It has been just over two years since Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 in OKC just moments before tipping-off against your Oklahoma City Thunder.
Later that evening, the NBA indefinitely suspended the season, a move that cost the league millions of dollars and saved me a couple hundred in Downtown parking fees. It took four months for the league to establish a COVID-free bubble at Walt Disney World, where the weird remainder of the season and the finals took place.
At some point during that artificial weirdness, I quit following NBA basketball, and it must have been during that time that Sam Presti sent everyone in the organization packing. I never considered myself to be a fair-weather sports fan, but the Thunder are currently next to last in the Western Conference with a roster full of people I've never heard of. Loud City is not as loud as it used to be.