City-based fans. The next year, we eventually added a blog element, got Buffalo Wild Wings to sponsor us, and I even made guest spots on The Sports Animal as Patrick Nelson. I was destined to become a sports media personality! But the team then went back to New Orleans, and with no NBA team to cover and whine about, I created a new website called The Lost Ogle.com. I'm not sure that's a good thing or bad thing.
In this special and rare re-post, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at our city's first date to the NBA prom: The Oklahoma City Hornets. It's kind of hard to believe, but it's been 10 years since Chris Paul, David West and, uh, Arvydas Macijauskas took our NBA virginity and set the dinner table for the Thunder.
Here are my Top 15 Oklahoma City Hornets memories. Check them out: